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The C64 Dead Test Font

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Re: The C64 Dead Test Font

#11

Post by jansan »

krige wrote: post #3

Good ol' It's A Computer (tm) font. A good while back I've been using Westminster in every piece of UI I wrote for myself. Maybe I should start doing that again.

Here is an interesting first hand account about the history of Westminster. Interestingly the creator himself does not seem to know why the (IMO rather unfitting) name Westminster was chosen:

https://www.mercerdesign.com/true-story-westminster-font/

Re: The C64 Dead Test Font

#12

Post by scotty79 »

rob74 wrote: post #2

In Germany (maybe also Austria?), that font is probably best known from the logo of major computer magazine/site CHIP ( https://www.chip.de/ ). Although, for some unfathomable reason, the C in the "dead test font" doesn't have the characteristic "thickening" in the lower vertical part, although the G has it...

The other thing that caught my eye is that M has the thickening on the opposite side to N. I thought it was for easier recognition of similar letters (same with A and R, O and Q), but U and V have the thickening on the same side. Maybe C vs G is the reason why C doesn't have the thickening.

Re: The C64 Dead Test Font

#14

Post by daneel_w »

jansan wrote: post #10

I am pretty sure that I saw that font on a C64 before. Paradroid used a very similar font for the logo, but the game itself uses a different font (Paradrew).

There are a hundred variants of it used in various software for the C64, the Amiga, the anything.

Re: The C64 Dead Test Font

#18

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

daneel_w wrote: post #7
rob74 wrote: post #2

In Germany (maybe also Austria?), that font is probably best known from the logo of major computer magazine/site CHIP ( https://www.chip.de/ ). Although, for some unfathomable reason, the C in the "dead test font" doesn't have the characteristic "thickening" in the lower vertical part, although the G has it...

And so many variant typefaces of the same graphical language were seen in a million products during the home computer boom of the late 70s and early 80s. Iconic.

It's a copy of the Westminster font from the 60s which was an adaption of the visual style of MICR digits and symbols to a full symbology (without being machine readable). It was a meme for computerbilia of the era that now seems quaint.

Re: The C64 Dead Test Font

#19

Post by ikari_pl »

rob74 wrote: post #2

In Germany (maybe also Austria?), that font is probably best known from the logo of major computer magazine/site CHIP ( https://www.chip.de/ ). Although, for some unfathomable reason, the C in the "dead test font" doesn't have the characteristic "thickening" in the lower vertical part, although the G has it...

This is basically the MICR font: Magnetic Ink (!) Character Recognition. Amazing idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recogni...

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