History of Fonts
Fonts did not just pop out of thin air and say "Hello there, I am a font!" They started somewhere and this is what I will be explaining in the proceedings of this article. Quite frankly, I have not lived for three thousand years (I am not sure about you, though) so I will not be starting off back with the old tablets of clay that they used to use; I am not even sure who would want to read about them, they are rather boring.
Early birds (Woo-hoo, you woke up in the 80's):In the year 1984, Adobe launched PostScript; this program supported two font types (PostScript Type 3 , PostScript Type 1). Out of the two fonts, PostScript Type 1 was most sophisticated font and it supported hinting, an efficient compression algorithm of font data and used as technique to improve the quality of output on smaller resolutions (or smaller pixel-sizes).
The Specification of PostScript Type 1 was kept by Adobe until they developed a full library of fonts of type 1 that for the customers to purchase; every PostScript device included 36 Type 1 fonts of which were very expensive (back in the days where you're stuck now). They were compensated in comparison to the steep (woo, you fell off the hill) price of PostScript printers.
Type 3 Specifications, on the other hand, were published and quickly the tools to create Type 3 fonts was released and found themselves meeting foundries like MonoType which released entire libraries of Type 3 fonts. The fact that Adobe hid the superior font format made the other entire countries (i.e. MonoType) angry but at the same time made PostScript a runaway (haha, you are running away from the 80's!) success that lead to a huge market in which anybody could sell fonts!
The ol' folks that woke up late for work: After you managed to get yourself caught up in a few traps in the 80's, you decided to start fresh in the nineties (remember?). Microsoft, Apple and Adobe then began getting to work developing a whole bunch of different types of fonts. After realizing that they were both in the same boat (and could not play Adobe's games), Apple and Microsoft decided to team up. Apple provided the font technology and Microsoft provided the font images (similarly to Adobe).
During the late 80's Period ,Apple engineers had already begun developing various font technologies based on vector. Sampo Kaasila, Apple's lead engineer found a a new technology code-named as bass which was later renamed to Royal and finally to TrueType before they were exchanged with Microsoft in 1991.
In early 1992, Apple made TrueType as of System 7's integral part whilst Microsoft added TrueType to Windows 3.1. Adobe then responded in debate towards TrueType and released Adobe Type Manager of which improved the appearance of PostScript Type 1 fonts visually on computers.
I am assuming that there isn't much point waking you up today (you might be dead, JOKES!), you probably already know all of the happenings that are going on today so there really isn't much point of re-informing you. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading some of the history behind Apple, Microsoft and Apple!
