From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <477db556990e6fffc3d346a76255eebe@collyer.net>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] Ligatures
From: Geoff Collyer <geoff@collyer.net>
In-Reply-To: <20040422104744.2c87afc2@garlic>
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Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 18:11:03 -0700
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Ligatures were almost certainly added to troff to exploit the fonts on
the GSI CAT/4 phototypesetter that troff was originally intended to
drive.  It had ligatures for ff, fi, fl, Fi and perhaps Fl in its font
set.  (We had a CAT/8 [with twice the fonts!] at the U of T comp.
center.)  As nice as 1200 dpi laser printer fonts look, the
phototypesetter output was gorgeous.  No jaggies at all.  You can see
reproductions of phototypesetter output in the early books, at least,
from 1127: K&R 1, Software Tools and The Elements of Programming
Style, for example.  The phototypesetter output (after being
developed) was even sharper.