5. Digital typography

While the quality of output produced using laser-printing technology was undoubtedly impressive, it was mutually understood that, without access to popular typefaces (the tools by which the typesetting machine manufacturers distinguished themselves) the Adobe-Apple partnership could not and would not succeed.

Jon Seybold, who shared this understanding, again orchestrated a partnership that would prove integral to the industry's acceptance of PostScript as the common page-description language. The subsequent 1984 licensing deal between Adobe, Apple, and Allied Linotype, the latter having already agreed to work with Adobe on developing the first PostScript Lynotronic typesetter, allowed Adobe and Apple to use its Times and Helvetica font families [1], the typographic staples of the time. This deal was remarkable, as PostScript combined with desktop publishing represented a very serious threat to traditional manufacturers, whose very existence was based on the tight control of their typefaces. 

Launched in 1985, Apple's first laser printer, the LaserWriter, was aimed at the domestic and office markets and came equipped with 12 fonts: regular, bold, italic, bold italic, and, in addition to Linotype's Times and Helvetica, four styles of Courier, the font used by the IBM Selectric Typesetter [2]. This choice of type gave the LaserWriter an extremely compet­itive advantage, but in order to retain its market lead, and con­sequently make PostScript the standard PDL, more fonts and PostScript-enabled devices were needed. 

Adobe went on to secure a licensing deal with the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) – a significantly important distributor of typefaces in 1984 America – through which future versions of PostScript (PostScript Type 1 font format) would include ITC Bookman, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, and ITC Zapf Chancery. At the same time, and in order to further strengthen PostScript's chances of prominence as the industry standard, Adobe entered a licensing agreement with QMS, an already well-established US laser printer manufacturer.

The LaserWriter

 

Notes

  1. Pfiffner P., 2003. Inside the publishing revolution: the Adobe story. San Jose: Adobe Press, p.40

  2. Ibid.

 
 

Tom O’Reilly worked in the Academic Books Production department of Cambridge University Press, 2007–2014.

This blog comprises excerpts from his book What You See Is What You Get: Desktop Publishing And The Production Revolution at Cambridge University Press (1980–1996).

 
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