What Font?
Steve Jobs died, today. Most know I am typing on a Mac. I started with a PC Jr. and had my mother buy a PC. The original PC running DOS. There were some amazing programs around that allowed you to play some simple games and do rudimentary word processing. There were also some cool things called databases and spreadsheets. Lotus 1-2-3, if you remember. If you hooked it up correctly, the word processor would spit out pages on a dot matrix printer that looked a little like it was written on a typewriter, but messier. Schools took to Apple computers; the Apple //e. It had a simple program called Appleworks that had a word processor connected with a database and spreadsheet. LOGO was a cool program for kids and adults alike, that allowed you to program a “turtle” that would draw. The PC had some similar products.
My friend, Ted, bought a Mac. I remember watching him draw on it. I was a PC snob and refused to be impressed. I was writing software and pretty well entrenched in menus that were really lists you selected by pressing a letter or number. The PC had Function keys. I remember a word processor I had that saved things if you pressed F10. Other programs used other Function keys for Save. But, it was every man for himself. Each PC program had its own style of key presses to do things. They didn’t have a silly mouse.
Because of the school market for my grade book, I was forced to get a Mac. I resisted the Mac and its fascist-like menu system. You see, there was the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. The idea was that every program would have its controls in the same place. Every Mac program (application) had to have a File Menu, an Edit Menu, a Text menu, etc. There were a number of magazines that reviewed Mac Applications and if you didn’t follow the guidelines your application was panned. There was the Apple key and the Apple key had some menu items connected by associated letters on the keyboard. Apple-A… select All. That silly mouse allowed you to select a line, a paragraph or a document. You could also select menu items with the mouse. But there were key presses, (short cuts, in PC talk). Apple-P was for Print and Apple-S to save. Then there were the “four”. The four keys that did the heavy lifting: Apple-C, for Copy (what you selected), Apple-X to cut (what you selected), Apple-V to paste (what you selected), and of course Apple-Z to undo. Because the PC didn’t have an Apple key, PC users will recognize that ctrl with the above keys, will do the same. In fact, if you look at the menu of the PC program you are using right now, you will find File, Edit, etc. Of course, so it was not a direct copy, Apple-Q for Quit was changed to Exit and the trash was called Recycle Bin.
Most of us know this stuff. Even the guys who used to be PC “power snobs” now use a mouse and know the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. They just don’t have to use the “apple” word.
The thing I didn’t know is that Steve Jobs was fascinated with calligraphy. Steve wanted fonts that did calligraphy. Steve created some of the first fonts for the Mac. Marvel of marvels, the Mac Screen was copied to the printer when printing was done. Anything pretty on the screen looked pretty on the paper. What You See Is What You Get was the idea.
I am sure that Steve did some things that were not appreciated by everyone. But then I suppose we could say that about other software giants. But, Steve died, today. 56 is not very old. I am wondering if someone can invent the new goodie… iPod (giving us a bunch of clones), iPhone (giving us even more clones), iPad (adding yet more clones; one Johnny come lately this week). Steve was visionary. Besides, he wore black turtlenecks.