The TI Silent 700 Font

I have a number of old program listings from my days in junior high
where I used a TI Silent 700 terminal to access an HP 2000 Timeshare
BASIC system at another school.  I recently discovered the SIMH
HP-2100 emulator and entered my old program listings; I thought it
would be cool if the on-screen output actually looked like a Silent
700 had printed it.  I didn't know much of anything about X fonts so I
let it lie until a few weeks later when I was bitten by the desire to
make it happen; a bit of research on the net and here we are.

The purpose of this project is to preserve the font of the TI Silent
700 terminal.  Included here is a scan of a short program listing I
wrote, in 1981 or 1982, along with the program output showing what
every character looks like (how prescient was I to do that?), and a
bitmap font file for X.  The Silent 700 model that printed the sample
was probably a 733 ASR based on comparing my memory of its appearance
with images found on the net.

The font included here was created by doubling each pixel in the X and
Y axes to make the font more usable on modern displays.  On modern
monitors a 5x7 dot matrix is too small but a 10x14 matrix is a little
bit too large to be comfortable.  However, any size in between would
compromise the original bitmap design.

The 13x24-ti-silent700 files included here present that pixel-doubled
font placed into a 13x24 matrix which replicates the spacing of the
characters on my program listings: 1.5 pixels between characters and 5
pixels between rows.  Multiplying pixels and spacing by two gives
integral pixels for the total matrix size of 13x24 pixels.

The original font designers only had the 5x7 matrix to squeeze the
characters into, and so with no descenders the lowercase characters
suffered badly.  I thought those characters were a really neat thing
back when I first saw them, and I still think the designers did a good
job with what they had but I find that the font now looks ugly and is
difficult to use for anything but uppercase-only work.  I don't think
anyone will actually use this for anything but nostalgia; still, the
font needs to be preserved.


Copyrights and Disclaimer

I don't know the copyright status of the Silent 700 font.  Neither do
I know whether or not the font in the specific terminal that I used to
print my program listings was created before 1976.  All rights that I
possess in this work I hereby place into the public domain; all other
rights remain the property of their owners.  If you have some use for
this font then Texas Instruments is likely to be the party to contact
for appropriate licensing.

THIS WORK IS PROVIDED BY TOOMAS LOSIN "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND
FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED.

IN NO EVENT SHALL TOOMAS LOSIN BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS
OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE
USE OF THIS WORK, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Toomas Losin, Oct 31 2009.
