Subject: Re: Looking for Apple ][ era Apple Logo font
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From: Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>
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Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 09:43:09 -0500
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"Scott M. Neal" writes ...
> 
>         I'd like to get a copy (or at least find out the name!)
> of Apple Computer's pre-Mac logo font (the font for "apple" that
> sticks out of the bite of the 6-color Apple logo).
 ....


     Okay; the font you see on the nameplates of older Apple II computers
(like the II+) isn't Garamond (or Apple Garamond).

     First, there is no question that the old Apple II logo font is generally
believed to be named "Cupertino". That is the name given in Csa2 posts by
Dave Althoff, Phil Beesley, and others. And Brian Hammack has uploaded
"Cupertino" font files to Ground.

     So, if you want to call it "Cupertino" and download the files from
Ground, that's pretty much that.

     As to whether the II+, etc. name plates were done using the "Cupertino"
font, it seems unlikely.

     My guess is that what you see when you look at early A2 nameplates is
either purely a logo-- i.e. the lettering used is a creation of the logo
designer-- or, the lettering is a slightly stylized version of an unknown
font. 

     One indication that today's "Cupertino" font came later is the
appearance of character inconsistencies. For example, an early Apple ad has
"apple computer" in a font that looks like the nameplate lettering. The "u",
however, is rather Courier-like and does not match the more stylized "u" in
our current Cupertino font.

     Meanwhile, our Cupertino font slips up in representing the "]" and "["
characters. On the Apple II and Disk II nameplates, these characters are
full-height, not 3/4 height as in the present font.

     Then, too, it is odd that "Cupertino" does not show up in the fonts
originally available for the IIgs. Nor, in a net search, does the name seem
to show up in other font lists. (However, the name of the city Cupertino came
from someone named "Petrus Font"!)

     So, did some user develop the complete Cupertino font based upon name
plate character styling? It seems like a decent possibility.


     An alternative explanation is that the font began with a different name.
There is one font, "Taliesin"  which is listed among the early IIgs fonts but
does not seem to be available. Possibly, there was some problem with the
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, based at Taliesin West, in Scottsdale,
Arizona. Perhaps the Taliesin font was the foundation's property.

     The reason for such speculation will become clearer when you view the
lower case characters of the new "Eaglefeather" font ( see
http://www.dsiegel.com/type/sample.html ) and learn that it is the first
digital typeface licensed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.


     Anyway, it's kind of a fun mystery. And, wherever it came from, we
definitely have a Cupertino font that is a very close match to the old
nameplate lettering.




Rubywand