PDP PDF's !

[Rich Alderson]

> From: Ethan Dicks
> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 9:56 PM

> On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Jason Fitzpatrick <jason at havnet.net>> wrote:

>> Hi All,

>> Just a quick note to let you know that we have finally started creating
>> PDF's of some of our older computing brochures.

>> There's some on the PDP-5, PDP-6 & PDP-7 which you might find interesting
>> ...

>> http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/digital-equipment-corporation-(dec)-3215.htm

> Very nice.

> Are there any font historians in the audience? I'm curious what the
> serif font is that DEC used back then (both on the "Digital Equipment
> Corp" logo on the PDP-5, for example, and in the brochure for the
> PDP-5).  I'm also curious what the sans serif font is that's rendered
> in color and used for headers and such in the PDP-5 brochure.  To me,
> at least, it really evokes a sense of the period these flyers were
> designed in.

It is very likely not a typeface (a font is a package of cast metal type)
but a lettering design by an in-house artist at or hired by DEC.  That's
how corporate identities are done.  Or so my press-owning friends tell me.

Note that DEC changed from a design with serifs to a sans-serif between
in 1965--and the change was completed between the preliminary and final
versions of the PDP-7 Handbook (F-77), as can be seen at Bitsavers.

                                                                Rich