View Review Details
| Book: |
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Fonts & Encodings |
| Subject: |
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Backdate your computer knowledge |
| Date: |
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2007-10-12 17:48:54 |
| From: |
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B Kiefer
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I've learned quite a lot about "the way things are" in computing by reading the first 50 pages of this entertaining book. Haramlambous' work is translated by P. Scott Horne. I'm not sure what language the original work is in, but this is a very readable book that covers the fundamental tryst between fonts and encodings. Encodings help us understand characters while fonts make those characters familiar glyphs (letters and symbols).
Haramlambous has shed light on every corner of this problem. He starts with a refresher in type setting and a primer in the language of fonts. From there, he discusses the history of encodings including an illustrative expose comparing the punchcard and EBCDIC and how they share the same encoding scheme.
As a first edition, there are plenty of errata issues that need to be addressed, but this massive tome will be a long-lived reference in my library.
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"It would be fair to say I was just blown away by the wealth of technical detail that Haralambous has put into the book...I can't think of another book I've seen to compare this to. Certainly within the area of font implementation, there's nothing else like it that I'm aware of. Overall, I rate this an exceptional achievement."
--Russ Kay, Senior Reviews Editor at ComputerWorld
