Design grids
To design a character you use a grid that is 24 dots
matrix is dependent upon the character set in use. For draft characters, the grid is nine dots wide. For Letter Quality it is 29 dots wide, and for proportional characters it is 37 dots wide, with the dots for both Letter Quality and proportional spaced more closely together than those for draft.
The illustrations below show the two design grids. The line at the side labelled cap indicates the top of a standard capital letter, and the line labelled base indicates the baseline for all letters except those with descenders (the bottom parts of such letters as j and y). The bottom row is usually left blank because it is used for underlining.
Draft pica | Letter quality / Proportional |
|
The grid on the right side can be used for either Letter Quality or proportional characters. For Letter Quality you do not use all the columns,
There is one restriction in designing characters. Dots in the same row may not print in adjacent columns. That is, there must be an empty dot position to the left and to the right of each dot that prints. This is true in draft, Letter Quality, and proportional.