Right after I upgraded to my new font editor, I sat down and started fiddling around with it. Next thing I knew, I was half way to having a Great Northern herald. I borrowed a few letters from one of the fonts that came with my Mac and completed my first herald. I very pleased with myself. Though, there was no way I could release something like that, I was using someone else's font within my own. So, I took it upon myself to learn how to make a real alphabet. Needless to say, I have relettered the GN logo about three times now (each time using my own font). I think I finally got it right. Next I made the Milwaukee Road herald. I was learning more and more about lettering. It was about this time that I began work on Railroad Roman. That was it, I had jumped in head first. I started to get real fussy about the lettering in my heralds (yeah, I am a perfectionist, but at least I can recognize my faults). If you are even a passing rail fan, you should recognize all but one of the heralds. The last herald, the diamond shaped one, is for Minneapolis Northfield and Southern. A short line that had their main yard about a mile from my house when I was growing up. I spent many hours in that yard watching them switch trains. The MN&S has since been taken over by the Soo Line and the yard has been torn up. Now the Soo has been absorbed into their parent, Canadian Pacific. Ah, progress.
Directory: Picture/RRHeralds
Revisions: 1.0 The original 1.2 Added AT&SF, WP, IC, B&M and Soo Line. Reassigned the characters to new keys (old assignments are still valid in this release, but may not be in future versions). Also added a number of cars to the WorkTrain font. Removed Burlington Font from the package. Oh, and made the documentation infinitely better. Added .AFM files for OS/2 and Unix usersRailroad Heralds uses the following keys:
z s g h e r t u o p y i
NOW FOR THE "ASKING FOR MONEY" BIT, AKA, THIS IS SHAREWARE:
You are free to use (play with, throw at the cat, etc.) this font for one week after receiving it. If you like it and decide to keep it, you should send a US $10 "shareware" fee to myself at the address below (for international users, see item 4 in "The Fine Print"). Please include a brief note describing where you got this font, what you like about it, and what you would like to see in the future.
If you just have to have the full collection of my train fonts (see "Product Ad"), send a couple of FORMATTED 3.5" HD disks (Two HD for Mac, or One HD for IBM recommended) and a SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE to the address below. (I hate to format disks and you will be sure to get the right machine, Mac or IBM, this way)
I do not want to send any of my customers into bankruptcy, if you are honestly poor, (i.e., you ain't gonna support the American way and my education) please send a post card (the weirder the better) describing where you got this font, what you like about it and what you would like to see added to it.
THE FINE PRINT:
Well, I am releasing this font in it's entirety. I put a lot of hard work into this font. I have also gotten a lot of pleasure from it. Ignoring all of the capitalistic angles, your shareware dollar will speed up the development of new train fonts and help me afford new font tools. My goal is to at least break even.
Only 39 people have registered my shareware products since I first released them ten months ago. There are a lot of expenses that go into these fonts. My font editor cost almost $300. Then there are the little expenses like ink cartridges (you wouldn't believe how many ink cartridges I go through) and paying for a mail box. Oy! And you want to talk about memory... 40 Meg of hard disk devoted to fonts and icon development.
I would love to purchase the latest version of Illustrator and produce more clip art. I could also use more disk space to keep these toys in.
BENEFITS OF PAYING THE SHAREWARE FEE:
Enough of what shareware fees do for me, what will they do for you!? I will spend less time on school and more time on producing shareware. You will also be entitled to a peek into things to come. If you send a disk (or two) along with your payment, I will give the Demo font that includes all of the odd characters that haven't quite found a home yet (including a number of steam engines!). In addition, I will rush you out the most recent versions of my fonts and icons. I might even toss in a couple of pre-release fonts.
GIVE IT TO YOUR FRIENDS, RAIL FONTS MAKE GREAT BIRTHDAY GIFTS (GRIN):
YOU WANT YOUR CAR (OR DREAM CAR), LOGO OR HERALD ON YOUR KEYBOARD? I am willing to do custom work, as my time allows, at reasonable rates.
Benn Coifman ASUC Box 624 # 4510, Bancroft & Telegraph Berkeley, CA 94720-4510 USA--Please include your e-mail address with all correspondence-- (very handy for notifying you of new releases) zephyr@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu or zephyr@uclink.berkeley.edu