This font is a virtual railroad for your printer. You will need a high resolution printer to truly appreciate this font. The screen bit map isn't the best , but load up the PostScript and print out a copy of "MP_MAP.WRI" to see all the living detail in full heart stopping color (well, I get carried away, but you get the idea). Now you can add the finest passenger trains to your documents.
Modern Passenger font will allow you to hook up your own Amtrak trains on your printed documents. For the time being, the font may not look that good on screen. After pulling and tweaking the PostScript font for so long, I really did not feel like spending another ten hours on the bit map. (still haven't gotten to the bit map, I just went on to other fonts)
I took a little bit of a break after releasing my passenger and freight fonts to the net. Most of the response to the first two fonts has been positive. Only four people have sent in the shareware fee during the first four months of release. I hope that more people are enjoying my fonts though. I am looking forward to the day that I open a railfan news letter and find my fonts staring back at me.
There were a few holes in the passenger train font. I liked the font, but I felt that there was something lacking the day that I released it. I wanted to include modern passenger train equipment. Since most of the trains I see are in the west, when I think of Amtrak, I think of Superliner cars. Thus, most of this font is devoted to Superliner cars. I also tossed in a couple of odds and ends that didn't make it into the passenger font and aren't really modern passenger equipment, but.... Maybe you won't notice the fact that the RDC's and the commuter cars have been around for over thirty years and are not too modern. I was tossing around the idea of including the X-2000 and the ICE, but those trains just seemed so dated. I might do a high speed rail font if I am not sick to death of trains after I do all of the other fonts I am talking about, we will have to wait and see.
There are four different locomotives, two commuter cars, three RDC's and eight passenger cars. Each locomotive and car is assigned to a different key. For each locomotive, lower case corresponds to facing leftward and upper case corresponds to facing rightward. For the rest of the cars, lower and upper case characters will be opposite sides of the same car, but there is no real distinction between forward and backward. In some cases, it is a small distinction between left and right, but, it is included for completeness. After loading the font, you should print out a copy of "MP_MAP.WRI" for a sample of the font and to see which characters map to which keys.
My logic for assigning the characters was to put the locomotives in the upper left corner of the keyboard. I put the Superliner cars and other equipment that you would find in a typical Amtrak train along the middle row, a-k. In the lower left, I put the RDC's. The commuter cars are in the upper right.
NEW WITH VERSION 2.1:
Nothin'... well that isn't totally true, I updated the documentation, but this is one of the two fonts I didn't mess with. Also added .AFM files for OS/2 and Unix users.
Directory: Picture/ModPassenger
Revisions: 1.0 The original 1.1 Revised address 2.0 FIXED a compatibility problem- some printers would not recognize my fonts as being different entities, now you should not see any conflicts between fonts. Added the IBM version. Cleaned up all of the characters. You shouldn't see any change, but your printer should. 2.1 Revised the documentation. Added .AFM files for OS/2 and Unix usersThis font uses the following keys for various locomotives and cars: q, Q, w, W, e, E, r, R, a, A, s, S, d, D, f, F, g, G, h, H, j, J, k, K, o, O, p, P, z, Z, x, X, c, C
If you use this font in publication or on a product, please let me know. It is always interesting to hear the clever uses people have had for my fonts. (I would also love a copy of your publication for my scrap book)
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