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 "PSNGR_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.
There are three different locomotives and fourteen passenger cars. Each locomotive and car is assigned to a different key. For each character, lower case corresponds to facing leftward and upper case corresponds to facing rightward. In some cases, this is a small distinction, but, it is included for completeness. After loading the font, you should print out a copy of "PSNGR_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. Along the middle row, I put the passenger cars from left to right in roughly the order you might find them in a train. Note that no train would have all of the cars and most trains would have had several cars of certain classes. But make what you like. In the bottom left, I put the observation cars (end cars), you have four to choose from. There is also a "Whoosh!" or speed line effect that is demonstrated in the legend file.
Many of the cars were done from memory and are not exact replicas of real passenger cars. They are close though. I showed the font to a friend and about all he said was, "All full domes had three axle trucks." I will fix that as soon as I get around to drawing up some three axle trucks.
I took inspiration from equipment that I am familiar with and from some of my favorite railroads. On the first page of the legend, the train at the top is roughly the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha and the train at the bottom is roughly the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Twin Zephyr.
NEW WITH VERSION 2.1:
The font itself is essentially the same as the last release. The only change is the fact that I finally got around to making a three axle truck for the full dome. I have revised the documentation to make it a little more user friendly and reference my newest products. I have added the .AFM files for OS/2 and Unix users.
Directory: Picture/Passenger
Revisions: 1.0 The original 1.1 Added teach text readme file. 1.2 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 Corrected a problem with the full dome glyph and updated the documentation. Added .AFM files for OS/2 and Unix usersThis font uses the following keys for various locomotive, cars and effects: q, Q, w, W, e, E, a, A, s, S, d, D, f, F, g, G, h, j, J, k, K, l, L, z, Z, x, X, c, C, v, V, ',', <, '.', >
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