The Hershey fonts are a collection of vector fonts developed c. 1967 by Dr. Allen Vincent Hershey at the Naval Weapons Laboratory,[1][2][3] originally designed to be rendered using vectors on early cathode ray tube displays. Decomposing curves to connected straight lines allowed Hershey to produce complex typographic designs. In their original form the font data consists simply of a series of coordinates, meant to be connected by straight lines on the screen. The fonts are publicly available and have few usage restrictions.[4] Vector fonts are easily scaled and rotated in two or three dimensions; consequently the Hershey fonts have been widely used in computer graphics, computer-aided design programs, and more recently also in computer-aided manufacturing applications like laser engraving.
- ^ Hershey, A. V. (August 1967), Calligraphy for Computers, Dahlgren, VA: U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory, ASIN B0007EVKFI, OCLC 654265615, NWL Report No. 2101. NTIS AD662398
- ^ About Hershey Vector Fonts, archived from the original on November 16, 2011, retrieved November 15, 2011
- ^ Grießhammer, Frank (2017). "History of the Hershey fonts". In Litherland, Caren (ed.). Béziers, Hershey & Lombardics – Minotaur type specimen. Paris: Production Type. pp. 25–57. ISBN 9791093578057. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/Hershey.htm Archived 2017-07-16 at the Wayback Machine states that the fonts may not be distributed in the format provided by National Technical Information Service. The fonts were distributed via Usenet in a character encoding.