cool-retro-term/app/qml/fonts/1971-ibm-3278

3270font: A font for the nostalgic

https://github.com/rbanffy/3270font

A little bit of history

This font is derived from the x3270 font, which, in turn, was translated from the one in Georgia Tech's 3270tool, which was itself hand-copied from a 3270 terminal. I built it because I felt terminals deserve to be pretty. The .sfd font file contains a x3270 bitmap font that was used for guidance.

![Using with the cool-old-tern (now cool-retro-term) terminal program] (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/rbanffy/3270font/cool-retro-term.png)

The format

This font was built with FontForge. You'll need it if you want to generate fonts for your platform. On most civilized operating systems, you can simply apt-get install fontforge, yum install fontforge or even port install fontforge. On others, you may need to grab your copy from http://fontforge.org/. I encourage you to drop by and read the tutorials.

![Powerline-shell compatible!] (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/rbanffy/3270font/powerline.png)

Adobe Type 1, TTF, OTF and WOFF versions are available for download on http://s3.amazonaws.com/rbanffy/3270_fonts_1aeb375.zip for those who would just like to use them.

![Using it on OSX (don't forget to turn antialiasing on)] (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/rbanffy/3270font/osx_terminal.png)

If you are running Windows, you'll probably need something like Cygwin, but, in the end, the font works correctly (with some very minor hinting issues).

![Works on Windows] (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/rbanffy/3270font/windows_7.png)

Generating derived files

The script generate_derived.pe calls FontForge and generates PostScript, OTF, TTF and WOFF versions of the base font, as well as a slightly more condensed .sfd file with the base font narrowed to 488 units, with no glyph rescaling and its corresponding PostScript, TTF, OTF and WOFF versions.

Contributing

I don't think GitHub's pull-request mechanism is FontForge-friendly. If you want to contribute (there are a lot of missing glyphs, such as the APL set and most non-latin alphabets which most likely were never built into 3270 terminals), get in touch and we will figure out how to do it right.

Preserving history

I regard the history of electronic computing a very important part of our civilization's history. Consider donating to entities that help preserve it, such as the Computer History Museum (http://www.computerhistory.org/), the IT History Society (http://ithistory.org/) and many others around the world. If you have a historically significant piece of technology in your closet or garage, consider contacting a local technology or industrial-design-oriented museum for advice.

Known problems

Not all symbols in the 3270 charset have Unicode counterparts. When possible, they are duplicated in the Unicode space. The 3270-only symbols are at the end of the font.

Please refer to http://x3270.bgp.nu/Charset.html for a complete map.