This Was The First Computer Font

Stored as a bitmap, interpreted by a machine. Digi Grotesk was released in 1968, but I'd say it holds up pretty well.

Before Arial and Segoe, before Comic Sans and Courier, there was Digi Grotesk. Designed by a German guy named Rudolph Hell (or more probably his employees), this is the first true digital typeface.

Digi Grotesk wasn't exactly intended for display on computer screens, which didn't exist as we know them in 1968. Instead, it was designed for use in Hell's pioneering cathode ray typesetting machines, which set text by projecting a CRT image — basically a TV image — onto photosensitive paper through a lens. The machines looked like this:

Via: lonelyfox

Digitizing this part of the typesetting process was a huge boon to typesetters, because it meant they could set hundreds, or even thousands, of letters per minute. The machines were the first to store fonts as bitmap images, and this was the first font designed specifically for digital use. Here's the heavier version, which looks a bit like Helvetica:


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