Typeface question.

[The Colonel]

Back in the original Southern Electric days the trains had letter headcodes like the old Hovis advert. To extend the range some had a bar above them.

Is there anyway to obtain this on a modern computer at all? Just idle curiosity really. I know there is the underscore character, but you can't get this with a letter at the same time afaik, and I wondered if there is a way to do the bar.

The Colonel

 

[SS4]

You don't have an example picture to hand do you?

 

[Bushy]

For MS Word, try this (found, by googling, on Bodybuilding.com)

1. Press CTRL+F9 to insert field braces.
2. Enter EQ \o(A,¯) [to overscore A] and delete any extra spaces in the field. The overscore character can be entered by holding down ALT and typing 0175.
3. Press SHIFT+F9 to show the results of the field code.
4. If the overline is too wide or narrow, press SHIFT+F9 to show the field code again and select the overscore character.
5. Press Ctrl-D to edit font properties for the overscore character.
6. Change to the character spacing tab, adjust the font scale (eg, 150% if we want to overline the character W), and click Ok.
7. Press SHIFT+F9 to show the results of the field code. Iterate if necessary.

Regards

Bushy

 

[W-on-Sea]

It's certainly possible for some similar characters to be generated on a typical computer of today, and rendered online in a browser - essentially if there is a unicode character (or similar) for them.

There are some languages that use certain letters with a bar - or "macron" - on top. E.g. Latvian uses such bars on some vowels to indicate, I think, that the sound is to be lengthened.

A very basic overview/introduction to the topic is available on wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro

Not sure if/how you could get a bar to appear above other letters apart from these vowels, or over numbers, etc.

 

[The Colonel]

You don't have an example picture to hand do you?

Can't find a picture immediatly but this gives the format:-
http://www.semgonline.com/headcodes/eheadcodes/eheadcodes07.html

 

[Lrd]

ḦḢ I can't find the H with the bar on top.

You can go to a special keyboard through the start menu, something like Character Viewer. It may be under "Accessibility". This is all from my memory as I'm using a Mac which is different.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Can't find a picture immediatly but this gives the format:-
http://www.semgonline.com/headcodes/eheadcodes/eheadcodes07.html

The final two symbols in the list in this link are not of the Roman alphabet. What are these two symbols taken from ?

 

[Class172]

The final two symbols in the list in this link are not of the Roman alphabet. What are these two symbols taken from ?

One of them could be a capital greek Lambda, which looks like this: Λ

According to microsoft word, the other one is a cyrillic capital letter Komi De: Ԁ
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

There are some languages that use certain letters with a bar - or "macron" - on top. E.g. Latvian uses such bars on some vowels to indicate, I think, that the sound is to be lengthened.

Latin uses this system too to show when a long vowel sound is required. For example, in the word 'puellā,' meaning girl, when in the ablative case (by/with), the ā shows that a long a sound (/a:/) is required, as in father. As apposed to when the word is in the nominative case (subject of sentence), then it is 'puella', and a is a short sound, as in cat

 

[John Webb]

The final two symbols in the list in this link are not of the Roman alphabet. What are these two symbols taken from ?

Bear in mind that these headcodes were stencils - so the 'd' is an inverted 'P' and the '^' is an inverted V.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bear in mind that these headcodes were stencils - so the 'd' is an inverted 'P' and the '^' is an inverted V.

That would seem logical, as the usage of any non-Roman alphabet letter would have indeed be viewed as most strange when this system was introduced.

 

[Class172]

Bear in mind that these headcodes were stencils - so the 'd' is an inverted 'P' and the '^' is an inverted V.

That would make much more sense.

 

[Eagle]

ḦḢ I can't find the H with the bar on top.

H̄ (you have to use a combining macron).

Also Ԁ and Ʌ.

(BTW if you're still using XP, or a non-recent version or IE, these won't work. Get with the times :P)

 

[Bushy]

The following is a list of the characters available in the Unicode Character Set. In Windows use Character Map or in Microsoft Office, Insert Symbol. I think I have located all those, from the SMEG page, that exist but they are spread through the character set so are difficult to find.

Ḣ Ch 1E22
Ḧ Ch 1E26
Ī Ch 012A
Ï Ch 00CF
Ṅ Ch 1E44
Ӧ Ch 04E6
Ṗ Ch 1E56
Ṫ Ch 1E6A
Ū Ch 016A
Ü Ch 00DC
Ԁ Ch 0500
Λ Ch 039B

The character codes are in HEX. To find the characters in Character Map or the Insert Symbol dialogue type the code into the code box at the bottom. Make sure Normal Text or the font you are using is selected at the top of the dialogue and Unicode is selected as the character set at the bottom of the dialogue.

In MS Word the above can also be inserted by typing the character code, selecting it and pressing Alt + X together.
Some may also have decimal codes which can be inserted by typing the decimal code on numeric key pad while holding the Alt key. Nothing will be displayed until the Alt key is released.

The remainder can only be achieved using combinations with the characters below using the method described in my earlier post, i.e.

1. Press CTRL+F9 to insert field braces.
2. Enter EQ \o(A,¯) [to overscore A] and delete any extra spaces in the field.
3. Press SHIFT+F9 to show the results of the field code.
4. If the overline is too wide or narrow, press SHIFT+F9 to show the field code again and select the overscore character.
5. Press Ctrl-D to edit font properties for the overscore character.
6. Change to the character spacing tab, adjust the font scale (eg, 150% if we want to overline the character W), and click Ok.
7. Press SHIFT+F9 to show the results of the field code. Iterate if necessary.


ˉ Ch 0305
˙ Ch 0307
¨ Ch 0308

These character codes are for special characters designed for combining and should be used rather than other versions within the character set. I seem to remember that there was a keyboard short cut for combining characters but I can't locate it so I may be wrong.

If you need these in any other environment you are probably best using graphics, as SMEG have. They might let you copy theirs if you ask.

Regards

Bushy