Re: D&RG #524 vs "#425" redux . . .

CR BT Dispr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dave - Here's my 524 trace as requested.
> [attachment 74674 DRG524number.jpg]
>
> Space between 2 and other digits is not equal.

That's due to the proper kerning of the "nose" of the '4' into the "bay" of the '2' for a balanced appearance.  "Proper" kerning is an art – not a science – and, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  Most numbers are about the same total width, but some of them have more open space than others.  24 can be kerned closer than 42 when the spaces are not pre-fixed like here on the web or on a typewriter, but the numeral '1' is skinny and – like with 168 – it can be a real pain for typesetters (and tender painters) to keep a balanced look when there's a '1' present.  (See [ngdiscussion.net].)

> They are not the same as in the first 'better' pic
> Russo posted from Chris Walker. Was that better
> pic the same as the former 524 pic or a different
> pic/date? It clearly doesn't have the uphill 4
> serif and has a concave inner corner in the 4. If
> it is the same photograph as the first-posted
> version, the first is a terrible scan.


Thank You, CR — that is MUCH better contrast!

The first scan posted was VERY low contrast, and fairly small & low res, so details were not clear.  Chris sent me a link to the original photo on the DPL site, so I used the DPL facility to display a larger version of SFAIK the same file, did a large screen capture of just the tender, and then increased the contrast as much as I could in PhotoShop.  I did NOT try to trace the numbers as you did because I didn't want to take any chance of distorting the shapes.  (Some of the extra squiggles in your new version – but clearly not the concave inner nose of the four – may be due to the way the rivets affect the edges of the numbers.)

Here's a repeat of the re-ordering ex-Sperry-ment above, but using the much brighter new version of 524's tender lettering provided above.  First the original, cropped and resized to about the same file dimensions for a fair comparison:


Here's the transposition of the numerals using the space between the '5' and the '2' as a guide.  As noted above, the space between the '2' and the '4' was reduced in the original ("kerned") to compensate visually for the large empty space above and below the "nose" of the '4'.  There is not such an empty area on the right side of the '4', nor on either side of the '2' or the '5', so no kerning was applied.  (A small bit of the "nose" of the '4' was left behind to illustrate the original kerning.):


Finally, again in flagrant violation of one of typography's most sacred rules,* here are the re-sequenced numerals (and the space between them) compressed horizontally to 70% of their width:


Again, note that the form of the resultant numerals is clearly different from those used on the tender of engine #424 in the target era, but even with the heinous adulteration still has wider (and IMHO more histœrically accurate) spacing between the numerals.

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender

*  " . . . arbitrarily condensing or expanding letterforms is the poorest of all methods for fitting uneditable copy into unalterable space." — Robert Bringhurst – The Elements of Typographic Style, p 35.

p.s.  Just for the hell of it, I played around with kerning between the '2' and the '4' using the Engraver's Roman typeface mentioned in the discussion with Fritz Klinke starting at [ngdiscussion.net].  Note also the kerning automatically applied by Photoshop following the letter 'f' of the Clarendon BT Bold typeface used for the captions:




Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2021 12:38PM by Russo Loco.