I was reading up on primers and found this in your faq:
"For using the book as a text for children, it would be the printing and spelling that is used in it. For example the letter "f" was frequently substituted for "s". (I don' know why.) "
The letter that is substituted is actually the long-s. If you look carefully you will find that the horizontal bar only appears on the left and not the right of the character (unlike the f). You will find some more information here:
from http://nwalsh.com/comp.fonts/FAQ/cf_6.htm#SEC11
What is the ``f'' shaped ``s'' called? Both the ``f'' with half a crosbar (roman) and the integral sign (italic) are called long-S.
from http://nwalsh.com/comp.fonts/FAQ/cf_16.htm#SEC51
...
Ligatures were originally used by medieval scribes to conserve space
and increase writing speed. A 14th century manuscript, for
example,
will include hundreds of ligatures (this is also where ``accents'' came
from). Early typefaces used ligatures in order to emulate the
appearance
of hand-lettered manuscripts. As typesetting became more
automated,
most of these ligatures fell out of common use. It is only
recently
that computer based typesetting has encouraged people to start using
them
again (although 'fine art' printers have used them all
along). Generally,
ligatures work best in typefaces which are derived from calligraphic
letterforms.
Also useful are contextual forms, such as swash capitals, terminal
characters,
and so on.
A good example of a computer typeface with a rich set of
ligatures is
Adobe Caslon (including Adobe Caslon Expert). It includes:
Upper case, lower case, small caps, lining numerals, oldstyle numerals,
vulgar fractions, superior and inferior numerals, swash italic caps,
ornaments,
long s, and the following ligatures: ff fi fl ffi ffl Rp ct st Sh Si Sl
SS St (where S=long s) ...
While I appreciate your work in updating the primer, I think
it is important
to realize the history and art that was behind the original. Thanks.
======================================================
Michael
Gile
gilem(a)wsg.net
President
(518) 435-0682
Web Services Group
http://www.wsg.net/
Thanks Michael. Your info. is very welcomed.
rek