Acornsoft Programming Languages book series
LISP on the BBC Microcomputer, Arthur Norman and Gillian Cattell.
The BBC Microcomputer was a 8-bit 6502 based microcomputer made in the UK in the 1980s. It was designed and built by Acorn, and due to partnership with the BBC it became immensely popular in schools.
Acornsoft was Acorn’s in-house software division and produced, among other things, professional quality programming language implementations accompanied with good quality manuals. A selection of which is shown here.
Typography is consistent across the series of manuals: Titles, subtitles, and authors on the covers are in Formula (quite possibly Formula One by Letraset, which would have been popular at the time). Acornsoft’s wordmark on the spine appears to be in ITC Avant Garde Gothic Condensed, with an O that has been replaced by an acorn.
The programming source code on the cover of LISP is in Courier.
BCPL for the BBC Microcomputer, Chris Jobson and John Richards.
FORTH on the BBC Microcomputer, Richard De Grandis-Harrison. The “curve” on the cover shows two levels of the space-filling Hilbert Curve.
The Acornsoft wordmark which features on the spines of all the books.
3 Comments on “Acornsoft Programming Languages book series”
Prolifically used by the BBC in diverse media in the 1980s, Formula, by design a most unassuming and neutral font, acquired a terrifyingly sinister aspect for the present writer by virtue of its use in Threads, 1984. This softly-spoken-(very)-bad-news character, as well as its associations with authority (schoolroom and the nation’s broadcaster, as was), still makes me clammy at the sight.
Thanks for sharing this, Will!
The typeface used for Threads is DIN 17. Just like Formula, it’s a rounded sans serif of low contrast, but is distinguished by boxier shapes (see the D), a straight-legged R, and a monocular a. DIN 17 was likewise a somewhat common choice in the UK at the time, after Letraset adopted it in or before 1971. Seems your aversion extends to a whole genre of typefaces!
i also happen to have Creative Graphics from the same series, and since i happen to have it off the shelf, i thought i would post a picture of that too.