HP key fonts

[hugh]

I woud like to know what font type was used on HP calculator keys and key facias. Was it a common font, or was it created just for the calculators? Looking at the HP calculators I have owned and seen over the years, it seems like the font remained unchanged for a long time, was it changed?

[Valentin Albillo]

If I recall correctly, such classic calculators as the HP-25, HP-67, ... up to, and including, the HP-71B did use
the Helvetica font for the key legends.

Best regards from V.

[Ernie Malaga]

The keyboard font is Helvetica, plain and simple, with added symbols whenever needed, and a certain admixture of Times for the symbols in italics (such as the x<>y key).

I have created several fonts to copy the look of the classic calculators, and they work remarkably well. You can see a sample in the HP-68WX keyboard layout in that infamous April Fools joke of two or three years ago.

The fonts, however, are made for Macintosh and will only work well there. So far I haven't succeeded in porting them to Windows. If you'd like to have the Mac fonts, send me a message to

eamalaga AT earthlink DOT net

-Ernie (12345)