Good day everyone, I'm in search of a bit of esoteric information regarding published
UNIX works. Does anyone know of any of the tools, formats, practices, etc. used in
producing the actual graphical covers of various published UNIX manuals?
Some that come to mind:
The alphabet blocks cover of the HRW V7 Manuals
The simple 70's Bell-style cover of the UNIX System III manual
The nice 3B-20 picture on the UNIX 4.1 manual
The grid patterns design on the UNIX System V documentation
The blue "big V" SVR4 manuals (given the time disparity, these could have
totally different underpinnings)
Where I'm particularly curious is how these covers were actually set, defined, the
image data to print on them stored, formatted, etc. In other words,
<???>:troff::covers:manpages where ??? may also represent more than just the
specific tools/formats. Anyone have the scoop on the actual raw materials and
technologies used for preparing the covers and/or if any of those original assets, in
their raw form, would potentially still exist somewhere? To be honest, I am particularly
interested in the original, highest fidelity possible image of the 3B-20 from the
corresponding manual
(
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Unix_Manuals#/media/File:UNIX4.…)
but am happy with any info illuminates what went into the actual physical production.
Thanks all!
- Matt G.
P.S. If it provides any leads, the closest thing I've found in actual document
sources to material related to these aspects of physical publication are the files M.folio
and M.tabs here:
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=SysIII/usr/src/man/tools