乔布斯传 第121期:像保时捷那样(4)

 At the calligraphy¹ class he had audited² at Reed,

还在里德学院的时候，

Jobs learned to love typefaces, with all of their serif and sans serif variations, proportional spacing, and leading.

乔布斯在旁听书法课时爱上了各种衬线字体和无紂线字体，以及合适的字距和行距。

"When we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me," he later said of that class.

“在我们设计第一台麦金塔电脑的时候，当年的记忆都冒了出来。”他后来在谈及书法课的时候说。

Because the Mac was bitmapped, it was possible to devise an endless array of fonts,

因为Mac采用了位图显示，它可以支持无数种字体

ranging from the elegant to the wacky, and render them pixel by pixel on the screen.

从优雅的到古怪的，然后在屏幕上逐个像素地显现出来。

To design these fonts, Hertzfeld recruited a high school friend from suburban³ Philadelphia, Susan Kare.

为了设计这些字体，赫茨菲尔德招募了来自费城郊区的髙中好友苏珊·卡雷

They named the fonts after the stops on Philadelphia's Main Line commuter⁴ train:

在给这些字体命名时，他们采用了费城梅因莱恩区火车线路上车站的名字：

Overbrook, Merion, Ardmore, and Rosemont.

欧弗布鲁克、梅里昂、阿德莫尔和罗斯蒙特。

Jobs found the process fascinating.

乔布斯觉得这一过程十分有趣。

Late one afternoon he stopped by and started brooding about the font names.

一天傍晚，乔布斯路过他们那里，也开始想字体的名字。

They were "little cities that nobody's ever heard of," he complained. "They ought to be world-class cities!"

那都是些“从没有人听说过的小地方”，他抱怨说，“应该用世界级的大城市来命名！”

The fonts were renamed Chicago, New York, Geneva, London, San Francisco, Toronto, and Venice.

正是这个原因，才有了现在的这些字体名字：芝加哥、纽约、日内瓦、伦敦、旧金山、多伦多和威尼斯。

Markkula and some others could never quite appreciate Jobs's obsession⁵ with typography.

马库拉和其他一些人从来都无法欣赏乔布斯对于版面设计的痴迷。

"His knowledge of fonts was remarkable⁶, and he kept insisting on having great ones," Markkula recalled.

“他对于字体的了解是很让我们惊讶的，而且他一直坚持要设计好看的字体。”马库拉回忆说，

"I kept saying, 'Fonts? Don't we have more important things to do?'"

“我一直说：‘字体？难道我们没有更重要的事情了吗？’”

In fact the delightful⁷ assortment⁸ of Macintosh fonts,

事实上，麦金塔上各种漂亮的字体，

when combined with laser-writer printing and great graphics⁹ capabilities¹⁰,

再结合激光打印技术和强大的图形功能，

would help launch the desktop¹¹ publishing industry and be a boon¹² for Apple's bottom line.

推动了桌面出版产业的诞生，也成为了苹果公司赢利点。

It also introduced all sorts of regular folks,

同时，它也让普通人

ranging from high school journalists to moms who edited PTA newsletters,

不管是中学校报记者还是编辑PTA（家长和教师联谊会）时事通讯的母亲，

to the quirky joy of knowing about fonts,

都享受到了掌握字体知识带来的奇异乐趣，

which was once reserved for printers, grizzled editors, and other ink-stained wretches¹³.

而这种乐趣，之前只有印刷工人、满头白发的编辑和其他跟油墨打交道的人才能体会得到。

1 calligraphy   

n.书法

参考例句：

• At the calligraphy competition,people asked him to write a few characters.书法比赛会上，人们请他留字。
• His calligraphy is vigorous and forceful.他的书法苍劲有力。

2 audited   

v.审计，查账( audit的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The accounts have to be audited by a firm of external auditors. 这些账目必须由一家外聘审计员的公司来稽查。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• E. g. few if any charities collection publishes audited accounts. 例如很少义款收集有公布经过查核的帐目。 来自互联网

3 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

4 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

5 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

6 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

7 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

8 assortment   

n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集

参考例句：

• This shop has a good assortment of goods to choose from.该店各色货物俱全，任君选择。
• She was wearing an odd assortment of clothes.她穿着奇装异服。

9 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

10 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

11 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

12 boon   

n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠

参考例句：

• A car is a real boon when you live in the country.在郊外居住，有辆汽车确实极为方便。
• These machines have proved a real boon to disabled people.事实证明这些机器让残疾人受益匪浅。

13 wretches   

n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋

参考例句：

• The little wretches were all bedraggledfrom some roguery. 小淘气们由于恶作剧而弄得脏乎乎的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The best courage for us poor wretches is to fly from danger. 对我们这些可怜虫说来，最好的出路还是躲避危险。 来自辞典例句