The early Hershey vector fonts, developed on very early computers and still popular in CAD applications today, were also derived from Gorton/Leroy shapes, simplified so that the already-simple curves weren’t even necessary – any letter could now be drawn by a series of straight lines.

Hershey Vector Font

The structure is basically as follows: each character consists of a number 1->4000 (not all used) in column 0:4, the number of vertices in columns 5:7, the left hand position in column 8, the right hand position in column 9, and finally the vertices in single character pairs. All coordinates are given relative to the ascii value of 'R'. If the coordinate value is " R" that indicates a pen up operation.