What is "overstrike"

Overstrike \O`ver*strike"\, v. t. To strike beyond. [Obs.]

n. 1 (context numismatics English) A coin that has been overstruck, i.e. coined more than once. (from 20th c.) 2 (context typography English) The printing of one character over another, as ''-'' on top of ''L'' to produce ''Ł''. (from 20th c.) 3 (context computing uncountable English) overtype (feature where input replaces existing characters instead of being inserted before them) vb. 1 (context obsolete reflexive English) To overreach oneself while strike. (16th c.) 2 (context transitive English) To cover up (a design, mark etc.) by stamping another on top of it; to superimpose a mark or logo on (a coin, stamp, etc.). (from 20th c.) 3 (context transitive English) To strike (something) too hard. (from 20th c.)

In typography, overstrike is a method of printing characters that are missing from the printer's character set. The character was created by placing one character on another one — for example, overstriking "L" with "-" resulted in printing a "Ł" character.

The ASCII code supports six different diacritics. These are: grave accent, tilde, acute accent (approximated by the apostrophe), diaeresis (double quote), cedilla (comma), and circumflex accent. Each is typed by typing the preceding character, then backspace, and then the 'related character', which is `, ~, ', ", , or ^, respectively for the above-mentioned accents.

With the wide adoption of Unicode (especially UTF-8, which supports a much larger number of characters in different writing systems), this technique is of little use today.

Many font renderers in computer programs invent missing bold characters by overstriking the normal character with itself, slightly horizontally offset. The horizontal offset is essential since, unlike a typewriter where repeating a letter in exactly the same space will make it darker, most modern printers will not darken repeated "strikes" to the same space. Actual bold fonts are designed with some features thicker and others the same size as a regular font, so the use of this "fake bold" is considered undesirable from a typographic point of view.

The character set for the APL programming language includes several characters that were printed by overstriking other characters on printing terminals such as the IBM 2741, for example the functions ⌽ and ⊖ may be used to reverse the elements of an array.

Category:Typography

In Numismatics overstrike refers to the image on a coin which has been coined more than once. Overstriking is done deliberately when the first strike is unsatisfactory, or accidentally if the blank slips out of place or if the dies judder, resulting in a slight doubling of the design.

Sometimes old and worn coins were overstruck with new designs by later rulers. This occurred in the Roman Empire, see sestertius, and also in more modern times. Due to a shortage of silver the mint of George III of Great Britain used Spanish silver dollars in the early 19th century, and overstruck the king's image and legends on them.