Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!chuq
From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: some general Mac questions
Message-ID: <32884@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 6 Jul 89 00:01:06 GMT
References: <4830@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Life is just a Fantasy novel played for keeps
Lines: 49


>* When I used the Macs in our Mac-lab, the word processors
>would always default to Geneva (sp?), but our laser printer would not
>support it.

Geneva is a bitmap font, not a postscript font. It is the default because
not everyone uses laser printers and postscript. If you do have a postscript
printer, some word processors (like Word) allow you to change the default
font, and you can change the default to a postscript font like Times. You
can also use something like Appfont to change the system default to a
postscript font. Or you can go into "page setup" dialog and set the option
that will convert the standard bitmap fonts to their postscript equivalents
(Geneva to Time, for instance). 

>* Are Fonts done with Bitmaps?  Why not define a letter as a series of
>arcs (using control points)?  This would solve all scaling and 
>rotation constraints.  Is this how Post Script does it?

That's how postscript does it, although the screen fonts for postscript
fonts are still bitmaps. System 7.0 has a new font manager to do just what
you're talking about. It was discussed at the developer's conference in May.

>* Where can I find out about what uses Post Script?  I looked through
>my Apple supplied manuals, MacDraw II manuals, and Word 4.0 manuals,
>but I could not find anything.  If I purchased a laser printer that
>did NOT support Post Script, how could I find out what I could and
>could not do on it?

If you have a postscript device, any program that uses the standard print
manager can use postscript fonts with no problems. Applications would have
to be programmed to allow special postscript hacking (Word does it with the
Postscript style, Adobe Illustrator and Aldus Freehand have good postscript
functionality. Others vary widely). If you purchase a printer that doesn't
support postscript, what you can and can't do depends entirely on what the
printer drivers support (or don't). Take a close look at functionality
before you buy. IMHO, if you need more than a dot-matrix printer, buying
something other than a postscript device is silly because of the limitations
it creates. System 7.0 will eventually remove these limitations, but until
everyone supports the new print functionalities it makes sens to stick with
what works, and that's postscript.

chuq

Chuq Von Rospach      =|=     Editor,OtherRealms     =|=     Member SFWA/ASFA
         chuq@apple.com   =|=  CI$: 73317,635  =|=  AppleLink: CHUQ
      [This is myself speaking. No company can control my thoughts.]

You are false data. Therefore I shall ignore you.