Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!wjh12!djb
From: djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Outline font editor (MS-DOS)
Message-ID: <411@wjh12.harvard.edu>
Date: 12 Oct 89 00:23:46 GMT
Reply-To: djb@wjh12.UUCP (David J. Birnbaum)
Distribution: na
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Lines: 86

I do a lot of printing with nonstandard foreign alphabet
materials (medieval Serbian, etc.) and often have to produce
new and unexpected characters (ligatures, unusual graphic
variants of standard characters, etc.).  I am using an MS-DOS
system and printing on a Hewlett Packard LaserJet Series II.
My solution so far has been to use bitmapped fonts; I generate
what characters I can from Bitstream outlines and then edit
these into the forms I need using a bitmap editor.  In some
cases I scan images of characters, scale them, and then edit
them with a bitmap editor.  The process can be laborious, but
the quality is excellent.

  There are some obvious advantages to using Postscript or a
similar outline-based system (such as the LaserMaster, which 
uses Bitstream font outlines), both for ease of using multiple
sizes and for the possiblity of integrating a monitor that uses
the same outlines.  Standard outline packages, however, will
never include all the characters I need, and I will only be
able to abandon my current bitmapped configuration when an
adequate outline editor becomes available.

  The minimum requirement for such an editor is that it enable
me to draw new outline characters and modify existing outlines
to make new characters.  The only product that I know of for an
MS-DOS environment that remotely meets this requirement is ZSoft's
Publisher's Typefoundry, but users tell me that it has a number of
limitations.

  First, I am told that it uses a proprietary outline format, so
that you can not edit genuine Postscript or Bitstream outlines
and produce a new Postscript or Bitstream outline that will be
acceptable to systems that require such outlines.  What you can
do is convert a large bitmapped font to a ZSoft outline, use the
outline to generate bitmapped fonts in other sizes, and then use
a bitmap editor to clean them up.

  Second, I have heard that ZSoft simulates curves by using a large
number of small line segments, which is not as smooth as a genuine
curve and which requires a lot of memory.  One user told me that the
ZSoft editor comes with good outline fonts the use curves, but that
you can not use the editor to create fonts of the same quality.

  An additional problem is that outline fonts require hints to
print accurately in small sizes.  The editor would have to include
a provision for adding the necessary hints to my edited characters.
Since the quality of the printed output is paramount and since I can
not manage without the unusual characters that are unlikely to be in
any commercial inventory, any system that does not provide these 
capabilities is less satisfactory than my current bitmapped configura-
tion.

  Is anyone familiar with an editor that will do what I need?
Does anyone know something I don't know about the ZSoft editor?  I
am not wholly opposed to switching to a MacIntosh environment, at
least for the font design, if there is an editor that will meet my
requirements.  The only one I have seen, Fontographer, can generate
genuine curves but apparently has no facility for incorporating hints.

  Please reply by email (addresses below) and I will post a summary
of any useful information.

  Thanks,

  David

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David J. Birnbaum           djb@wjh12.harvard.edu [Internet]
11 Adams Terrace            djb@wjh12.uucp        [UUCP]
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA     djb@harvunxw.bitnet   [Bitnet]
                            617-492-8511          [voice]
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