Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!husc6!wjh12!djb From: djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum) Newsgroups: comp.fonts Subject: Outline Font Editor Message-ID: <415@wjh12.harvard.edu> Date: 19 Oct 89 21:39:02 GMT Reply-To: djb@wjh12.UUCP (David J. Birnbaum) Distribution: na Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge MA Lines: 92 In article <411@wjh12.harvard.edu>, I asked for information about outlines font editors for an MS-DOS environment (PostScript or otherwise). I said: > 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. Additionally, the editor had to have the ability to incorporate "hints" to insure that characters at all sizes would be formed as cleanly as Adobe PostScript fonts. Nobody wrote to correct my understanding of the limitation of ZSoft's Publisher's Typefoundry. I did mention that I was willing to design outlines on a MacIntosh or elsewhere, if necessary. One person wrote in praise of Fontographer 3.0: ________________________________________________________________ It is a complete redesign of version 2.0. It has a much cleaner user interface to it. You can read in bitmaps in various standard Macintosh formats and have Fontographer do an excellent job of autotracing the bitmaps to produce outlines. Fontographer will of course output bitmap fonts at any desired size in the normal range (4 pt to 127 pt if I recall correctly). Fontographer uses Nimbus Q hinting technology to assure legible type at small sizes. The documentation suggests that this works by checking the letter form for near horizontal and near vertical strokes of identical weight and performing device pixel rounding to ensure that they retain identical weight on output. However, it is true that Fontographer does not yet parse Adobe Type 1 fonts (although no doubt a future release will, once Adobe releases its Type 1 format next year) and that it uses its own PostScript routines to create Adobe Type 3 fonts. ____________________________________________________________________ This evaluation was confirmed by another reader. I telephoned Altsys, the manufacturer of Fontographer (214-424-4888); they confirmed all the details above, emphasizing that their fonts would work on any PostScript device whatsoever, except for the lack of support for ATM, which is unique to genuine Adobe fonts. They said that the rumor that Adobe would release the details for type 1 fonts is still a rumor and nothing has been released yet, but they will certainly look into type 1 if the details become available. All in all, this seems like the best product. Given the company's general but good-natured scorn for MS-DOS ("We think that IBM stands for 'I bought MacIntosh.'"), it is unlikely that Fontographer will be re- leased in an MS-DOS format, although we can hope this will change as GUIs for MS-DOS become better established. Meanwhile, another reader mentioned a font editor for Sun systems: Typographics, Ltd., 46 Hehalutz St., Jerusalem 96222, Israel, 972-2-537819, Jakob Gonczarowski, contact. John Koontz offered the following additional information: In regard to filters, The Font Center, 509 Marin St., 121, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 (805) 373-1919 has a font system which involves a proprietary bitmap format .PMF. They sell filters from TeX pixel file format (.PXL in their usage, at least) to .PMF, and also back and forth between .PMF and LaserJet format (.LJP in their usage) or Windows format (Windows .FNT). I don't know how much polishing is needed. For reviews of ZSoft's PTF, see Personal Publishing (Aug 1988) 4.7:40-52 (reviews Vers. 1.1); PC World (Jul 1988) ?.?:161-162 (reviews 1.02). Thanks to everyone who responded. I tried to reply personally by mail, but a global thanks to anyone whose mail went astray. --David ============================================================ 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] ============================================================ COMPUSERVE: Mail may be sent from Compuserve by addressing it to: >INTERNET: djb@wjh12.harvard.edu Note that the greater-than sign is required. ============================================================ MCI: Mail may be sent from MCI by: 1) tell MCI Mail that you are sending to a REMS 2) give the REMS name as 'internet' (no quotes) 3) give the mailbox as 'djb@wjh12.harvard.edu' (no quotes) ============================================================ BITNET WARNING: Please address all bitnet mail to me only to djb@harvunxw.bitnet. No other bitnet address is reliable. Please do not trust the reply feature of your mail program to supply a bitnet address. ============================================================