Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!usc!samsung!aplcen!haven!purdue!decwrl!adobe!bezanson
From: bezanson@adobe.COM (Brian Bezanson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: ATM and HP LaserJet II-compaitble printers
Message-ID: <1450@adobe.UUCP>
Date: 15 Nov 89 19:48:56 GMT
References: <5907@shlump.nac.dec.com> <2046@network.ucsd.edu> <1432@adobe.UUCP> <2061@network.ucsd.edu> <1442@adobe.UUCP> <2062@network.ucsd.edu>
Reply-To: bezanson@adobe.UUCP (Brian Bezanson)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View
Lines: 51

In article <2062@network.ucsd.edu> dpaight@weber.UUCP (Dan Paight) writes:
>In article <1442@adobe.UUCP> bezanson@adobe.UUCP (Brian Bezanson) writes:
>>In article <2061@network.ucsd.edu> dpaight@weber.UUCP (Dan Paight) writes:
>>>In short, it doesn't matter whose "fault" it is. Adobe ought to make
>>>it clear to potential customers that ATM and certain popular
>>>programs do not work exactly right together.  
>>I can't
>>see a manufacturer (like Adobe) put stickers or lenghty text on  a package or
>>in an adertisement saying that using so and so's application doesn't work
>>correctly given this situation, blah, blah. 
>Why not?  Is it better to lead people to believe they're
>getting something they want (better printouts on IWs), but then fail
>to deliver?  And it's not just "so and so's" application: it's the
>Apple IW driver!  Adobe is selling a product that won't do what it
>(Adobe) claims it will do.  

This discussion has really moved to complaints about the ImageWriter
driver. It was mentioned by someone a while ago that the ImageWriter driver
wasn't the best at supporting kerning, and now you blame it all on the
ImageWriter driver. To that I say: take PageMaker, Ready-Set-Go, or XPress,
where you can set the spacing/kerning and then print to an ImageWriter. That's
what Adobe did for the ads and you can see the quality they get there.

From what I read in the advertising, ATM is designed to allow you to print
PostScript fonts on printers using the printers full resolution and display
type on the screen at best resolution. If you try this with ATM (and at sizes
where pre-built bitmaps for the device don't exist), ATM will be a noticable
improvement. How that output is spaced is done by the application (and in
some part by the driver). Since XPress allows me to space the type perfectly,
then my guess would be that Word could have a similar feature.


>>Adobe is working with Microsoft and other developers to work out these 
>>problems, and any fixes that could be incorporated into ATM are also 
>>being worked on. 
>Oh joy!  Then these people will have the privilege of upgrading to a
>version of ATM that actually works. In the meantime, however, they
>get screwed.  

The spacing problems don't need a special version of ATM to be fixed. As was
mentioned above, some applications have no problems. If a new version of Word
comes out that has better support for Fractional Widths and spacing better,
then the user has no need for an ATM upgrade. In the pursuit of happy
customers and a better product, Adobe is probably working on fixing any bugs
found in the software and improving (from the ATM end) any of the other
problems encountered by users.

-- 
Brian Bezanson                                          bezanson@adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated           The opinions expressed above are my
                                     own and may not represent those of Adobe.