Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!natinst!rpp386!woody
From: woody@rpp386.cactus.org (Woodrow Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: AFM files: of any use?
Summary: AFM files
Message-ID: <17331@rpp386.cactus.org>
Date: 20 Nov 89 13:18:44 GMT
References: <1460@adobe.UUCP>
Organization: River Parishes Programming, Plano, TX
Lines: 57

In article <1460@adobe.UUCP>, jeynes@adobe.COM (Ross A. Jeynes) writes:
> Yes, AFM files are useful entities.
> 
> AFM files were originally created to communicate character width information 
> to application programs which needed to caclulate linebreaks, etc.  Additional
> information is also contained in the AFMs, including kerning data, composite
> character data, and general font information, such as the family name, weight,
> underline position, version, etc.  The character width information is for the
> printer font, not the screen bitmaps, though these widths are usually very
> close.
> 
> AFM files for a particular font are shipped with the font package.  Because 
> printer manufacturers do not ship the AFMs for the ROM-resident fonts with
> their printers, these (and in fact all) AFMs are available from Adobe via
> the following channels:
>    1) Developer Support organization; call (415) 961-4111 for a recording 
>       of more information.  There is a small charge for media and handling.
>    2) From the Adobe file server.  If you haven't used the Adobe file server
>       before, send the message "help" to ps-file-server@adobe.com
>    3) From CompuServe.  Enter "Go Adobe" at the CompuServe prompt.
> 
> We also have C source code for an AFM parser available from these same sources
> if you are interested in supporting AFMs from your application. 
> 
> Some developers do ship AFMs with their products so that users can generate
> a PostScript language file using the correct character metrics, then take the
> file to a service bureau that actually has the font.  While we don't encourage
> distributing all of the AFMs with products (because there are a lot of them,
> and they are about 10K apiece), we do encourage application support of AFMs
> rather than hard-coding widths into the application (hence the availability
> of the AFM parser).  This provides a more general font-support solution to
> Joe Consumer (who is a personal friend of mine :-).
> 
> I hope this clears up some of the confusion.
> 
>  
> Ross Jeynes              
> Developer Support                                   jeynes@adobe.com
> Adobe Systems Incorporated                 {sun|decwrl}!adobe!jeynes

Thanks a lot, Ross.  I appreciate the info, and so do a lot of other people.
now, being a novice user of the net, and having recently (very) gotten
onto the net, just how do you go about getting into the server.  The note
is to send message help to the file server.  Is this accomplished by:

mail ps-file-server@adobe.com

then the message and control 'D' or what?  Is there a direct phone
number that non-netters can use to access the server?  Does the server
support X-modem protocol?  Am looking forward to a reply to these questions.
It would be best for me, if there were a dial-in line directly that I could
access outside of the net,so I could get the stuff directly from my AT....

Thnks

Woody Baker
(512) 837-8317