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From: ABishop@massey.ac.nz (A.G. Bishop)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: How do I find out what a font is?
Summary: Help needed with understandinf fonts.
Keywords: Information sources
Message-ID: <910@massey.ac.nz>
Date: 14 Aug 90 22:55:02 GMT
Organization: Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Lines: 42
X-Reader: NETNEWS/PC Version 2.1

Hi group,

I would like some help with understanding what manafacturers and
others are talking about when they describe fonts.

Example: I use Quattro Pro, great spreadsheet with excellent hardcopy
output.  The manual, however, leaves me wondering about the different
types of font they discuss:

Hershey fonts: These look like a superset of the characters that I
can get using Turbo Pascal, they are constructed entirely from lines
with no filled-in areas.

Bitstream fonts: The name may mean nothing as it is a brand name (the
company is called Bitstream, Inc.).  These seem to be "proper" fonts
where there is some abstract description given of the typeface and a
piece of software that takes as input this description plus your
selection of style and point size, producing some type of bitmap of
the final set of characters.
If anybody saw the Monty Python-ish movie "Time Bandits" the posters
included construction lines on all the letters - circles, arcs,
measurements etc. defining the shape and positioning of serifs, etc.
I always think of this when imagining the abstract description of the
characters.

Also available are fonts supported by the printer.  I use our
networked LaserWriter, from my brief experience with Postscript it
seems that these fonts are the same as bitstream above but the
description and software are contained in the printer's rom.

Other undefined terms abound; eg. an unreliable source told me that
"font hinting" is a technique for scaling a font already in its
bitmap form, true?

Enough!  Please, folks could you provide some info to steer me
towards the information I seek?

Thanks in anticipation, Tony.

-- 
Tony Bishop				Computer Centre
A.G.Bishop@massey.ac.nz			Massey University
					Palmerston North, N.Z.