Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!shelby!neon!kaufman
From: kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Using HP Lasers with Mac?
Message-ID: <1990Sep20.054206.8907@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 20 Sep 90 05:42:06 GMT
References: <1990Sep19.095632.2860@csc.anu.oz.au> <1990Sep19.141200.12661@ra.src.umd.edu> <1990Sep20.035832.24900@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 28

In article <1990Sep20.035832.24900@rodan.acs.syr.edu> wwtaroli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Bill Taroli) writes:
>In article <1990Sep19.141200.12661@ra.src.umd.edu> josip@ra.src.umd.edu (Josip Loncaric) writes:

->There is also a font limitation which dates back to the original Macintosh: 
->bitmapped fonts can be at most 127 pixels high (in my experience).  This is 
->only about 30 pts when printed...  so you cannot use large bitmapped fonts... 
->use ATM or wait for TrueType... in summary, QuickDraw-based printer drivers 
->have all of the limitations of QuickDraw...

>This issue of the limitations of QuickDraw font sizes is sort of amusing. True,
>most applications around still limit us to 127 point text. However, exactly 
>what imaging model do you think ATM is using when it generates at 127x4 font
>for printing on a DeskWriter (which uses QuickDraw -> Agfa to set up its
>pages)???? No, this is a limitation of applications, not QuickDraw. (However,
>if applications wish to remain compatible with older systems, then the imposed
>limitation makes sense for them, at least.)

The problem is not in the imaging model, but in a limitation in the BITMAP
font expansion code.  Glyphs in BITMAP fonts cannot be rendered if they are
more than 127 pixels high -- IN THE FONT IMAGE.  If you ask for a larger
font size, Quickdraw images at some smaller size then uses copybits to expand
the image to the desired size.  An application can (successfully) ask for
fonts to be rendered at up to 2000 points (most of the time), but if a BITMAP
font is used, the underlying characters must be no larger than 127 PIXELS high.
ATM and TrueType do not start with BITMAP fonts (well, ATM does, but only
enough to make Quickdraw know the font exists).

Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)