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From: pdsmith@bbn.com (Peter D. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Why does a font need an Encoding vector?
Message-ID: <60493@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 31 Oct 90 22:29:33 GMT
References: <1990Oct31.225607.10364@phri.nyu.edu>
Sender: news@bbn.com
Reply-To: pdsmith@spca.bbn.com (Peter D. Smith)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
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In article <1990Oct31.225607.10364@phri.nyu.edu> roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes:
>
>	The Red Book says that the Encoding vector is a required item for
>all fonts.  Why?  Is there some bit of internal PS font machinery that uses
>it?  As far as I can tell, it's only used by the font-supplied BuildChar
>routine.
>--
>Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
>455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
>roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy

Well, BBN customers use our software to generate reports, and like to
spell their company's name correctly therein.  The normal encoding
vector doesn't have a mechanism to access, for example, E-umlaut.

Even worse, there are several standards for where to place the
non-American characters in an 8-bit alphabet.  The HP LaserJet III
lists about *100* character sets built into the printer.

This isn't just theory, BTW.  One of the new features in our new
product includes several choices for the Encoding Vector.


					Peter D. Smith