Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!daemon
From: tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen)
Subject: Re: Why do you like/hate ATM?
Message-ID: <1991Feb6.125123.11623@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watserv1.waterloo.edu
Organization: University of Waterloo, WATMIMS Research Group
References: <1991Feb4.205509.6260@massey.ac.nz> <1991Feb5.151558.5918@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 91 12:51:23 GMT
Lines: 51

> A.G.Bishop@massey.ac.nz (A.G. Bishop) writes:
>> So, you have an opinion on ATM,

Jeff Altman <altman@sbstaff2.cs.sunysb.edu> writes:
> Yes, I love it.

I got ATM last week.  I've been also using FaceLift for several months now.
A few opinionated opinions will follow...  :)

> It also depends on what printer you have.  The main benefit for me is
> that I can write a Report or a Spreadsheet at home (Postscript) and
> bring it to the office make some changes and have it print exactly
> the way it printed at home.

Also, both ATM and FaceLift provide flexible on-the-fly fonts for LaserJet-
series printers (and dot-matrix, too, but that's rather painfully slow).

>> Perhaps now as more type 1 fonts are appearing on CICA it might be
>> fun but I still wonder if ATM is worth the diskspace.

Yes, this is the big advantage of ATM over FaceLift, and the reason I bought
ATM when I already had FaceLift.

>> What's wrong with screen fonts?

> They are misshaped and limited to exact sizes.  Therefore, if you
> ask WfW for a Helv 9 it will give you an 8 anyway.

However, on the screen 10-point Helv looks better than either 10-point
Helvetica or 10-point Swiss.  Despite hinting, good screen fonts are hard to
produce on the fly in small sizes.

As to the FaceLift/ATM comparison, here are what I've found so far:

	ATM:	    + standard PostScript fonts
		    + lots of free Type 1 fonts available
		    - Helv is no longer available!  Program Manager and other
		      apps asking for small Helv sizes get System font

	FaceLift:   + much better control panel
		    + can generate soft fonts
		    + better documentation
		    - slightly slower screen fonts than ATM

If anyone knows how to resurrect Helv in my system with ATM, please let me 
know!  Right now, if I set SynonymPSBegin=11 in atm.ini, sizes 10 points and
below (and my old soft fonts) all display in the System font in the single
available size.

[ \tom haapanen --- university of waterloo --- tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu ]
[ "i don't even know what street canada is on"               -- al capone ]