Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!kodak!ispd-newsserver!ism.isc.com!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Adobe Soft Fonts on Sun Platform
Summary: Isn't it time for Adobe to fix this one???
Message-ID: <1991Mar13.180831.20114@ico.isc.com>
Date: 13 Mar 91 18:08:31 GMT
References: <91072.100648SMITHM@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 30

SMITHM@QUCDN.QueensU.CA writes:
> Yesterday I called Adobe to purchase the Optima soft font package for
> a LaserWriter connected to a Sun workstation.  I was surprised to learn
> that Adobe only sells fonts for Mac or Dos platforms.  Does this mean
> that nobody in the Unix world is using soft fonts?...

No.  Lots of people in the UNIX world are using "soft fonts" (or down-
loadable fonts or whatever you want to call them).  The problem seems to be
that Adobe doesn't find it worthwhile (for whatever reason) to supply them
in a format more directly usable on a UNIX system.  I *DO* wish someone
from Adobe would explain this--it's their choice, but I'd sure like to know
why.  The issue keeps coming up.

What we do is get one of the existing formats and convert it.  Unless
you're deep in the Mac world, the DOS format is a lot simpler to deal with,
and converting the font to a format usable in a UNIX system just requires
running a little program over it.  (The .afm file also needs a quick tr to
get rid of ^M and ^Z.)

>...Or is there another supplier out there?...

That's your cue, Adobe!

Actually, as long as you got blocked momentarily, it might be a good idea
to rethink whether you really want Optima on a 300 dpi laser printer.
Optima is an elegant design, but it has lots of very shallow curves which
don't look that great on a low-resolution printer.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...But is it art?