Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekig7!tekig5!briand From: briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Brian D Diehm) Newsgroups: comp.fonts Subject: Re: Mac font info summary wanted Message-ID: <1707@tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM> Date: 4 Apr 91 01:12:01 GMT References: <1991Apr03.210401.21786@ux1.cts.eiu.edu> Sender: news@tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM Reply-To: briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Brian D Diehm) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 78 >Can anyone point me to a basic summary of the aspects of font implementatiopn >on the Mac? By this, I mean explanations of construction, usage, and >comparison of what has been (Postscript, ATM stuff, etc) what is >(Truetype, outline technology), and what will be (?). Also, what >about "type 1", "type 3", etc.? Ah, yes, pernicious "perception molding" at work. Aren't modern business "practices" wonderful? The notion that PostScript is "what has been" is just what Apple (and their VERY strange bedfellow Microsoft) want you to believe. That you imply that somehow only TrueType is "outline technology," and PostScript isn't must have them giggling in their shirtcuffs. Some facts: 1. PostScript is a page description language, which has incorporated in it a very high order of graphic capability and very good outline fonts. 2. Apple developed TrueType because they were tired of paying high royalties to Adobe (and aren't we all?), and because only their PostScript printers offered decent typographic capabilities. (Only their PostScript printers offered decent graphic capabilities, too, but somehow that got lost in users' minds. Maybe it was because only their PostScript printers offered 300dpi resolution, without which Quick Draw's shortcomings were hidden?) 3. Apple temporarily "abandoned" PostScript because they were tired of paying high royalties to Adobe. (So was/am I. So are we all.) 4. Microsoft developed TrueType because Bill Gates was morally offended by a non-Microsoft company making money. Well, that may be coloring it... 5. Since 3. happened coincident with 4., Apple decided to join Microsoft. Apple figured that such harmony even overrode their look and feel lawsuit. Thus was the "Marriage from Hell." Well, that may be coloring it... 6. Seeing that the font technology hegemony was about to be breached (to mix some invidious metaphors), Adobe reacted. First, John Warnock got red in the face, and petulantly announced that Adobe would make the details of Type 1 fonts public. (This ended Adobe's monopoly on high-quality PostScript type. It took them 9 months to publish it. The secrets were already deduced by other companies anyway.) Then, Adobe did something positive: they extended PostScript font technology to the Macintosh (and later, PC) screens, calling it ATM. 7. Apple's enhanced Quick Draw, which now contains TrueType, STILL does not provide the graphic sophistication of PostScript. 8. TrueType does offer the typographic designer some refinements that PostScript can only implement using multiple font sets. You REALLY have to be a "guru" user of type to get into that level of improvements, in most cases. 9. Apple later recanted their decision to abandon PostScript. Something about howls of rage from quarters high and low... 10. The capabilities of TrueType (except for 8. above) have been provided by PostScript for many years now. Even ATM, which moved those capabilities onto the screen, is now several years old and has been enhanced several times. 11. The capabilities of PostScript, on the other hand, have not yet been matched by QuickDraw, even though the type capabilities have been brought well up to date with TrueType. Amazing what greed will do, isn't it? Now we have TWO type standards to choose from, even though every type house could and can produce to either. You the consumer benefit, right? Yeah, you benefit in higher prices because of all this folderol. That's the long outcome. Apple and Microsoft have to recoup their development costs, after all. However, until Apple/Microsoft threatened Adobe, we did pay higher prices for printers. But again, since the Type 1 font standard has been made public, Adobe hasn't exactly reduced their prices for type, have they? -- -Brian Diehm Tektronix, Inc. (503) 627-3437 briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM P.O. Box 500, M/S 47-780 Beaverton, OR 97077 (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)