Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!ntg!dplatt From: dplatt@ntg.uucp (Dave Platt) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: FontMonger vs. the rest (was: Re: Four TrueType Fonts placed in ftp archive...) Message-ID: <70@goblin.ntg.uucp> Date: 18 Apr 91 19:36:05 GMT References: <1991Apr12.131846.27155@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> <62@goblin.ntg.uucp> Reply-To: dplatt@ntg.UUCP (Dave Platt) Organization: New Technologies Group, Inc. Palo Alto CA Lines: 53 In article baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) writes: >I'm particularly concerned with hinting. You noted that FontMonger >preserves hints, but has anyone tried converting an Adobe Type 1 font >to TrueType and comparing the results? I haven't tried this with any Adobe Type 1 fonts, as I don't own any. I did do a comparison of two freeware Type 1 fonts that I'd converted to TrueType. I printed a small sample of text using the Type 1 PostScript file, then installed the TrueType outline font and printed the identical text. Text was printed in 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, and 36 point type. I don't know whether either of these fonts has a significant amount of Type 1 hinting information. Harrington: there is very little difference between the PostScript rendering and the TrueType rendering. Some subtle differences are visible along certain diagonal outlines... the "staircasing" of the printer's 300 dpi matrix is slightly different (the TrueType rendering looks a trifle smoother in some cases). The TrueType version of the character "t" shows a small roughness along the upper right portion of the stem, where the PostScript rendering has an entirely straight stem; this seems to occur only at 36 points, not at larger or smaller sizes. Graphic Light: slight differences visible. The most obvious differences are in the upper bar of the "T" character, and in the cup at the bottom of the "p". The TrueType versions of these characters appear to be one pixel "thinner" than the PostScript versions, at small point sizes on a 300 DPI printer. Inspection of the larger sizes shows that the TrueType rendering is probably more correct... the top of the "T" is recessed slightly, with respect to the top edges of the serifs, and the botton of the "p" is also slightly recessed or scalloped. TrueType is retaining these insets even at small point-sizes; the PostScript rendering omits them, and simply fills in the bar and cup when rendering at 10 or 12 point sizes. [Sorry about my uses of the terms "inset", "stem", "bar", and "cup", as they're probably wrong... I'm not a typographer.] Harrington and Graphic Light are among the fonts that I've sent off to the Info-Mac archive at SUMEX and to the UMich archive. You can download them from one of those sites if you want to run additional experiments and comparisons. The FontMonger documentation does warn that converting fonts from one outline format to another may change the leading slightly, and require repagination of documents that were originally formatted with the pre-conversion font outline. -- Dave Platt VOICE: (415) 813-8917 UUCP: ...apple!ntg!dplatt USNAIL: New Technologies Group Inc. 2468 Embarcardero Way, Palo Alto CA 94303