Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!ispd-newsserver!ism.isc.com!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: What's yer fav. font combos?
Summary: more about Optima
Message-ID: <1991Apr26.193159.27235@ico.isc.com>
Date: 26 Apr 91 19:31:59 GMT
References: <1991Apr20.044900.260@mac.cc.macalstr.edu> <1991Apr26.021623.16330@sq.sq.com>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 28

lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) writes:
  rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
...
> >One combination I've just come to like is Palatino and Optima

> Both fine faces, but both have a drawback -- Optima is extraordinarily
> difficult to render at 300dpi or lower, so it often looks bad on laser
> printers, although some are better than others...

True, and I should have mentioned that.  At best, you can use the 300 dpi
printer to preview the pages.  The use I suggested--Palatino text with
Optima-Bold headings--is a tad better, because Optima Bold is slightly more
forgiving, and you're likely to have the headings about a point larger than
the body text.  Still, Optima doesn't even start to behave at 300 dpi until
you're up to 13 or 14 pt.  It's too bad, because it's really an excellent
design.

It leads me to ask if there's any near-term promise of low-end printers
with significantly better resolution--say 450 dpi or better, preferably
more like 600?  I've been told that 400 dpi is just about the limit for
current dry toners, and that a change in toner/technology is going to be
expensive for the time being.  The past few years have seen 300 dpi getting
cheaper by the day; it's really an incredible bargain any more.  But I
haven't seen or heard any progress in pushing the resolution upward for
low-end printers, other than HP's resolution enhancement.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...While you were reading this, Motif grew by another kilobyte.