Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!huxley!glenn From: glenn@huxley.huxley.bitstream.com (Glenn P. Parker) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: FontMonger conversion to TrueType Message-ID: Date: 22 May 91 14:39:20 GMT References: <19746@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> <91141.174326CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu> Sender: glenn@huxley.UUCP Reply-To: (Glenn Parker) Distribution: comp Organization: Bitstream, Inc. Lines: 41 In-reply-to: CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu's message of 21 May 91 21:43:26 GMT In article <91141.174326CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu>, CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu (Christopher Tate) writes: > In article , > glenn@huxley.huxley.bitstream.com (Glenn P. Parker) says: >> ... >> So a better question is "Why is the conversion from PS1 to TT so lousy?" > > My guess is that it's because the hinting methods are rather different, A bit of an understatement. :-) > and FontMonger's translation between the two is probably rather limited > simply by having to *translate* a PostScript hint to TrueType. Yes, of course. The question centers on the quality of that translation. > A human could design a new set of hints to optimize TrueType results, but > the program has no such capability -- it doesn't "know" what the font is > supposed to look like, and can't evaluate the "optimum" method of hinting > it in TrueType. This I would dispute. The specification for PS1 fonts is publicly distributed, so it should be possible (in theory :-) for a program to "know" what the font is supposed to look like, right down to the pixel. What's more, TrueType is a general purpose language, unlike the standard PS1 format. At *worst*, it should be possible to implement a complete PS1 hinting machine in TrueType, then just feed it the original PS1 fonts. I suspect there are far better options, but the point is that there is almost no fundamental restriction on the final quality of the translation. Sorry I have to hedge a little bit on that statement, but I *can* think of at least one thing that a font conversion program has little control over: the fixed-point resolution of TrueType. Nevertheless, I don't think FontMonger is running into that limitation. I suspect that it is simply not a complete emulation of the PS1 engine. -- Glenn P. Parker glenn@bitstream.com Bitstream, Inc. uunet!huxley!glenn 215 First Street BIX: parker Cambridge, MA 02142-1270