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From: laser-lovers@uw-beaver
Newsgroups: fa.laser-lovers
Subject: Re: Linotype PostScript printers
Message-ID: <959@uw-beaver>
Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 15:03:17 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.959
Posted: Tue Mar 26 15:03:17 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Mar-85 05:24:48 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 32

From: ihnp4!shell!buck@uw-beaver.arpa

information  about  their  new  PostScript phototypesetters.
[They just changed their name from  Mergenthaler  Linotype.]
Currently  they  sell  the L300 (max 2540 lines/inch, $34k +
front end) and the L101 (max 1440 lines/inch, $23k  +  front
end)  which  have PostScript buried inside (according to the
salesman), but do not support the graphics primitives.   The
newer  P300  and P101 to be out in a few months will support
the full PostScript language, but prices were not available.
The front end terminal they require ranges from $5k to $10k,
but the salesman indicated that sometime they will  be  sel-
ling  a bare phototypesetter with a communications port that
accepts PostScript input.  Fonts from the Mergenthaler Lino-
type Stempel Haas digital typeface library are quite reason-
able, each one selling for about $180 in the complete  range
of  sizes  (1pt  to 186pt, in steps of .1 pt). Their digital
typeface directory is fascinating  to  browse  through.   It
gives  examples of over 1700 fonts available in the library.
I would guess all the Mergenthaler fonts should be available
eventually  in PostScript form to download to a LaserWriter,
but they will certainly be compressed in a proprietary  way,
like  Xerox does.   The salesman told me how their fonts are
designed on a base of about 400pt, but  their  printers  are
restricted  from printing at full design size to keep people
from printing the full size font and re-digitizing.  Somehow
that  is  not  feasible  from the smaller sizes because of a
built in algorithm for adjusting stroke weight, etc. as  the
size of the font varies.

A. Lester Buck @ Shell Development Co.
{ihnp4, pur-ee, ut-sally}!shell!buck