Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!adobe!ondine!greid
From: greid@ondine (Glenn Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Downloading Adobe fonts
Message-ID: <3498@adobe.COM>
Date: 14 Jan 88 19:38:37 GMT
References: <1934@phred.UUCP> <3788@husc6.harvard.edu>
Sender: nobody@adobe.COM
Reply-To: greid@ondine.UUCP (Glenn Reid)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View
Lines: 38
Summary: no copy protection

Adobe fonts currently are distributed in two formats: MS-DOS and
Macintosh diskettes.  There is a slightly different file format for
each of these media.  The Macintosh font programs are in a format
designed by Apple:  they are stored as POST resources.  The PC format
is a fairly simple one that we designed at Adobe.  The fonts themselves
are largely hexadecimal data, and each of the file formats is designed
to permit this segment of the fonts to be compressed to binary in order
to save space.

Our original font offerings were copy-protected by a software mechanism
that produced fonts that would only work on a printer for which the
font was initialized.  This copy protection has been removed.  The
ability to produce portable (ASCII) fonts was also removed, to minimize
the ability to "port" these fonts to other systems, given that the
licensing agreement still enforces use on a specified number of
printers (either 1 or 5, I think).

The one fly in this ointment is that there exist people who only need
to use the fonts on a single printer, from a single host, but who
happen to need it on a system which is neither a Macintosh nor an IBM
PC (for example, a Sun or a Vax).

Adobe has produced a document describing the file formats of the
Macintosh and PC font products, and it is not terribly difficult to
write a utility to convert them for use on another system.  We do not
encourage this as a product offering because of the licensing agreement
for the fonts themselves.  However, for individual users, we are happy
to assist you in overcoming this hurdle so that you can use our font
products from other systems.

You can call Adobe technical support and ask for the document entitled
"Supporting Downloadable PostScript Fonts."  The number is 415-961-4400.
(I'd appreciate it if you don't ask for me directly--send me mail if you
want to contact me).

Glenn Reid
Adobe Systems
PostScript Software Support