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From: greid@ondine.COM (Glenn Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: METAFONT & PostScript
Message-ID: <4265@adobe.COM>
Date: 4 Nov 88 00:18:48 GMT
References: <902@cps3xx.UUCP> <10417@s.ms.uky.edu> <422@trigraph.UUCP> <3455@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <423@trigraph.UUCP>
Sender: news@adobe.COM
Reply-To: greid@adobe.UUCP (Glenn Reid)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View
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> I envisage a good PostScript font (one that has gone to the expensive
> end of the time-quality tradeoff) working as follows.  At reasonable
> font sizes, the font is represented as an outline with non-linear
> scaling of various dimensions.  At extremely small font sizes (w.r.t.
> device resolution), the font becomes a pre-computed bitmap to ensure
> that not one pixel is painted that shouldn't be.

This is exactly what Adobe fonts are for Display PostScript, where
"extremely small font sizes (w.r.t. device resolution)" is an everyday
occurrence at normal text sizes.  We have built in the capability to
use "prebuilt" fonts at appropriate sizes and orientations, if those
fonts are available on the system.  We believe that this will provide
the best hybrid between readability, generality (outlines), and
accuracy.

The system will also be smart enough to recognize the various
permutations of resolution, point size, magnification, etc.

The font outlines, however, do not really accomplish non-linear
scaling.  To some extent, the font designs themselves cover this:
"book" and "text" faces are designed to look good at 10 point, but are
rarely used for "display" by anybody who is likely to notice non-linear
scaling anyway.  The display faces are designed to look better at 24
point or whatever size (not that I am a typographer, but I think that
is generally true).

Glenn Reid
Adobe Systems