Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!harrier.ukc.ac.uk!eagle.ukc.ac.uk!iau
From: iau@ukc.ac.uk (I.A.Utting)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: TeX, Metafont, and 400 dpi NeXT printer
Message-ID: <6456@eagle.ukc.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Mar 89 10:05:13 GMT
References: <1515@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> <73465UH2@PSUVM> <554@adobe.UUCP>
Reply-To: iau@ukc.ac.uk (I.A.Utting)
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Lines: 37

This has been done to death in the TeX community, but for the sake of clarity:

In article <554@adobe.UUCP> greid@adobe.COM (Glenn Reid) writes:
>You could always just scrap the Computer Modern fonts and use PostScript
>fonts?  The NeXT machine uses the Display PostScript system, which
>means you might not need tons of 400dpi bitmaps when you can use
>outline fonts instead.

This is not usually a complete solution, as the TeX character set is far more
rich (especially in math symbols) than the default set of PostScript symbols.
It may be that the Lucida family solves (will solve) this problem, but would
leave a greater problem anyway: portability. Although I've successfully
imported raw PS files (especially from ps-file-server@adobe.com), there are
more printers in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy.

>The availability of higher- and higher-resolution devices is one of the
>main arguments against bitmap fonts.  Look at all the time, space, and
>hassle they require so support a new printer (it looks like about 3
>megabytes for a single font set).  Not to mention the differences
>between write-white and write-black engines, etc., etc.

Yes it is a pain keeping separate font sets for different devices, but
frankly, the pain involved in generating a TeX font set for a new and
different device is as nothing compared to what you'd have to go through
to provide PostScript fonts on a non-PostScript device (all that tedious
hacking about with the font protection system :-).

It's also true that Adobe's fonts do compensate for the difference between
write-white and -black printers, but nowhere near as well as Metafont is
capable of doing. To gain maximum advantage from a particular printer, the
individual bits laid down to form a character must be selected with
reference to not only which areas are being "written", but also the toner
particle size, laser scan direction, etc. etc.

Now if only I could work out the Metafont settings for our LPS40 *and*
convince the users that CMR is better looking than Palatino, I'd be winning.
				Ian.