NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/fonts/3823

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-31 | 5.3 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Berthold K.P. Horn)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: Font madness - help!
Date: 31 Dec 1992 15:23:00 GMT
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab
Lines: 93
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: wheat-chex.ai.mit.edu
In-reply-to: [e-mail]'s message of Thu, 31 Dec 1992 03:35:18 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Paul Botts) writes:

   I am trying to work my way through some strangeness involving Windows
   and fonts,, and hope some folks who have wrestled TrueType and Adobe
   Type Manager to the ground can lend some informed advice.

   My setup is a 486 running Win 3.1, with Adobe Type Manager version 1.1,
   Corel Draw 3.0, PageMaker 4.0, and a PostScript laser printer.

Get ATM 2.5, it has fewer `invisible ink' bugs, prints much faster to HP
printers, does a much better job of maintaining softfonts entries in
WIN.INI, and caches font metric information, which speeds up launching
Windowsm\, and launching some applications, if you have LOTS of fonts.

   I have several related questions about fonts in this system:

   1) Corel Draw comes with a whole bunch of TrueType fonts, some of wich
   are versions of the standard PostScript printer fonts and other
   well-known fonts, i.e., Corel's New Brunswick is supposed to equal New
   Century Schoolbook, and so forth. Can I rename these TrueType fonts to
   match the names of the fonts they approximate? This was simple with the
   last version of Corel, but when I changed the font names in WIN.INI, I
   got strange results: the fonts were listed with their revised names in
   Control Panel, but with the original names in PageMaker and Corel, and
   Corel started acting up, giving printing errors and other unexplained
   errors. Everything calmed down when I restored the original names in the
   WIN.INI listing. Did I miss something? Or are these TrueType fonts not
   renameable that way?

Do NOT change font `face' names in either ATM.INI or WIN.INI.  Doing so will
change the names in font menus, but may cause unpleasant side effects in
some cases.  The `face' names MUST match what is in the PFM file (for T1),
or the font file (for TT). You will end up in some cases with a printer
driver not finding a font (because it has a different name in the PFM file
or in the TT font file) and having Windows substitute a `near'-match font
(which is `near' only in some totally warped space with some worm holes in
it!).

   3) In PageMaker and WIndows Write, all of my TrueType and ATM fonts are
   listed and available, including the PostScript fonts which reside only
   in my printer (I do not have, for example, the screen font for New
   Century Schoolbook, but it is still listed as available since my printer
   has it). In Corel Draw, though, the PostScript printer fonts are *not*
   listed and available, except for ones which I happen to have the .pfm
   and .pfb files installed for (ATM came with Courier and Times bundled
   with it). Why is this? Is it fixable?

In most applications (Word, PM, etc) you are seeing what fonts are available
on the printer selected, in some cases (Corel, DVIWindo) you are seeing what
fonts are available for on-screen display.  Most applications ask you to
select a printer first, and only show fonts available in that context.
A few show you what is available in the screen context.

   6) I have the utility ALLTYPE, which will convert all my PostScript
   fonts to TrueType. I'm thinking that I have had enough of all this
   confusing mixing of formats, and would like to:

     a) convert the ATM fonts for which I have the .pfm and .pfb files to
   TrueType;

Do NOT convert fonts from T1 to TT format, OR from TT to T1!  Unless you do
not care about rendering quality.  All conversion utilities throw away the
original hinting and create their own `auto-hints', which are much inferior
to those in a commercial grade font (Of course, if the font is PD, and/or
was made by Font* then the hinting is marginal anyway, so no serious loss).
Go `round trip' and compare file size.  The drop in file size is a crude
indicator of what has been lost.

     b) blow away ATM, since I am annoyed with Adobe over their poor tech
   support anyway; and

T1 and TT fonts can coexist nicely. No reason to abandon one or the other.
(Of course, if you want to boycott companies that make what you consider a
lot of money, and that don't respond well to bug reports, then you may have
to draw your characters with a pencil).

     c) get Corel Draw and PageMaker and hopefully all other Windows apps
   to automatically substitute the appropriate printer PostScript font when
   I print with the TrueType version of one. Like, if I print with New
   Brunswick (which is New Century incognito), I'd like to have the
   printer's built-in NEw Century Schoolbook substituted automatically.

You can get T1 fonts to substitute for TT fonts and vice versa. RTFM.

   Whew, that's a helluva lotta questions. Any knowledgeable
   can offer some tips or advice would be gratefully received.

   Paul Botts
   [e-mail]

Berthold K.P. Horn
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA