FONTPACK 2 is here at last - only now it's called FONTPACK PLUS. Like its discontinued predecessor, FONTPACK PLUS gives you a spectacular collection of GEOS fonts ranging in content from classic to modern to outer limits.
FONTPACK 1, one of the original GEOS add-on packages, offered 20 new and unique fonts. FONTPACK PLUS tops this by giving you a grand total of 53 - PLUS the geoFont editor!
The sheer variety of fonts is amazing. Ten of the fonts are taken from FONTPACK 1. The rest are all new creations, some of which have to be seen to be believed.
Unlike FONTPACK 1, some of the fonts in this collection are actually symbol libraries rather than actual character sets. This makes for some interesting possibilities. Here are some examples:
Ashby 23-point is a random assortment of tiny pictures. There are faces, fruits, animals, arrows and dozens of contemporary objects like a T.V., an ice cream cone and a train with cars.
Barrington 16 and 32-point offers a striking array of needlepoint border and "fill" patterns. There is plaid, checkered, bowtie, rope, flowers and granny squares.
There are two Hilgard 28-point fonts. Both feature trees, plants, human and animal figures, eating utensils and small buildings. Music notes are available, as well as top-down views of furniture and bathroom fixtures.
Lawrence 12-point is all astrological symbols and even includes phases of the moon. All planetary and Zodiac symbols are accounted for in this font.
McLaughlin 18-point is a thorough assortment of electrical symbols. You'll find switches, resistors, diodes - even photoelectric cells and cathode ray tubes.
The final symbol font is Wurster 25-point. This one has plan-view symbols for doors, stairs, furniture, kitchen and bath fixtures, and also provides a "scale" character.
The rest of the fonts are stylish reworkings of the basic alphabet. Some use only certain characters, leaving the rest unused. In cases such as this, typing an unused character will show a long vertical line.
Most of the fonts are full character sets. This means upper and lower-case letters, numbers, punctuation marks and special symbols. The FONTPACK PLUS user's manual conveniently provides printouts of all 53 fonts in all point sizes. By checking the manual, you can quickly see which font is suitable for your purposes.
One problem with the manual's printouts is that they were laser printed using the "scale the largest point size" technique. This causes the LaserWriter to substitute a larger point size if available and reduce it to correct proportions. The smaller point size, of course, is never shown as it really appears on the monitor.
GEOS applications like geoWrite and geoPaint allow up to seven custom fonts under the FONT menu plus the built-in BSW 9-point font. geoWrite 128 version 2.1 adds a second built-in font, BSW 128, to the FONT menu. According to the manual, this costs the user one custom font. This is INCORRECT. geoWrite 128 allows seven custom fonts, not six, for a total of nine.
geoFont is provided for the purpose of altering existing GEOS fonts or creating entirely new ones. As with most C64 GEOS applications, geoFont will run under GEOS 128 in 40-column mode.
Non-artistic users will probably be humbled by this particular offering, but not to worry. geoFont comes in handy for lowering a font's baseline - the point where underlining occurs. I prefer a space of at least one pixel between a character's baseline and the underline. (GEOS fonts typically let the underline touch the bottoms of the letters.)
Budding font designers might be disappointed with geoFont's overall performance, which is barely adequate. A major weakness is a complete lack of copying functions, which is unforgivable. A complete GEOS font requires 95 total characters per point size. The ability to copy similarly-shaped characters from one position to another is a primary function in even the simplest character editors.
Also lacking is a way to copy characters from one point size to another, either individually or all 95 at once. It is surprisingly easy to start making a font with characters that are too big for the point size selected.
Editing is rather simplistic. As it stands, geoFont only supports clearing a character and scrolling it in any of four directions. A complete graphic toolbox would certainly be a welcome feature. Tools for drawing straight lines and ellipses are desperately needed; adding a pattern fill and a mirroring function certainly wouldn't hurt.
On the other hand, having 53 different fonts at your disposal makes geoFont look almost superfluous. If you need variety in your presentations, look no further - FONTPACK PLUS can accomodate your every need.
