Varityper ToolKit is a single application that includes improved versions of our recently released series of Desk Accessory Productivity Tools. In particular, the capabilities of Varityper FontMaster, Varityper FontWizard, Varityper PSFontFinder and Varityper FontConflicts have been included in Varityper ToolKit. Unlike the former desk accessories (which should now be considered obsolete), Varityper ToolKit is now aware of Apple's newest type of font resource, the outline font (a resource of type 'sfnt').
Varityper ToolKit is offered free-of-charge to the Macintosh desktop publishing community in hopes it may prove useful. This program includes merely a small subset of the functionalities offered in our Varityper ToolBox program. Varityper ToolBox offers all the capabilites of Varityper ToolKit along with a large number of PostScript® and imagesetter-related utilities, text manipulation and conversion functions, etc, etc. See the Varityper Information below for more information.
THE EDIT MENU
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Preferences: Selecting the 'Preferences' item from the Edit Menu will display a dialog allowing you to view and change the programs preferences. There are four preference items:
Enter Sample Text: Enter whatever text you would like in this field. The "Show Font Family Samples" dialog in the FontUtil Menu uses this text to show each font. This same text is also used as the default in the "Examine Fonts" item.
Text File Creator Type: Many of the dialogs in this program offer you the option of saving the results as a text file. By setting the creator type of these text files to the same file type as your favorite text editor or word processing program, double clicking on a text file produced by this program, will automatically start up your editor.
Open "Font Characters" Window at startup: If this checkbox is checked, the program will automatically open up the "Font Characters" window when the program first starts up. (The position of the window will also be remembered.)
Open "Help" Window at startup: If this checkbox is checked, the program will automatically open up the "Help" window when the program first starts up. (The position of the window will also be remembered.)
THE FONTUTIL MENU
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Display Font Characters: This item displays the "grid of characters" dialog. This dialog also shows the name of each character and what key (or key combination) must be pressed to get that character. Please note that the character names are "hard-coded" and, as such, are only valid for "standard" fonts. Option-click a character square to copy that character to the clipboard.
Examine Fonts: This item invokes the "Examine Fonts" dialog, allowing you to examine many different aspects about any font. This item is very similar to our Varityper FontWizard Desk Accessory.
Scan PostScript File for Font Names: When selected, this item invokes a dialog box, allowing you to select a PostScript file from a standard Macintosh "open file" dialog. After selecting a PostScript file, the program will read the contents of that file, and "extract" the names of any fonts that are used in that file. (This item is very similar to our Varityper PSFontFinder Desk Accessory.)
Note to technical users: the "Scan PostScript File" option searches a file in two different ways. First, it looks for the word "findfont", which, in PostScript programs, is usually preceeded by the name of the font requested. If a font is found (and the line is not commented out), the font name will be added to the list. Names beginning with the prefix "|______" are also added to the list. The program also searches the file for any lines using the standard PostScript "structuring conventions". PostScript files (or EPSF) files that include lines of this type (not all do) allow easy identification of the names of fonts used in the document. Note that this is pure text-based search (and does not even require a PostScript device to be online.) Since the program does not "speak" PostScript, it is possible to miss some fonts that might be "redefined" by the programmer.
Show Font Statistics: When selected, this item invokes a dialog box showing many statistics about all currently opened fonts. Specifically, for each font, this option shows the family name of the font, the point size, whether or not the font is installed in the system file, the style of the font, the size of the FONT (or NFNT or sfnt) resource in bytes, the FOND ID, the FONT (or NFNT or sfnt) ID, the resource type (FONT, NFNT or sfnt), and the number of colors. (This item, and the next two, have their roots in our Varityper FontMaster Desk Accessory.)
Show Font Family Samples: When selected, this item invokes a dialog box showing every font family. Each font family will be listed once, in a single style (usually plain) and in a single size. This makes it easy to get a quick idea of what all your fonts look like. You can also choose to print the fonts. If you are printing to an imagesetter, be sure to choose the "Unlimited Downloadable Fonts" option from the Page Setup Dialog (which appears automatically every time you print the fonts). Also, be sure the "Font Substitution" option is not checked. Normally, (meaning, elsewhere in this program), you would want "Font Substitution" as usual, but, when printing a record of what every font looks like, you should turn this option off. Lastly, you should be aware that printing all the fonts takes a good deal of time, especially with imagesetters.
Font Environment Files (FEF): Font Environment Files include information about the fonts that were open at the time the FEF was made. Selecting this item opens a dialog box allowing you to create your own FEF, or to compare a FEF created on another system to your own working environment. This kind of information can be very important whenever you take a document prepared on one Mac, to another Mac for printing. Some applications create documents that save the fonts used as font names, while some applications produce documents that save the fonts used as font numbers (the FOND ID). Since utilities, such as Apple's own Font/Desk Accessory Mover can renumber fonts as they are installed, you can see how easy it is for font conflicts to occur. Now, if you have a FEF for the "other" system, you can show just what kinds of font conflicts may occur between two systems. With this option, it is easy to find answers to questions like: "What fonts do we have in common?", or, "If I print a document on my system, that was created on my friends system, what conflicts might occur?". (This item is very similar to our Varityper FontConflicts Desk Accessory.)
Note to technical users: The FEF file contains only the minimum information necessary in order to derive possible font conflicts between systems. If you wish to store or manipulate more detailed information about different font environments on different systems, you might wish to explore the "Show Font Statistics" options discussed above. In that option, you can save the more detailed statistics about a font environment to a text file, or to a tab-delimited text file for exporting to spreadsheets or databases.
Change Default Application Font: Many (but not all) text editors and/or word processors decide which font to use, by default, when the application first starts, by reading the setting of the Default Application Font. This menu item, when selected, will bring up a dialog box that displays the currently-selected default application font, and allows you to change it.
Varityper Information
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Varityper manufactures a high performance line of medium and high resolution PostScript® compatible imagesetters. For more information on how we can help you, call 1-800-631-8134 (in New Jersey, call 201-887-8000 x999). We hope you will enjoy using Varityper ToolKit. (software by Ken Winograd)
Copyright 1990, Tegra Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.
Any feedback you may wish to send will be most appreciated. Send any comments in care of Mary Hughes at the address given below.
