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Monster Media 1993 #2
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ALLTYPE.TXT
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1993-05-30
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AllType for Font Conversion
by Collette McManus
AllType, The Universal Typeface Converter; Atech Software; $49.99 at
Egghead
DOS System Requirements: IBM compatible PC with a hard disk and one
floppy disk drive, DOS 3.1 or higher and 640K RAM.
Windows System Requirements: 286 class PC or above running Windows
3.0 or higher with 1 meg of RAM.
Storage Requirements: DOS version requires 1.3 megs of free hard
drive space. Windows requires 2 megs of free hard drive space.
Optional Intel math co-processors are supported.
Applications Supported: Atech Publisher's Powerpak and FastFonts,
Adobe Type Manager, Type Align and Illustrator, Ami Pro, Aldus
PageMaker, Microsoft Word, Works, and Excel, WordPerfect, Ventura
Publisher (GEM), CorelDraw!, Express Publisher, Micrografx Draw and
Designer, HP Type Director, ZSoft SoftType, Lotus 123 and all
Microsoft Windows applications.
Formats Supported: Microsoft TrueType, Adobe PostScript Type 1 and 3,
DTC Nimbus Q, Atech FastFont, Agfa Compugraphic Intellifont,
Bitstream Fontware and GeoWorks Ensemble.
Do you use fonts? If you do any printing from your computer, you use
fonts. Do you sometimes use DOS and Windows applications? Do you
have Bitstream's Facelift, Atech's Publisher's Powerpak, LaserTools'
Fonts-on-the-Fly, AND Adobe Type Manager? One problem is that each
of those packages has its own font format which is incompatible with
the font format of the other packages. Another problem is that each
package has its own version of Times, Helvetica, and other fonts.
If you have more than one package, you will most likely also have
more than one version of the same or similar fonts. These duplicate
fonts take up valuable hard drive space. At a WPSIG meeting, I
discussed this with John Wager. He suggested that I buy AllType, a
type converter. After checking it out at my local Egghead, I bought
it.
AllType's features include the ability to convert any font with any
scalable font manger, printer, or application with built in scalable
fonts. You will have the ability to create hundreds of variations of
your original typeface with custom styles and widths (bold, italic,
bold italic, hollow, condensed, expanded, thin, wide, and
combinations of these styles). You can adjust the angle up to 45
degrees, and change pitch, leading, and/or weight from zero to 999
percent of the original point size of any typeface. You can rename
your typefaces as you wish. The converted fonts will be
automatically installed into supported applications.
AllType retains font "hinting" data for high quality printer output.
Both Windows and DOS interfaces are included. Also included are two
type families, Aurora and Memo (both sans serif faces). The only
conversion drawback seems to be that other typeface formats may not
be converted into Bitstream format.
AllType is easy to install and very easy to use. The interface is
so intuitive, you probably won't even need to read the manual. You
just select the font formats, font directories, and mark the fonts
to be converted (source information on the left and destination
information on the right). You can use the Tab key to move from
section to section, or use hot-keys, which are listed in each
section. You have the option to change a font's style during
conversion. This means you can take a roman style font and make it
italic, outline, condensed, and more. On my very slow 286, it can
sometimes take a long time to convert a font. Twenty-five minutes is
not uncommon. Once I wanted to convert eight fonts all at once. An
AllType prompt told me this would take three hours, so I went out
and did my Saturday errands. The same prompt that informs you of
the time it will take to complete your conversion also tells you the
amount of disk space the conversion will need for completion.
AllType supports conversion between a wide variety of type formats
and application type formats. Type formats are: Atech Fast Fonts,
Adobe PostScript Type 1, Adobe PostScript Type 3, Agfa Intellifont
FAIS, HP LaserJet II, Nimbus Q, Royal URW, and TrueType.
Application type formats are: Adobe Type Manager PostScript Type 1,
Avagio (FastFont), Avery LabelPro (FastFont), Chain of Command
(FastFont), CorelDraw! ((PostScript Type 1), Express Publisher
(Intellifont FAIS), FastFonts (FastFonts), Freedom of Press
(PostScript Type 1), GeoWorks Ensemble (GeoWorks), HP Type Director
(Intellifont), PerForm (Intellifont), PFS Write (FastFont),
Publisher's Powerpak (FastFont), SoftType (URW), Spinnaker Format
(FNT), Tandy Deskmate 3.05 (FastFont), Windows 3.1 (TrueType), and
Word Publisher (Spinnaker).
As I said in last February's Hard-Copy review, I use PrimeType by
LaserTools as my WordPerfect fontmanager. My most common use of
AllType is to translate Shareware fonts that I can only find in
another format into "my" format. Using AllType, I have the ability
to use virtually any font I find. For Christmas I found a font with
snow on top of the letters . . . it was a TrueType font. I
converted it to ATM format (Adobe Type Manager format). Using
WordPerfect, PrimeType for WordPerfect and my DeskJet, I made some
great Christmas labels for my cards and presents. I have been
warned that not all fonts convert well, that sometimes the character
width tables don't convert properly. I must be lucky, because so
far all my font conversions have yielded fonts that have worked
perfectly.
By using AllType and PrimeType to manage my fonts and font usage, I
have maximized my font potential and minimized my disk space usage.
Take it from a true font junkie, I'm very happy with AllType and
have since thanked John for his suggestion.