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Ghostscript & Fonts under Linux



Hello
I just want to share some information about printing under
Executor/Linux. Some users have complained about the poor quality of
printing under Executor. Here are a few steps you can take to improve
printing under E/L using Ghostscript.

My configuration:
Word 5.1
Executor/Linux 1.99q9
Linux 1.3.72 ELF
X Window 3.12D
EPSON Stylus Color II
Ghostscript 3.53
APSfilter
Parallel printer port

The machine is a Pentium 90 with 24 Mb ram. I use executor with the
-memory 7M switch.

Step1. Setting up a print queue.
Executor is setup to print to /lpr. Right now, it can only print to a
Postscript printer. So, either a) connect a Postscript printer to the queue
pointed to by /lpr or b) use Ghostscript if you don't have a printer that
understands Postscript. I choose b) because that's what I had available.
It's cheap and it works if you have a little patience.

Step2. Getting Ghostscript.
If you want, you can get the latest version of Ghostscript from the GS
web page. This will get you a source, and you will have to compile GS.
It's easier to use the binaries that came with your distribution.

Step3. Use a magic filter. The latest version of APSfilter does a
marvellous job installing itself. It works even if you have a Postscript
printer! So... use apsfilter. You can also get the latest version from the
APSfilter web page.

Step4. Now you can try printing a few samples directly from Executor.
Try the Times and Helvetica fonts. Notice they look crappy... Hmmm

Step5. Get yourself a few GOOD Postscript Type 1 fonts. There are
many solutions to that:
a) You already have a copy of Adobe Type Manager lying around. ATM
came with AMI Pro and a few other packages. I actually bought it around
3 years ago and had it gathering dust on a shelf at home.
b) Bitstream also sells fonts in Type 1 format. These are cheap and
rather good looking. If you buy the newest Citizen ink jet printer, it comes
with a CD with 100 fonts in Type 1 format (I think).
c) You can buy ATM for Windows. Actually, it's not too expensive. I
recommend getting the 35 basic fonts. ATM and Extra fonts package.

Step6. You can find the screen fonts for the Mac for the above fonts at
some Mac archives. At least one of the big ones carries a file with the
full 35 bitmap screen fonts. Install them by dragging to the fonts strip in
the Browser.

Step7. Copy the .pfb files to the fonts Ghostscript directory for all the
fonts you want to install. These are the fonts that will be sent to the GS
interpreter.

Step9. Modify the Fontmap file to point to these new fonts you just
installed. This is quite easy. Just read the beginning of the Fontmap file.

Step10. Now print exactly the same texts that looked crappy before.
They should look PERFECT now!


Note 1: before I installed the true Adobe fonts, I couldn't print the
accented characters I needed to write in French. I thought it was due to
Executor. WRONG! It's just that the crappy fonts that come with GS don't
have the accented letters in the character set!
Now I can print EVERYTHING. Kudos again to ARDI. Executor is nothing
short of a miracle. So I guess International support under E/L is there, at
least for printing. I use a US keyboard with a normal international layout,
but from what I have read in the various mailings other keyboards work
well, too. Anyway, I can produce all the accented letters, just like in my
old Mac SE.

Note2: Don't complain to the GS people, they are not involved with font
design, as Adobe is. On the other hand, GS is another marvellous piece
of software. It produces beautiful output using the Adobe fonts.

Good printing!
Andrew
abalsa@gwsmtp.hec.fr