UnTrueType
WhatÕs (Still) Wrong With AppleÕs Font Menu?

If thereÕs any big disappointment connected with AppleÕs release of TrueType, it is that Apple has apparently taken no steps to correct its archaic Font and Style menus (although we may hope that we are proven wrong with the final release of System 7.0).

In the early days of the Macintosh, all fonts came in four stylistic variationsÑplain, italic, bold, and bold-italic. You picked the font from the Font menu and chose between the four variations under the Style menu. It was easy and intuitive, like everything was supposed to be on the Mac.

Things have changed now, but Apple has not done anything to keep up. Font families are no longer limited to four variations. For instance, Zapf Chancery has only a single style. Kaufmann has two variations. Helvetica Compressed has three. Lithos has five, and so forth, all the way up to AdobeÕs Futura family, which has twelve style variations! (And thatÕs not counting the additional eight of Futura Condensed.) AppleÕs Font and Style menu simply cannot cope with these in any logical fashion. WeÕve had to take measures on our own, with help from third parties. Adobe created some of the mess with their coded font names, such as BI Avant Garde Bold Italic, or CLBI Helvetica Condensed Black Oblique. Then Adobe came right back and sold us a solution in the form of Adobe Type Reunion. (Wheels within wheels.)

LetÕs say youÕve harmonized your fonts in order to avoid the China syndrome. So far, so good. Perhaps you used Adobe Type Reunion (ATR) to group all of the faces in a family together in a pop-out submenuÑno more looking under the Bs for Helvetica Bold. And no more trying to remember that to get Helvetica Black, you must choose Helvetica Light from the Font menu, and then choose Bold from the Style menu. Yikes! Memorizing non-intuitive procedures like that is the DOS way of doing things, not the Mac way.

At any rate, ATRÕs font submenus kept things rational, and weÕve accepted it, despite minor conflicts.

Well, unfortunately, TrueType has thrown a small monkey wrench into your carefully-tailored system. Apple has missed the boat again; the TrueType Helvetica will not pop out an italic choice under ATR.

(Yes, Apple, I understand that Helvetica does not have a true italic style, but rather an oblique variation. But TrueType hides it from meÑa giant step backward.)

There must be a better way. Something like ATR that works at the system level, without conflicts. Or perhaps graying out style variations that will not work. It should be made impossible to specify variations, such as Zapf Chancery bold-italic, that will not print.

Please, Apple, if you wonÕt step in and clear things up, at least donÕt mess them up more. This new twist will be confusing to beginners and irritating to design professionals. Nobody gains (except, maybe, the third-parties that clean up things). Are you listening, Apple?

by Jim Alley
© 1991 The Savannah Macintosh Users Group

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ILLUSTRATION
[Show plain and italic versions of Times and Helvetica.]
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	a	a	a	a
	Times	Helvetica
Most fonts have a true italic face, which is designed separately by the type designer. These faces are distinctÑmany of the characters have a shape quite different from their Roman (plain) counterpart. Not the differences in the Times characters above. The normal ÒaÓ is Òtwo-storyÓ as compared to the italic Òsingle-story.Ó
Some faces, however, do not have a separately designed italic face. Instead, they have an ÒobliqueÓ face, in which the characters merely lean to the right. The Helvetica face is of this type. AppleÕs TrueType simply uses the Mac to artificially generate Helvetica Oblique.

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The article above is reprinted from Mac Monitor, the newsletter of The Savannah Macintosh Users Group. It may be reprinted in a single issue of newsletters published by non-profit user groups. Payment shall consist of a single issue of the newsletter in which the article appears, sent to the following address:

Jim Alley
320 East 54th Street
Savannah, GA  31405
