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- Path: sparky!uunet!gossip.pyramid.com!pyramid!octopus!sjsumcs!doc.SJSU.EDU!rick
- From: rick@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (Richard M. Warner)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
- Subject: Re: No TrueType Fonts in OS/2 2.1 ?!
- Message-ID: <rick.110.726773607@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu>
- Date: 11 Jan 93 17:33:27 GMT
- References: <96122@rphroy.ph.gmr.com> <1993Jan7.221102.5932@ais.com> <1993Jan8.160458.15864@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu> <1993Jan09.103742.2486@wes.on.ca>
- Sender: news@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (News Administrator)
- Organization: San Jose State University, Math & CS
- Lines: 58
- Nntp-Posting-Host: doc.sjsu.edu
-
- In article <1993Jan09.103742.2486@wes.on.ca> tomh@wes.on.ca (Tom Haapanen) writes:
- >Path: sjsumcs!octopus!satyr!apple!agate!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!torn!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!watserv1!wes.on.ca!tomh
- >From: tomh@wes.on.ca (Tom Haapanen)
- >Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
- >Subject: Re: No TrueType Fonts in OS/2 2.1 ?!
- >Message-ID: <1993Jan09.103742.2486@wes.on.ca>
- >Date: 9 Jan 93 10:37:42 GMT
- >References: <96122@rphroy.ph.gmr.com> <1993Jan7.221102.5932@ais.com> <1993Jan8.160458.15864@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu>
- >Organization: Waterloo Engineering Software
- >Lines: 19
- >rick@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (Richard Warner) writes:
- >> MS/Apple caused multiple problems with TrueType, but the worst is that
- >> they put the cart before the horse. They flooded the market with TT
- >> fonts while printer and printer driver support was almost totally
- >> lacking. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >
- >Printer driver support lacking? Surely not in Windows or on the Macintosh
- >(both have built-in TrueType) where you don't need *any* special drivers
- >to use TrueType. And for the ubiquitous LaserJets and clones, TrueType
- >works better than ATM (except for maybe ATM 2.5, which I haven't seen yet.)
-
- Yes, Windows 3.1 and Apple System 7 support it - for supported printers
- and then it is iffy. There was no attempt to provide support for
- DOS users (now there is, but that came from another vendor well after
- the on-slaught of fonts), Windows 3.0, UNIX, Apple System 6, OS/2,
- etc. Like it or not, Windows 3.1 and System 7 are still used by a
- minority of computer users. Apple and Microsoft have ignored the
- rest of the world.
-
- And even in the Win 3.1 world TT support is rather problematic. Sure,
- you can use TT fonts with any *supported* Win 3.1 printers (MS has
- abandoned a large number of printers in going from 3.0 to 3.1, BTW).
- But that support is not all that good on the low and high ends. Low
- end 9 pin dot-matrix printers and TT do not mix all that well, esp.
- at small character sizes. ATM output on these printers is almost
- always superior to TT output. Then, MS has totally screwed up the
- high-end laser support. I think one could make a living writing
- books on how to coerce decent Win 3.1 output from Linotronic and Agfa
- imagesetters. The PSCRIPT driver has been buggier than Maine in
- June and is especially bad with imagesetters. One of the first
- caveats of imagesetter output is 'thou shalt not use TT fonts' - the
- output is horrendous. MS wrote the TT engine, MS wrote the printer
- driver, so MS can take the entire blame for this one.
-
- >TrueType may not be desirable for high-end DTP and graphic arts people, but
- >it works well for "normal" users -- in my experience most people are very
- >happy to have built-in TrueType. On the other hand, I bet Adobe wishes now
- >that they had been willing to give ATM away free as a part of Windows... :)
-
- Well, Adobe is virtually giving away ATM with Windows. Most page
- setting programs, word-processors, and graphics programs come with ATM
- because Adobe is virtually giving it away to OEM's. The reason ATM
- is not *in* Windows is due to an Apple/MS alliance borne out of
- printer and font licensing.
-
- >[ \tom haapanen "i don't even know what street canada is on" -- al capone ]
- >[ tomh@wes.on.ca "trust the programmer" -- ansi c standard ]
- >[ waterloo engineering software "to thine own self be true" -- polonius ]
-