victor.sue@canremote.uucp (VICTOR SUE) (07/06/90)
Not sure if this msg will make it through the Gateway portal or end up
in UseNet Limbo, but let's try anyways...
Could someone elaborate a bit more on the various technologies involved
with todays new scalable font technologies? Specifically, Mr. Cherna
mentioned 2.0 will implement 'bitmap scaling fonts'. How does the
quality and speed of these differ from say the Compugraphic Outline
fonts offered in ProPage? What other types of scaling fonts are out
there? I remember someone mentioning Hollow fonts, or hint fonts, or
something of that nature.
Please post response - my mailbox has been flakey as of late... :-(
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vics@contact.uucp
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peter@cbmvax.commodore.com (Peter Cherna) (07/11/90)
In article <132a1e75f1d52693cf1c@canremote.uucp> victor.sue@canremote.uucp (VICTOR SUE) writes: >Not sure if this msg will make it through the Gateway portal or end up >in UseNet Limbo, but let's try anyways... > >Could someone elaborate a bit more on the various technologies involved >with todays new scalable font technologies? Specifically, Mr. Cherna >mentioned 2.0 will implement 'bitmap scaling fonts'. How does the >quality and speed of these differ from say the Compugraphic Outline >fonts offered in ProPage? What other types of scaling fonts are out >there? I remember someone mentioning Hollow fonts, or hint fonts, or >something of that nature. Bitmap scaling fonts means that the system can generate any size bitmap starting with a source bitmap. If you ask for Helvetica 50, the system starts with the most appropriate available size (say Helvetica 24), and does bitmap scaling on it. This means that rows or columns of pixels get replicated or excised to produce the resulting font. You can see the same effect when you stretch a brush in DPaint. Making fonts bigger makes them chunkier, since if you drew Helvetica 50 by hand it would have more "information" (smoothness and detail, etc.) than Helvetica 24, but scaling H.24 can't add any information. Results are typically best when you scale to small even multiples, eg. Helvetica 48 and 72. Outline fonts means that the source font is not a bitmap, but a description of the outline of each character. Each character consists of arcs, lines, etc.. This can then be rendered at any size, without jaggies. Life gets fancy and complex when you add "hints", which help the font-creating engine do a better job. For example, if for Outline-Helvetica 80, the vertical stroke width for a lowercase-m would actually be 3.5 pixels, you wouldn't want some strokes to be 3 and some to be 4 pixels wide. Hints can tell the renderer which part of the "m" it can stretch or squeeze by a fraction to avoid this. Outline fonts are not part of 2.0. Bitmap scaling fonts are. Bitmap scaling is faster than outline since much less work is required to make them. Bitmap scaling fonts aren't as pretty as outline fonts. >vics@contact.uucp Peter -- Peter Cherna, Software Engineer, Commodore-Amiga, Inc. {uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!peter peter@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com My opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of my employer. "This is a one line proof...if we start sufficiently far to the left."