stephen@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Stephen Whitney) (10/17/89)
Has anyone heard news about the mythical GDOS + driver upgrade that will support outline fonts? If Atari isn't going to do it, maybe someone else will. Atari might even license it. Outline fonts for GDOS would mean that you could use one set of fonts for all screens and printers in any size desired. I would think that anyone who currently makes a GDOS program would be extremely interested in seeing this happen. The new screen driver to support outline fonts might even be optimized to make auto-folder patches unnecessary to improve VDI drawing speed. Comments anyone? --Steve Whitney
covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert) (10/18/89)
In article <28181@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, stephen@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Stephen Whitney) writes: > Has anyone heard news about the mythical GDOS + driver upgrade that will > support outline fonts? If Atari isn't going to do it, maybe someone else > will. Atari might even license it. Outline fonts for GDOS would mean that > you could use one set of fonts for all screens and printers in any size > desired. I would think that anyone who currently makes a GDOS program would > be extremely interested in seeing this happen. The new screen driver to > support outline fonts might even be optimized to make auto-folder patches > unnecessary to improve VDI drawing speed. > > Comments anyone? > > --Steve Whitney This brings up one of my pet peeves about Atari, the lousy fonts and GDOS. And the fact that the VaporWare TT will use the existing GDOS with all of its warts!! In fact, I haven't even heard that the TT will include GDOS in the ROMS, which is probably for the best as it allows the user to replace GDOS with the much better GPLUS from Codehead Software. There have been rumors for a year or so about a new font system for the ST which would use outline fonts (ala the Macinstosh and Postscript) but I don't believe them. One of the nicest features of the Steve Jobs' NeXT computer is the fact that it uses Display PostScript to give you BOTH screen and printer Postscript fonts. Now that would be a good reason to buy the TT, if it came with Display PS. But, don't hold your breath!! So, in the meantime, save your peenies and buy a real computer like the NeXT if you want professional graphics!! Rich Covert
laba-1aj@e260-1g.berkeley.edu (John Kawakami) (10/19/89)
In article <464d79db.14a1f@force.UUCP> covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert) writes: > >This brings up one of my pet peeves about Atari, the lousy fonts and GDOS. >And the fact that the VaporWare TT will use the existing GDOS with all of >its warts!! In fact, I haven't even heard that the TT will include GDOS >in the ROMS, which is probably for the best as it allows the user to replace >GDOS with the much better GPLUS from Codehead Software. > The whole GDOS font concept is now dead in the water (actually, it was dead earlier this decade, with those TeX metafonts.) Even the new font things on the Apple, nice as it sounds, has some flaws. The fonts you ask for are pulled off the disk, and if they are not there, they are built and saved to disk. Obviously, this can result in some severe slowdowns. A better way would be to make the letters and cache them "on the fly." But I'm getting off the topic. >One of the nicest features of the Steve Jobs' NeXT computer is the fact that >it uses Display PostScript to give you BOTH screen and printer Postscript fonts. >Now that would be a good reason to buy the TT, if it came with Display PS. >But, don't hold your breath!! don't worry, I won't. Though I don't understand why imagen doesn't bundle a ultrascript previewer with US. > >So, in the meantime, save your peenies and buy a real computer like the >NeXT if you want professional graphics!! > >Rich Covert & John Kawakami & laba-1aj@web.berkeley.edu & Live each day as if it were your first