[comp.sys.atari.st] GDOS fonts

david@looking.UUCP (David Rowley) (11/12/86)

Now that GDOS is finally surfacing, and gives the ST access to all the goodies
it should have had in the first place :-), there is a slight problem.  The
fonts that come with the developers release of GDOS are horrible !  And
there are only a few of them...  So we need a good source of fonts from
somewhere... hmm... which well-known micro could we borrow fonts from ?
How about a Mac to GDOS font conversion utility so that we could get
at all the good public domain fonts available for that 'more mature' machine.
I wrote a Mac resource file disassembler awhile back, but have since lost it,
but I remember enough about the mac fonts to know that it wouldn't be hard
to convert mac fonts to GDOS format.

I would be quite willing to do it, but alas, I do not have access to a Mac
anymore, nor do I have access to the resource file / font resource /
format for the Mac.   If someone would be kind enough to send me the formats
and a sample Mac font, I would be most greatful.

As we are on the topic, what are the legalities of porting fonts from one
format to another ?  If someone buys a disk of fonts for the Mac, does that
give him the right to convert them into GDOS format and use them ?  I
presume that public domain fonts are no problem.

Cheers,

David Rowley
Looking Glass Software
Waterloo, Ontario
(519) 884-7473
...utzoo!watmath!looking!david

bammi@cwruecmp.UUCP (Jwahar R. Bammi) (11/14/86)

In article <705@looking.UUCP> david@looking.UUCP (David Rowley) writes:
>
>Now that GDOS is finally surfacing, and gives the ST access to all the goodies
>it should have had in the first place :-), there is a slight problem.  The
>fonts that come with the developers release of GDOS are horrible !  And
>there are only a few of them...  So we need a good source of fonts from
>somewhere... hmm... which well-known micro could we borrow fonts from ?

MAC  fonts would certainly be nice. In the mean while, i use the nice looking
fonts that came with the EazyDraw pacakage. They seem to work quite nicely
with Gdos. Also, if you have the PD FED font editor, you can use the .FED fonts
after byte swapping the integers to intel format integers ( i have'nt tried it
as yet). degas elite also has a utility that will convert degas fonts (they
are quite 'blocky' though) to gdos format.
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michael@slovax.UUCP (Michael Longe) (11/18/86)

Ported Mac fonts would be nice indeed, though you would have to be careful
about aspect ratio and getting the point sizes correct.

I suspect, though, that most of the Mac fonts are copyrighted and licensed
for use by the software companies that use them. Ditto on the ST. At last
rumor, Bitstream was creating a set of fonts for Atari for a huge fee. It's
a lot of work, and very little is free...

If you are a "do-it-yourself"-er or a developer, Migraph (the "EasyDraw"
folks) has a full GEM font editor which can create new and modify existing
standard GEM fonts. They haven't marketed it because they don't know who
wants it. It isn't perfect, but it makes the drudge work of font editing
go easier. You can fill, erase, invert, copy, rotate, and shift each character
or a range of characters. You can also expand a smaller font into a larger
one.

I'm biased. I wrote it. (But I no longer work for Migraph, and I certainly
won't receive royalties. I just would like to see it put to use!) If you're
interested, call them at (206) 838-4677 or write:
Migraph, Inc., 720 S 333rd #201, Federal Way, WA 98003.


		Michael Longe'
		..!tikal!slovax!michael



------- standard disclaimer --------------------------------------------------

My past and present employers haven't the slightest idea what I'm doing.


------- usual disclaimer -----------------------------------------------------

Qui, moi?

#FJMORA@WMMVS.BITNET (02/01/89)

In message dated  24 Jan 89 00:29:17 GMT, John T. Grieggs writes:
>Does anyone know of any good PD or other GDOS fonts for the ST?  I am
>using Timeworks Desktop Publisher, and have given up on waiting for
>Timeworks to release more fonts for the time being.  Yes, I did buy
>FONTZ!, and Camelot is quite nice, but I really would like more of
>the things.  Any information would be appreciated.

Well, there are p[lenty of PD and shareware fonts in GDOS format, both
for Epson and 300 dpi printers, on GEnie. RAM limitaation prevented me
to try more than one, and as I already need 3 300 dpi fonts, I have no
more RAM in my little 1040. But that's good stuff, give it a try.
Note that if you modify frequently your font configuration, you will need
either G+ from Codehead or some utility like SuperBoot (also on GEnie)
to choose your config.sys file at boot time.

Regards,

     Frederic Mora                              BITNET:
     The College of William and Mary            #fjmora%wmmvs.bitnet
     Dept. of Computer Science                  INTERNET:
     Williamsburg, VA. 23185                    fjmora@cs.wm.edu
     USA                                        GEnie:  F.MORA

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