jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeff White) (05/09/90)
After reading the the June '90 MacWorld article on printing and seeing the improvement ATM makes, I'm starting to think seriously about getting it. Some questions first though: 1. Does ATM work with the normal print driver? I have an IW LQ at home, use a LaserWriter at work, and expect to get a DeskWriter when the LQ breaks (I got it for only $100, so even if it breaks in 6 months or so, it still would have been worth the money). I'd hope I could use the manufacturer's driver (Apple, HP, whomever), and not expect Adobe to have to provide it. 2. What are the 13 fonts that are provided with the package? What are the other 22 that comes with the Plus Pack? I assume the both are equivelent to the normal 35 fonts that come with the LaserWriter. 3. How does the selection of the fonts work? My guess would be that when enabled, the Mac would ATM to generate outline fonts, and fall back to bitmap fonts when the Postscript font isn't available. 4. For the Apple LaserWriter - how does ATM output compare with the regular LW fonts? I usually create a PostScript file, and then either use sendps (Mac) or macps (Unix) to print it, with satisfactory results. I'm wondering whether I would need to have ATM enabled when preparing a document to be printer on the LW, and if I do, whether it will create a PostScript file that sendps or macps will handle properly. Also, how much larger will the file be with ATM vs. regular LW fonts? 5. How good is ATM at printing smaller point sizes (10 and less)? I've read some comments that say that bitmapped fonts are better than outline (ATM) at small point sizes because the bitmap can be hand tuned. 6. Does ATM produce a significant slowness in performance (both for on-screen and printouts)? I have 2.5 Megs of ram, so I should be able to allocate a few hundred kbytes for the ATM cache, which I've read helps performance. 7. What is the usual charge for upgrades? That seems like enough questions for now. I certainly appreciate whatever answers you can provide. Jeff White jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
fiddler@concertina.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) (05/09/90)
In article <24658@netnews.upenn.edu>, jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeff White) writes: > > 1. Does ATM work with the normal print driver? Yes. (Personal sample so far: DeskWriter, drivers 1.0 & 2.0, and a pre- applewriter Apple serial DMP printer. Both work fine.) The printer's driver just has to be able to handle QuickDraw input. > 2. What are the 13 fonts that are provided with the package? What are the > other 22 that comes with the Plus Pack? I assume the both are equivelent > to the normal 35 fonts that come with the LaserWriter. Yes. The initial ones are equivalent to Courier, Helvetica, and Times Roman in various styles. And Symbol, I think. (It may come in the PlusPak.) > 3. How does the selection of the fonts work? If the proper bitmap is available, it is used. Otherwise the outline font is used. If *that* is missing, it falls back on non-ATM default behavior. > 4. For the Apple LaserWriter - how does ATM output compare with the regular > LW fonts? On the screen, not as good. ( :} ) With a DeskWriter, generally as good as a LaserWriter. Some small point sizes, on the right paper, are actually a bit better. Using a LaserWriter, you won't notice any difference with character shape/quality. (Kerning and tracking are a separate issue, as usual.) ATM doesn't get in the way when you're outputting to a PostScript printer. > Also, how much larger will the file be with ATM vs. regular LW fonts? If the font lives on the printer, the file won't be any larger than usual. If the font has to be downloaded to the printer, the file will be just as large as any normal PostScript file with downloaded fonts. (The ATM outline fonts *are* Adobe Type 1 PostScript outline fonts. > 5. How good is ATM at printing smaller point sizes (10 and less)? I've read Some hand-tuned bitmap fonts are slightly better than characters generated from the outline fonts. You'd have to look pretty closely. (How often do you use 6-point type? How likely that you'll even *have* a 6 pt. bitmap font? Quality is fine.) > 6. Does ATM produce a significant slowness in performance (both for on-screen > and printouts)? I have 2.5 Megs of ram, so I should be able to allocate > a few hundred kbytes for the ATM cache, which I've read helps performance. It does, some. the first time a font is read in, it'll be noticeably slower than subsequent uses of the same font/size in the document. It's not much slower than normal font usage on the machine then. (on a 1Meg Mac, though...) > 7. What is the usual charge for upgrades? The last one (to version 1.2) cost me the effort of filling in a card and mailing it and waiting for the upgrade to arrive. Oh yeah, I took advantage of Adobe's offer of a font package for $39. I picked Veronese (is the spelling right?), which is usually ~$275. I'm happy with it. ------------ The only drawback with morning is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day. ------------