kucharsk@uts.amdahl.com (William Kucharski) (09/22/89)
With Adobe's recent announcement that they will be publishing the PostScript algorithms, will Adobe Type Manager still be a viable product once System 7.0 is released? This is assuming that Apple or a third party will write a utility to unencrypt the Adobe fonts themselves. Comments? -- =============================================================================== | ARPA: kucharsk@uts.amdahl.com | William Kucharski | | UUCP: ...!{ames,apple,sun,uunet}!amdahl!kucharsk | Amdahl Corporation | =============================================================================== | Saying: "It's a window system named 'X,' NOT a system named 'X Windows'" | =============================================================================== | Disclaimer: "The opinions expressed above may not agree with mine at any | | other moment in time, so they certainly can't be those of my | | employer." | ===============================================================================
amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (09/22/89)
In article <f5VZ02RZ58nu01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>, kucharsk@uts.amdahl.com (William Kucharski) writes: > With Adobe's recent announcement that they will be publishing the PostScript > algorithms, will Adobe Type Manager still be a viable product once System 7.0 > is released? This is assuming that Apple or a third party will write a > utility to unencrypt the Adobe fonts themselves. Sure. Translating from Adobe to Apple format may not be simple, and besides, even though the format may be public, doing such translation will violate the license agreement for the fonts themselves. -- Amanda Walker amanda@intercon.com
bezanson@adobe.COM (Brian Bezanson) (09/23/89)
In article <f5VZ02RZ58nu01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> kucharsk@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (William Kucharski) writes: >With Adobe's recent announcement that they will be publishing the PostScript >algorithms, will Adobe Type Manager still be a viable product once System 7.0 >is released? This is assuming that Apple or a third party will write a >utility to unencrypt the Adobe fonts themselves. My comments would be: I doubt Apple will do anything themselves, they have enough work trying to get outline fonts/System 7.0 running. The biggest thing to note is our announcement opens up how to create fonts - the same as what Microsoft and Apple are allowing people to do. But Adobe isn't giving away the proprietary knowledge of how to image a Type 1 outline on the screen. ATM's most important breakthrough is the speed and way in which this outline file is transformed to a accurate and usable bitmap. Apple isn't telling anyone how to take a royal font and do the imaging (though their announcement is that they will license that part to Microsoft). I'm sure we'll see Fontographer and other font programs now be able to add Type 1 hinting and new markets for PostScript fonts heat up. A lot of people really play the Apple/Microsoft vs Adobe deal way too much. I love Apple and have had a Macintosh since June 84, and I get funny twitches using a PC (but then I do get to catch up on my sleep :-) - OKAY enough PC bashing). The biggest thing about keeping our Type 1 information secret was to promote true PostScript - none of the clones could print Adobe fonts. With ATM just about released, anyone can print Type 1 fonts on nearly any device (complete with hints). Our announcement will increase the number of competitors in the font business, but we've always produced the highest rated fonts and we'll compete on our superior quality. My favorite thing would be to see Apple get their old font manager to work with the layout manager and any other new goodies they have planned and use ATM to do the imaging. ATM works now (and under 2 megs of RAM), the font information will be public soon, there is an existing base of over 2 million faces worldwide, and it is the standard. You can get PostScript Type 1 fonts for your Mac, IBM & Compats., NeXT (includes IBM & NeXTStep, plus DEC and Scitex for Display PostScript), VMS, and UNIX/Sun boxes via FrameMaker. Knowing Adobe's goal of providing a complete solution, you'll probably see ATM move to other platforms (just where Apple and Microsoft want to see font technology go). Enough of my personal opinions here - I think the users will be the true judges of all this. Let's rejoin this thread in a year and see where we are. -- ---- Brian Bezanson bezanson@adobe.com Adobe Systems Incorporated The opinions expressed above are my own and may not represent those of Adobe.