norman@a.cs.okstate.edu (Norman Graham) (09/18/89)
I would like to take this bit of net bandwidth to encourage
Apple to make their core set of outline fonts a showcase for
state-of-the-art Apple font technology. This will do two
things for Apple (and users as well):
- Show people what the line layout and script managers
can do with well designed fonts.
- Raise users' expectations of the features that well
designed fonts should include.
(parenthetical note: I believe that Apple should have
released some multi-bit fonts with the Mac II. They didn't;
The result was a dearth of fuzzy-fonts for the Mac.)
Things that I would like to see in Apple's fonts:
- Small Caps
- Swash Variants (Esp. swash numerals)
- Lots of kerning pairs (say >500)
- More than 2 weights (preferably 4 to 8)
- Exploitation of optical bounds (so the system can automatically
align characters optically)
- Hanging punctuation
If Apple doesn't provide features like these in their core fonts,
then users will not know to expect them, font venders will know
that they can get by without providing them, and the promise
of the line layout and script managers will be spent.
--
Norman Graham Oklahoma State University
Internet: norman@a.cs.okstate.edu Computing and Information Sciences
UUCP: {cbosgd, rutgers} 219 Mathematical Sciences Building
!okstate!norman Stillwater, OK 74078-0599hallett@pet3.uucp (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) (09/18/89)
In article <4940@okstate.UUCP> norman@a.cs.okstate.edu (Norman Graham) writes: >I would like to take this bit of net bandwidth to encourage >Apple to make their core set of outline fonts a showcase for >state-of-the-art Apple font technology. This will do two >things for Apple (and users as well): As long as Apple is showcasing the new font technology, here is my wishlist. I would like to see an application released by someone that is REAL cheap (< $50) that has the ability to read in existing bitmap fonts and provide a method for an average user to do some simple autotracing and editing to generate outline fonts from their existing bitmap fonts. The application should also provide an easy way for the user to generate "hint" files for tweaking the font at various weird sizes. This must include support for the new layout manager and making context-sensitive fonts as well. Howzat for a real Santa-come-soon? -- Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414 Milwaukee, WI 53201 (414) 548-5163 : EMAIL - hallett@gemed.ge.com
amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (09/20/89)
In article <1026@mrsvr.UUCP>, hallett@pet3.uucp (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) writes: > I would like to see an application released by someone that > is REAL cheap (< $50) that has the ability to read in existing bitmap > fonts and provide a method for an average user to do some simple > autotracing and editing to generate outline fonts from their existing > bitmap fonts. The application should also provide an easy way for the > user to generate "hint" files for tweaking the font at various weird > sizes. > > This must include support for the new layout manager and making > context-sensitive fonts as well. > > Howzat for a real Santa-come-soon? > Two problems: price and "average user." Aside from that, it's a great idea, and will most certainly happen. Just drawing good-looking letterforms in the first place is hard, though. Adding grid-fitting hints can take at least as long, and takes a lot of practice. I think that the Apple format will open up the font-design software market (giving Fontographer some well-deserved competition), but it won't make it "easy" to produce good fonts any more than PostScript makes it "easy" to produce good pages, or power steering makes it easy to be a good driver... -- Amanda Walker amanda@intercon.com
hallett@positron.uucp (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) (09/20/89)
In article <1457@intercon.com> amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) writes: > >Two problems: price and "average user." Aside from that, it's a great >idea, and will most certainly happen. I'll define average user as someone who knows what fonts basically are, knows how to install them, doesn't necessary know about ResEdit and has good command of the basic Macintosh interaction techniques (clicking, dragging, object-oriented graphics manipulation, etc) (e.g. can use MacDraw and similar programs easily). > >Just drawing good-looking letterforms in the first place is hard, though. >Adding grid-fitting hints can take at least as long, and takes a lot of >practice. I think that the Apple format will open up the font-design software >market (giving Fontographer some well-deserved competition), but it won't make >it "easy" to produce good fonts any more than PostScript makes it "easy" to >produce good pages, or power steering makes it easy to be a good driver... I don't think that anyone is attempting to say that just because it will be easier (ie. have more available tools to help with mechanics) to use/generate new fonts necessarily means that we will have better fonts. However, a person doesn't need a degree in typography or something to make one either. My point is that if I bought a bitmap font library a while ago, regardless of whether the fonts are "good" or "bad" (in someone's opinion - I'll choose mine since I'm the user), I would like to have a way to create an outline version to keep up with the technology. -- Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414 Milwaukee, WI 53201 (414) 548-5163 : EMAIL - hallett@gemed.ge.com
amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (09/21/89)
In article <1042@mrsvr.UUCP>, hallett@positron.uucp (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) writes: > My point is that if I bought a bitmap > font library a while ago, regardless of whether the fonts are "good" > or "bad" (in someone's opinion - I'll choose mine since I'm the user), > I would like to have a way to create an outline version to keep up > with the technology. I see the point, but I think I see it as more complex. In particular, depending on your goal, producing an outline font from a bitmap can range from trivial to a real hard problem. On the trivial end, you can of course produce an outline that corresponds to any bitmap--just outline the bits. I don't think that's what you meant, though :-). An outline gains its higher quality from additional information. One way to get this information is to generate the outline from a very high resolution bitmap (scanned in at 300dpi, for example). Hints are still a problem, but an automated program could probably do a good enough job for a lot of people. However, a small bitmap (such as one that was designed for the screen or the ImageWriter) has much less information. There are a couple ways to approach this. One amounts to magnifiying and smoothing the bitmap the way the LaserWriter currently does, and then generating an outline from that. This doesn't win you any real quality, but it does make things a little more flexible, especially on printers with drivers that don't support smoothing. The second one is the fun but difficult one, and would amount to an AI program that looked at all of the different sizes of the bitmaps and tried to deduce an outline font that would generate them. This is what I think of as converting fonts from bitmap to outline format, and this is what I don't think will happen very soon or very cheaply. One thing to look at would be something like Fontographer, which lets you use a bitmap font as a template which you can trace over. Even an untutored human is likely to do a lot better at this that a good program. It does take more time, though. -- Amanda Walker amanda@intercon.com