jwhitnell@cup.portal.com (09/03/88)
The following is the press release Steve Brecher uploaded to Compuserve. I'm passing it on for your information and enlightenment. Jerry Whitnell Fifth Generation Systems, Inc. announces Suitcase II, a new version of Suitcase(tm), its bestselling Macintosh product. Suitcase II makes up to 99 Font/DA Mover files, or files containing FKEYs or beep sounds -- "suitcase files" -- act as if they were extensions to the System. Each file can contain up to 500 sizes of fonts or 52 DAs or any number of FKEYs or beep sounds. Fonts appear in application menus or lists and DAs appear in the Apple menu just as if they had been installed into the System file. Suitcase II enhancements include: Fonts can optionally be displayed in their own typefaces in font menus. Downloadable printer fonts can be kept in any disk or folder containing an open suitcase file -- it is no longer required that printer fonts be kept in the System Folder. Both screen and printer fonts can be accessed from a file or disk server and shared among network users. Suitcase files can be opened as shareable (read-only). This allows the files to be accessed and shared by all users on a network. Suitcase II will remember which suitcase files were open during the last session and automatically reopen them at startup, regardless of their location. However, the user can also choose to open a suitcase file only temporarily, if desired. When opening suitcase files, the user can open all the files in a folder with one operation, and can request that all types of files, rather than only suitcase files, be presented as candidates for opening. The user can choose to have application font menus dynamically updated when a font suitcase file is opened or closed. However, since many applications do not accommodate dynamic font menu updating, this feature is disabled until explicitly enabled by the user. Suitcase II will show the names of DAs, fonts, FKEYs and beep sounds contained in any suitcase file (open or closed) or in the System file. A new feature in the Suitcase II DA shows the user a sample of any available font, in any of its sizes and in any style combination. For PostScript(tm) fonts, the name of the downloadable printer font file is shown also. From the Suitcase II DA, the user can run any available DA or FKEY, or play any beep sound. DAs, FKEYs, and beep sounds can also be renamed, and FKEYs can be renumbered, from the Suitcase II DA. A Settings dialog allows the user to customize various features such as the command key equivalent for the Suitcase II DA, the position of the DA in the Apple menu, whether an icon is displayed at startup. Suitcase II includes two new utilities: Font Harmony(tm): --Resoves font number conflicts automatically among any number of font suitcase files; By converting FONT resources to NFNTs as necessary, Font Harmony expands the former limit of 256 font numbers; now thousands of font numbers can be accommodated without conflict. --Optionally merges font style variation families into one family so the style variation names don't clutter font menus or lists. Font & Sound Valet(tm): --Packs (compresses) screen font and beep sound files to save disk space. Screen font files decrease in size from 25-60% and beep sound files decrease by 5-20%. Suitcase II automatically unpacks fonts and sounds as they are read from disk, with no time penalty in almost all cases. -------------------------------- Suitcase II is MultiFinder compatible. System Requirements: Macintosh 512E, Plus, SE, or II; System version 4.1 or later. Beep sound features require a Macintosh II, or System 6.0 or later and a Macintosh Plus or SE. Some, but not all, Macintosh 512E systems with System version 6.0 will support beep sound features. Retail price: $79.00 Shipments to begin Sept., 1988. Suitcase, Font Harmony, and Font & Sound Valet are trademarks of Software Supply. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.