PUGH@ccc.nmfecc.gov (11/10/89)
Well, I just have to flame for a moment, so please bear with me. MacWEEK blasted the Adobe Type Manager on the front page of this week's issue. Without even talking about their mispelling my name in the article, I really don't think this ariticle is giving ATM a fair shake. Maybe I'm the only one who has a clue, but people on Compu$erve seem to be a bit upset about the fact that ATM doesn't make a difference for their 10 and 12 point output on their Imagewriter. Of course, anyone who pays money to complain about being ripped off can't be too bright to begin with. The Adobe Type Manager gives us now what Apple has promised in the future. It has the same essential problems that Apple's outline fonts will have. The font rasterization is slow and takes up lots of disk space and memory. Outline fonts need to be tweaked for low resolution and small sizes. Note that this is what has been done for the Apple supplied Adobe fonts and why the manual tells you to keep them installed. I have found that it actually behooves you to keep all sizes installed so as to keep the performance delay to a minimum. So here is my recommendation: If you do only what your Imagewriter already does then ATM is wasted on you. But, if you want access to larger font sizes without jaggies, different fonts limited only by disk space and your budget, real italics, bold, and shadows, and the same image on your screen as on your printer, then ATM is your software. Jon