jh@ist.CO.UK (Jeremy Huxtable) (04/30/91)
I need to be able to draw rotated text on the Mac. Now the obvious solution is to draw into an offscreen bitmap, rotate it and then CopyBits it, but surely in these days of Adobe Type manager and TrueType, there must be a better way if they happen to be installed??? I assume that this must be an FAQ, but I haven't been reading the news for a while so apologies if this has been discussed recently. Can I tell if ATM or TrueType are installed? Can I use them to draw rotated text, falling back on bitmap rotation as a last resort? Does ATM, for example, spot the LaserWriter rotated text comments in pictures drawn by QuickDraw? The ideal method would be to get the path information back from ATM/TrueType but I assume that this is impossible because the manufacturers wish to protect their fonts. Any help on this would be appreciated, Jeremy Huxtable
deadman@garnet.berkeley.edu (Ben Haller) (05/05/91)
In article <2898@istop.ist.CO.UK> jh@ist.CO.UK (Jeremy Huxtable) writes: >Can I tell if ATM or TrueType are installed? >Can I use them to draw rotated text, falling back on bitmap rotation >as a last resort? Well, ATM can obviously draw rotated text. TrueType, however, cannot, making ATM (IMHO) the vastly superior product. ATM can, in fact, draw a string in any affine-transform-generated coordinate system. I think Apple's official line on this sad failing of TrueType is something like "The average user doesn't need that kind of technology, so we leave providing that functionality to third-party products [such as ATM]" There goes any chance of a standard. And of course the average user becomes even more confused - "Why does my Mac have the 'Rotate' command disabled in the menu, and *his* Mac has it enabled?" etc. Actually, I think the average user could probably find lots of uses for rotated fonts. But never mind. Yet another thing Mac programmers have to check for the presence of, and then special-case... >The ideal method would be to get the path information back from ATM/TrueType >but I assume that this is impossible because the manufacturers wish to >protect their fonts. Well, I've heard that ATM 2.0 lets other programs get the outline for a given character/string, but I've never seen any hard evidence for this, so who knows. TrueType doesn't let you do this, to the best of my knowledge. -Ben Haller (deadman@garnet.berkeley.edu) "The man from the government The man from the tax board The man from the public school The man owns the Golden Rule..." - Jane's Addiction
kent@sunfs3.Camex.COM (Kent Borg) (05/06/91)
In article <1991May4.231054.12945@agate.berkeley.edu> deadman@garnet.berkeley.edu (Ben Haller) writes: >In article <2898@istop.ist.CO.UK> jh@ist.CO.UK (Jeremy Huxtable) writes: >>Can I tell if ATM or TrueType are installed? >>Can I use them to draw rotated text, falling back on bitmap rotation >>as a last resort? > > Well, ATM can obviously draw rotated text. TrueType, however, cannot, That's not what I thought. I am under the impression that Truetype can do rotated text just fine, but it is Quickdraw that is holding up the show. Do you *really* want type rotated alone? Wouldn't that be a horrible kludge? (Which would prompt unending griping, clogging this newsgroup.) We need generalized rotating and antialiasing and resolution independence and quadratic splines (and a whole lot more), of *everything*, not just type. Quickdraw is the place to do it. I am convinced that Apple is working on a new Quickdraw that is intended to eventually banish Postscript from the Macintosh community, that is intended to finally give us a single imaging model for both printing and screen display. Does anybody have any Quickdraw hints they can let drop? (How good is the design? What does the schedule look like? Might we hear something official next week in San Jose? And while we are at it, where is "AppleMail" and the store-and-forward IAC?) >making ATM (IMHO) the vastly superior product. ATM can, in fact, draw a >string in any affine-transform-generated coordinate system. ATM does this stuff because it can, and it is Adobe's "camel nose under the tent flap" for Display Postscript. They are thinking of it as a generalized approach to screen imaging. Don't blame the Truetype folks, they did good stuff, blame the Quickdraw people. They have some *major* work to do. >Well, I've heard that ATM 2.0 lets other programs get the outline for a >given character/string, but I've never seen any hard evidence for this, >so who knows. TrueType doesn't let you do this, to the best of my >knowledge. There are supposed to be hooks in Truetype for all this stuff too, but Apple is only telling font houses and font tool houses about them, the rest of us have to wait for Quickdraw. -- Kent Borg internet: kent@camex.com AOL: kent borg H:(617) 776-6899 W:(617) 426-3577 "We foolishly did not realize that he was stupid." - April Glasbie 3-20-91
czychi@bernina.ethz.ch (Gary Czychi) (05/08/91)
> Does anybody have any Quickdraw hints they can let drop?
YES, Please! For me too.
I desperately need a way to rotate text in 30 degree increments and I have
no idea how to do that (not to mention the printing).
Thanks a lot for any help. (I know, it has been discussed before, but what
has come out of it??)
Gary
Gary T. Czychi University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
czychi@csghsg52.BITNET or czychi@alpha.unisg.ch (preferred host)
czychi@bernina.ethz.ch.UUCP (CZYCHI@ETHZ.uucp)
Tel.: --41 / 71 / 57 17 22
-sokoloff@athena.mit.edu (James T Sokoloff) (05/13/91)
In Article 25157, Jeremy Huxtable writes: { I need to be able to draw rotated text on the Mac. Now the obvious solution is to draw into an offscreen bitmap, rotate it and then CopyBits it, but surely in these days of Adobe Type manager and TrueType, there must be a better way if they happen to be installed??? I assume that this must be an FAQ, but I haven't been reading the news for a while so apologies if this has been discussed recently. Can I tell if ATM or TrueType are installed? Can I use them to draw rotated text, falling back on bitmap rotation as a last resort? } I do not claim to know anything about programming with ATM; I do however know a good deal about Apple's TT. The answer to your question of using TT to do rotated text is twofold, and you will likely not like the answer. 1. Yes, TT can (& does) support rotated text. Unfortunately, it is Apple's decision not to make public the internals of TT interface. So, the answer to your question is: Yes, TrueType can do it, but you will not be able to figure out how without Apple's documentation which they will not provide. (Anyone who gets hold of this info is bound by VERY TIGHT non-disclosure agreements. Trust me-I am not willing to, nor is anyone else willing to disclose it in the face of Apple's litigation history!) 2. Can I tell if TT is installed. Sure, call Gestalt; I believe the Gestalt switch is 'font' If zero or error is returned, assume that TT is not present. (For a desc. of Gestalt, check Inside Mac VI) Hope this helps, Jim Sokoloff