crum@alicudi.usc.edu (Gary L. Crum) (06/16/91)
Microsoft canceled its printer software development effort, according to an article I read yesterday (using the Company News section of Prodigy which uses Dow Jones News Retrieval service). The article mentioned neither TrueType nor Apple, but it did say that the Microsoft effort failed to make inroads into territory held by Adobe PostScript. Does anyone have more info, especially with respect to support and development of TrueType at Apple? I have mixed feelings, because I would like to simplify compatibility issues for computer users, while I don't like to see ridiculously high prices as a result of a monopoly. Gary
georgem@microsoft.UUCP (George MOORE) (06/24/91)
In article <CRUM.91Jun15104010@alicudi.usc.edu> crum@alicudi.usc.edu (Gary L. Crum) writes: >Microsoft canceled its printer software development effort, according to >an article I read yesterday (using the Company News section of Prodigy which >uses Dow Jones News Retrieval service). [...] The news of TrueImage (and TrueType's) death are greatly exaggerated. The following is a short subsection of a news article written by Rob Auster of the BIS newsletter service, a NYNEX company: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Microsoft Remains True to Printing WSJ Article Claiming MS to be Getting Out of TrueImage Business is Misleading Last Friday the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft had decided to "discard its ambitious goal of dominating printer software, a rich niche market now controlled by Adobe Systems, Inc." The article implied that Microsoft had declared war on Adobe but had lost when Apple elected to stay with Adobe. The article is misleading and incorrect. By no means is Microsoft out of the printer business. The Facts What is true is that Cal Bauer has resigned as the manager of the Printer Business Unit. The printer team has been renamed the "Windows Printing Group". Some of the engineers from Taipei have been relocated to Redmond and the group is bigger than ever. There are currently over 60 people working on printing and font solutions. TrueImage is still very much a real technology that printer vendors will continue to deliver to the market. Most importantly, it contains support for TrueType which will be a cornerstone of Windows 3.1 due to ship later this year. REPEAT...Microsoft and their printer partners are still in the printer business. It's their focus that's changing. By initially promoting the Printer Unit as a separate standalone group Microsoft mistakenly positioned themselves in the "clone war" against Adobe. This was not their intent. Their intent was to offer Windows users a more effective printing solution than currently available in the market. By renaming the group they now focus on facilitating Windows as a desktop standard and improving the efficiency of that environment. Because of their goal, to get great Windows printing to the market quickly, Microsoft has started a "Mentor" program where they will allow third party developers such as LaserMaster and the Peerless Group to re-license and add value to their TrueImage code. You can also expect that the costs of TrueImage to be extremely low, giving printer vendors the ability to aggressively price products. Standard Imaging Model Applications make pages and printers print them. When Adobe tried to get the world to adopt Display PostScript, it was correct in predicting the need to link the page as displayed by the WYSIWYG application with that imaged by printer. Unfortunately Adobe hasn't been able to convince the two market leaders (Apple and Microsoft) that they should use PostScript as the common imaging model. Each vendor now has its own imaging model (QuickDraw and GDI) linked to their graphic user interfaces (GUI's), System 7 and Windows. Both Apple and Microsoft have also adopted the same font mechanism, TrueType, which in the long run will become a defacto standard. GUI Printing Microsoft believes that GUI printing has major advantages over the current languages that have evolved from the printer world. They will be encouraging the development of a new generation of printer controllers capable of processing low level GDI ASCII commands. These controllers will also support other standard printer languages such as PCL and PostScript. Thus applications will have the option of using conventional drivers that convert GDI to PCL or PostScript before sending the file to the printer, or of bypassing these intermediate high level languages and processing GDI directly. Windows users will then have a "fast path" printing from Windows as well as the ability to print to current printer languages for other needs. TrueImage remains a vital part of Microsoft's strategy. It is a transition technology that will allow printer vendors to build products that process PostScript as well as include the ability to process GDI. It's aimed at vendors who wish to focus their marketing on PC Windows users who are looking for today's standards but desire tomorrow's speed enhancements.