steve@acorn.co.uk (Steve "daffy" Hunt) (03/14/91)
Following the recent announcement of Bitstream's intention to release its Speedo scalable font technology to the MIT X Consortium, does anyone have any information about it, or pointers to documents describing it? -- Steve
jim@NCD.COM (Jim Fulton) (03/26/91)
Here is the press release that Bitstream put out. For more information about
specifics of Speedo, contact Glenn Parker (or wait until you get source code in
R5 :-). For more info about the font server mentioned below, contact me or
wait a couple weeks until its protocol specification is put out for public
review by MIT.
Before someone asks, yes this is a non-exclusive donation (i.e. Speedo isn't
a Consortium standard and MIT is still accepting donations).
Jim Fulton
NCD
-------- Forwarded Message
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 91 17:26:58 -0500
From: uunet!huxley.bitstream.com!glenn (Glenn P. Parker)
To: xpert@expo.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Bitstream Speedo donated to X Consortium
Reply-To: <uunet!bitstream.com!glenn> (Glenn Parker)
PRESS RELEASE
Date: March 5, 1991
Contact: Catherine Hartley
Sr. Public Relations Associate
Bitstream Inc. (617) 497-6222
cath@bitstream.com
Bitstream Speedo to be Incorporated into X Windows
--------------------------------------------------
Bitstream Inc. today announced that it will donate the Bitstream Speedo
type scaling technology to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's X
Consortium, which establishes standards for the X Window System. Bitstream
Speedo will provide X Windows users with a readily usable technology for
professional-quality outline fonts that can be used on all X systems.
With this donation, Bitstream type will be available in yet another major
operating environment. The X Window System is an industry-standard
environment for networked computers.
"Advanced font scaling technology in X Windows is an extremely important
capability for application developers and end users," said Robert
Scheifler, Director of the MIT X Consortium. "I am very excited about
making the Speedo technology widely available as an integral part of the X
Window System; Bitstream is to be commended for their donation."
The Speedo technology will be incorporated into the X font server, which is
being developed for the X Consortium by Network Computing Devices, Inc.
(NCD) of Mountain View, CA. The font server will be included in X11
Release 5, scheduled for release later this year.
With this release, users of the X Window System will be able to use
on-the-fly font scaling for unlimited generation of bitmap fonts.
Bitstream will also be providing X developers and OEMs (Original Equipment
Manufacturers) with the opportunity to license typefaces in the Speedo
format.
"The Bitstream Speedo technology, coupled with our sample implementation of
the font server, will bring the advantages of outline fonts to the X
community," comment Judy Estrin, Executive Vice President of NCD. "This
will further the acceptance of the font server, which helps overall inter-
operability and convenience for end users in heterogeneous environments."
Interest in this development has been strong throughout the industry,
particularly among Bitstream OEMs and ISVs who are developing products for
this new standard.
"The incorporation of Speedo in X Windows System is exciting because it
greatly simplifies product development on the UNIX platform," said Scott
Worthington, Director of Marketing for UNIX at WordPerfect Corporation.
"In addition, users will have access to the same font-scaling technology
and high-quality type that has become a standard on the DOS platform."
"The X Windows environment is an important productivity tool - our new
Interleaf 5 system is X-Windows compliant across all workstations we
support," said Ellen Taylor, Vice President of Product Marketing at
Interleaf. "Bitstream's support of the X Windows standard will further
facilitate document interchange across platforms, and we applaud Bitstream
for their decision."
Speedo is a compact, very fast program intended for use by OEMs and ISVs in
on-the-fly font scaling implementations. The technology has been licensed
by leading PC applications developers, including IBM Desktop Software
Division, Ashton-Tate, and Software Publishing Corporation. In addition,
Bitstream offers a line of Speedo-based products for the PC retail market:
FaceLift for Microsoft Windows and FaceLift for WordPerfect.
An industry leader in typographic quality and innovative technology,
Bitstream licenses fonts and related software to more than 420 hardware
manufacturers and software developers worldwide. Its line of end-user
products is distributed by and extensive network of dealers in the United
States and in 18 foreign countries.
# # #
Bitstream is a registered trademark and Speedo and FaceLift are trademarks
of Bitstream, Inc.
X Windows System is a trademark of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation.
Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft
Corporation.
--
Glenn P. Parker glenn@bitstream.com Bitstream, Inc.
uunet!huxley!glenn 215 First Street
BIX: parker Cambridge, MA 02142-1270
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