root@netdev.UUCP (Alex Huppenthal) (12/08/89)
Greetings fellow netlanders.
I have about 5 fonts from the public domain for the HP printer. I just
received a list of another 10 or so on an University list server.
My question is this:
1. Does anyone archive alot of these fonts?
2. Has anyone found a way to use these fonts with MS-WORD?
3. How about a Unix downloader for the fonts?
4. NROFF / TROFF support for fonts?
-Alex
--
Alex INTERNET: alex@comsys.COM
Huppenthal UUCP: {cs.utexas.edu!texbell}!netdev!alex
Communication Systems Research 6045 Buffridge Tr, Dallas, TX 75252 lbsrdrt@cc.brunel.ac.uk (David Thomas) (12/12/89)
In article <208@netdev.UUCP> root@neisse.UUCP (Alex Huppenthal) writes: >Greetings fellow netlanders. > >I have about 5 fonts from the public domain for the HP printer. I just >received a list of another 10 or so on an University list server. > >My question is this: > > 1. Does anyone archive alot of these fonts? I've been looking at: font-server@mims-iris.waterloo.edu Mail them a one line message "send help" (without the quotes, of course) I obtained a font by e_mail and it was ready for unix decoding, but this didn't actually work on my machine without some amendment. David Thomas
carlson@gateway.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson) (12/19/89)
In article <208@netdev.UUCP> root@neisse.UUCP (Alex Huppenthal) writes: >Greetings fellow netlanders. >I have about 5 fonts from the public domain for the HP printer. I just >received a list of another 10 or so on an University list server. >My question is this: > > 2. Has anyone found a way to use these fonts with MS-WORD? >-Alex If the PD fonts include documentation that shows the escape sequences to use to access the fonts you should be able to use MAKEPRD (comes with Word) to create a driver. I have never tried it with downloadable fonts, but creating a driver for cartridge fonts was fairly easy. I used the Word utility to "unassemble" an existing driver, edit it for the new cartridge, and "reassemble" it as a PRD file. The drivers are structured like a lookup table, where you specify the font name to appear in Word and the corresponding escape sequence to call up the font. Bruce Carlson
jcmorris@mbunix.mitre.org (Morris) (12/20/89)
In article <208@netdev.UUCP> root@neisse.UUCP (Alex Huppenthal) writes: >Greetings fellow netlanders. >I have about 5 fonts from the public domain for the HP printer. I just >received a list of another 10 or so on an University list server. >My question is this: > > 2. Has anyone found a way to use these fonts with MS-WORD? >-Alex If you have the Fontware for Word package uSoft offers for its Word customers (free? $5? something like that) or the support programs from SoftCraft you can just feed the soft font to the package with your current .PRD file and get out an updated .PRD (and frequently a new .DAT as well) without having to go through the source and the MAKEPRD program. The real advantage to doing it this way is that the Fontware (or whatever) program builds the necessary width tables in the .PRD file so that Word knows how much space to allocate for a line.
mlawless@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM (Mike Lawless) (12/21/89)
In article <83643@linus.UUCP> carlson@gateway.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson) writes >If the PD fonts include documentation that shows the escape sequences to >use to access the fonts you should be able to use MAKEPRD (comes with >Word) to create a driver. I have never tried it with downloadable fonts, One more wrinkle--any fonts (downloadable or not) that are proportionally spaced need a width table. If one is not provided with the font, you can figure it out for yourself, although the procedure is somewhat tedious. First, make a document file containing one line for each printable character in the font(s) in question, each line containing 30 occurrences of the same character. You will need to have the basic PRD file already created, so you can actually select the fonts for printing (even though the width information is not yet entered). For each font, format the entire document using that font and print it. The length of each line (measured to the tenth of an inch) times 10 will be the width of that character in that font in dots, to be entered in the appropriate width table. Finally, a DAT file is also required. This is what word uses to relate the font specification in the document to a filename for the font download file for each font. The Word 5.0 Printer Information manual has a section describing the format of this file; unfortunately, it must be edited in binary (using something akin to Norton Utilities), since no tool is provided by Microsoft for edit DAT files. The best way to get started with downloadable fonts for the LJ and Word is ot get the $10 Bitstream Fontware package through Microsoft (available to all registered Word users). It comes with Dutch (Times Roman) and Swiss (Helve- tica) fonts, can create load files in any size from 6 to 127 points in 1/2 point increments, automatically creates PRD and DAT files for each font set specified, and can create fonts for LaserJets, Postscript printers, and Windows screen fonts. All in all, this is an outstanding value for $10. Of course, additional font styles are on the order of $200 apiece, and you will need some serious disk space if you intend to keep too awful many fonts around at one time. And the generation of fonts is rather slow. Quality of the generated fonts, BTW, is quite good. -- Mike Lawless, NCR E&M Wichita, Box 20 (316) 636-8666 (NCR: 654-8666) 3718 N. Rock Road, Wichita, KS 67226 Mike.Lawless@Wichita.NCR.COM {ece-csc,hubcap,gould,rtech}!ncrcae!ncrwic!Mike.Lawless {sdcsvax,cbatt,dcdwest,nosc.ARPA}!ncr-sd!ncrwic!Mike.Lawless
tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen) (12/22/89)
Mike Lawless <mlawless@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM> writes: > In article <83643@linus.UUCP> carlson@gateway.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson) writes > >If the PD fonts include documentation that shows the escape sequences to > >use to access the fonts you should be able to use MAKEPRD (comes with > >Word) to create a driver. I have never tried it with downloadable fonts, > > One more wrinkle--any fonts (downloadable or not) that are proportionally > spaced need a width table. If one is not provided with the font, you can > figure it out for yourself, although the procedure is somewhat tedious. There are two width table generators available on mims-iris.waterloo.edu (by anonymous ftp or mail); CTABLE (shareware, for MS Word and XyWrite, but somewhat buggy) and jetwidth (free, for MS Word only, but seems to work better). I suppose it's time to tell everybody about the mims-iris font archive gain. So I'll post YA announcement... \tom haapanen "now, you didn't really expect tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu my views to have anything to do watmims research group with my employer's, did you?" university of waterloo "I don't even know what street Canada is on" -- Al Capone
root@netdev.UUCP (Alex Huppenthal) (12/22/89)
In article <5728@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM> mlawless@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM (Mike Lawless) writes: >In article <83643@linus.UUCP> carlson@gateway.mitre.org (Bruce Carlson) writes >>If the PD fonts include documentation that shows the escape sequences to >>use to access the fonts you should be able to use MAKEPRD (comes with >>Word) to create a driver. I have never tried it with downloadable fonts, > >One more wrinkle--any fonts (downloadable or not) that are proportionally >spaced need a width table. If one is not provided with the font, you can >figure it out for yourself, although the procedure is somewhat tedious. > >First, make a document file containing one line for each printable character >in the font(s) in question, each line containing 30 occurrences of the same Gary Pardum has a software / sharware utility for DOS that reads a softfont, and creates a text file suitable for processing by Word 5.0's MAKEPRD. ( In fact, it makes a Word 4.0 text file that can be merged into a Word 5.0 PRD file ) It manages the creation of the width table also. There are several limitations. First, the point size is limited to 24. Second, the font types are hardcoded, so if you have HP font ID-n, in the softfont, and it isn't one of the few hardcoded IDs, then you endup with a PRD file that indicates ITCBookman, for example, where the font is actually PDBroadway. This can be corrected by editing the output of Gary's program, prior to creating the PRD file with MAKEPRD, and replacing the incorrect text and font ID's. Not pretty, but it gets the job done. I've recently tried M-Soft's EXCEL with the run-time MS Windows font / printer services. It will convert most PD soft fonts to a form that works with Windows applications. Word for Windows ( due out next year ), will support font selection via windows services, according to MS. Seems like MS windows will solve the PD font problem. For now, QFONT ( a DOS font editor ) and WORDHPLJ from Pardum, allow me to use the PD fonts from waterloo, simtel20, and various bbs's. If you don't have this software or can find it locally, send me a note - I will E-mail it. -Alex If anyone has a better way, let me know! -- Alex INTERNET: alex@comsys.COM Huppenthal UUCP: {cs.utexas.edu!texbell}!netdev!alex Communication Systems Research 6045 Buffridge Tr, Dallas, TX 75252