[comp.fonts] Outline Font Editor

djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum) (10/12/89)

I do a lot of printing with nonstandard foreign alphabet
materials (medieval Serbian, etc.) and often have to produce
new and unexpected characters (ligatures, unusual graphic
variants of standard characters, etc.).  I am using an MS-DOS
system and printing on a Hewlett Packard LaserJet Series II.
My solution so far has been to use bitmapped fonts; I generate
what characters I can from Bitstream outlines and then edit
these into the forms I need using a bitmap editor.  In some
cases I scan images of characters, scale them, and then edit
them with a bitmap editor.  The process can be laborious, but
the quality is excellent.

  There are some obvious advantages to using Postscript or a
similar outline-based system (such as the LaserMaster, which 
uses Bitstream font outlines), both for ease of using multiple
sizes and for the possiblity of integrating a monitor that uses
the same outlines.  Standard outline packages, however, will
never include all the characters I need, and I will only be
able to abandon my current bitmapped configuration when an
adequate outline editor becomes available.

  The minimum requirement for such an editor is that it enable
me to draw new outline characters and modify existing outlines
to make new characters.  The only product that I know of for an
MS-DOS environment that remotely meets this requirement is ZSoft's
Publisher's Typefoundry, but users tell me that it has a number of
limitations.

  First, I am told that it uses a proprietary outline format, so
that you can not edit genuine Postscript or Bitstream outlines
and produce a new Postscript or Bitstream outline that will be
acceptable to systems that require such outlines.  What you can
do is convert a large bitmapped font to a ZSoft outline, use the
outline to generate bitmapped fonts in other sizes, and then use
a bitmap editor to clean them up.

  Second, I have heard that ZSoft simulates curves by using a large
number of small line segments, which is not as smooth as a genuine
curve and which requires a lot of memory.  One user told me that the
ZSoft editor comes with good outline fonts the use curves, but that
you can not use the editor to create fonts of the same quality.

  An additional problem is that outline fonts require hints to
print accurately in small sizes.  The editor would have to include
a provision for adding the necessary hints to my edited characters.
Since the quality of the printed output is paramount and since I can
not manage without the unusual characters that are unlikely to be in
any commercial inventory, any system that does not provide these 
capabilities is less satisfactory than my current bitmapped configura-
tion.

  Is anyone familiar with an editor that will do what I need?
Does anyone know something I don't know about the ZSoft editor?  I
am not wholly opposed to switching to a MacIntosh environment, at
least for the font design, if there is an editor that will meet my
requirements.  The only one I have seen, Fontographer, can generate
genuine curves but apparently has no facility for incorporating hints.

  Please reply by email (addresses below) and I will post a summary
of any useful information.

  Thanks,

  David

============================================================
David J. Birnbaum           djb@wjh12.harvard.edu [Internet]
11 Adams Terrace            djb@wjh12.uucp        [UUCP]
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA     djb@harvunxw.bitnet   [Bitnet]
                            617-492-8511          [voice]
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djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum) (10/20/89)

In article <411@wjh12.harvard.edu>, I asked for information about
outlines font editors for an MS-DOS environment (PostScript or
otherwise).  I said:

>  The minimum requirement for such an editor is that it enable
>me to draw new outline characters and modify existing outlines
>to make new characters.

Additionally, the editor had to have the ability to incorporate
"hints" to insure that characters at all sizes would be formed as
cleanly as Adobe PostScript fonts.

  Nobody wrote to correct my understanding of the limitation of
ZSoft's Publisher's Typefoundry.  I did mention that I was willing
to design outlines on a MacIntosh or elsewhere, if necessary.  One
person wrote in praise of Fontographer 3.0:
________________________________________________________________
It is a complete redesign of version 2.0.  It has a much 
cleaner user interface to it.  You can read in bitmaps in various
standard Macintosh formats and have Fontographer do an excellent
job of autotracing the bitmaps to produce outlines.  Fontographer
will of course output bitmap fonts at any desired size in the
normal range (4 pt to 127 pt if I recall correctly).  Fontographer
uses Nimbus Q hinting technology to assure legible type at small
sizes.  The documentation suggests that this works by checking the
letter form for near horizontal and near vertical strokes of identical
weight and performing device pixel rounding to ensure that they retain
identical weight on output.

However, it is true that Fontographer does not yet parse Adobe Type 1
fonts (although no doubt a future release will, once Adobe releases
its Type 1 format next year) and that it uses its own PostScript routines
to create Adobe Type 3 fonts.
____________________________________________________________________

  This evaluation was confirmed by another reader.  I telephoned Altsys,
the manufacturer of Fontographer (214-424-4888); they confirmed all the
details above, emphasizing that their fonts would work on any PostScript
device whatsoever, except for the lack of support for ATM, which is unique
to genuine Adobe fonts.  They said that the rumor that Adobe would release
the details for type 1 fonts is still a rumor and nothing has been
released yet, but they will certainly look into type 1 if the details
become available.

  All in all, this seems like the best product.  Given the company's
general but good-natured scorn for MS-DOS ("We think that IBM stands for
'I bought MacIntosh.'"), it is unlikely that Fontographer will be re-
leased in an MS-DOS format, although we can hope this will change as
GUIs for MS-DOS become better established.

  Meanwhile, another reader mentioned a font editor for Sun systems:

Typographics, Ltd., 46 Hehalutz St., Jerusalem 96222, Israel,
972-2-537819, Jakob Gonczarowski, contact.  

  John Koontz offered the following additional information:

In regard to filters, The Font Center, 509 Marin St., 121, Thousand
Oaks, CA  91360 (805) 373-1919 has a font system which involves a 
proprietary bitmap format .PMF.  They sell filters from TeX pixel
file format (.PXL in their usage, at least) to .PMF, and also back and
forth between .PMF and LaserJet format (.LJP in their usage) or Windows
format (Windows .FNT).  I don't know how much polishing is needed.

For reviews of ZSoft's PTF, see Personal Publishing (Aug 1988) 4.7:40-52
(reviews Vers. 1.1); PC World (Jul 1988) ?.?:161-162 (reviews 1.02).

  Thanks to everyone who responded.  I tried to reply personally by mail,
but a global thanks to anyone whose mail went astray.

--David
============================================================
David J. Birnbaum           djb@wjh12.harvard.edu [Internet]
11 Adams Terrace            djb@wjh12.uucp        [UUCP]
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA     djb@harvunxw.bitnet   [Bitnet]
                            617-492-8511          [voice]
============================================================
COMPUSERVE: Mail may be sent from Compuserve by addressing
it to:
   >INTERNET: djb@wjh12.harvard.edu
Note that the greater-than sign is required.
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MCI: Mail may be sent from MCI by:
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Please do not trust the reply feature of your mail program
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jeynes@adobe.COM (Ross A. Jeynes) (10/28/89)

In article <415@wjh12.harvard.edu> djb@wjh12.UUCP (David J. Birnbaum) writes:
>to genuine Adobe fonts.  They said that the rumor that Adobe would release
>the details for type 1 fonts is still a rumor and nothing has been
>released yet, but they will certainly look into type 1 if the details
>become available.

This is not just a rumor.  At the Seybold desktop publishing conference in
San Francisco last month, Adobe announced that we will be releasing our 
type 1 format specification.  It's release is currently scheduled for first 
quarter of 1990.


Ross Jeynes              
Developer Support                                   jeynes@adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated                 {sun|decwrl}!adobe!jeynes