[comp.fonts] Postscript font sample files

jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeffrey M White) (10/04/89)

  I'm not sure if these exist, I fdon't even know if they are possible, but
I figure this would be the best place to ask.  Are they are PD files available
which when printed out on a Postscript laserprinter, will give you a real
sample of that font.  Something sort of like what the Print Font Sample option
in the Apple Font Utility program does, but maybe also with a couple of 
different sizes, with bold, italic, outline, etc.  I have a form that I am
trying to reproduce on a Mac, and I would like to be able to matchup a font
on it to it's actual font name.  I know that companies sell catalogs with
font samples, but I don't want to pay any money (I'd like to find the 
exact font, but it isn't worth spending money on).  I thought about it for a
little while, and realzed that it may be difficult to provide a font sample
document without actually providing the font itself, but I still thought I
would ask anyway. 

						Jeff White
						University of Pennsylvania
						jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu

perry@ccssrv.UUCP (Perry Hutchison) (10/06/89)

In article <15066@netnews.upenn.edu> jeff@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
(Jeffrey M White) writes:

> are PD files available which when printed out on a Postscript
> laserprinter, will give you a real sample of that font ...  [in]
> a couple of different sizes, with bold, italic, outline, etc.

> I would like to be able to matchup a font [to an existing form]

> it may be difficult to provide a font sample document without actually
> providing the font itself

Since PostScript fonts are either outlines or stroke patterns, they are
inherently scalable.  A "sample" of all the characters in a font would in
fact be the font itself.

However, it would not be particularly difficult to provide sample fonts
containing, for example, only a few characters.  This would allow you to
see what it looked like at various sizes, without giving away the farm.

I don't know whether any font suppliers are actually doing this.