gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (05/26/89)
Sun, Adobe, and Apple have all announced the "opening" of their
outline font technologies. Each one has its own features and
drawbacks:
* Sun's "Open Fonts" or "F3" has an AI program that automatically
"hints" the fonts.
* But the format is not documented and is only available under license.
Source code for the font interpreter is provided under license, though.
Sun's X/NeWS will interpret these fonts. It's not clear whether AT&T's
X/NeWS will, or any other third party's, since it is separately licensed.
* Adobe has numerous existing fonts, and announced rendering support
for "all mainstream platforms", whatever that means.
* But THEY get to pick mainstreams, which probably doesn't include
X or NeWS -- just low end computers.
* And their format is still proprietary and not even available under
license, though various companies claim to have cracked it. Binary
programs which interpret the format will someday be available, like
Display PostScript.
* Apple's new font format is documented.
* However, there is this little note in the back of the manual, on
page 12 of the "Q&A" section: "Companies interested in building their
own version of the interpreter should consult with Apple, since there
are possible legal difficulties in doing so." Until further clarified,
I interpret this to mean, "You are welcome to create fonts in this
format, but if you try to use these fonts on something other than a
Mac, we will sue you." This completely negates the value of
documenting the format, which is why it's buried in the back of the
manual.
It's my analysis that these companies talked to each other, but none
of them was willing to let the others co-control their format, so
eventually all three were released.
Any comments from the peanut gallery?
--
John Gilmore {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.dan@osiris.sics.se (Dan Sahlin) (05/26/89)
Do Apple's new fonts contain "hints" like Sun's and Adobe's? I understand that that is essential for low resolution devices. /Dan Sahlin, SICS email: dan@sics.se
prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) (05/27/89)
In article <7438@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: >Sun, Adobe, and Apple have all announced the "opening" of their >outline font technologies. Each one has its own features and >drawbacks: Mr. Gilmore then describes the merits and drawbacks with each format and gives his comments on them. >It's my analysis that these companies talked to each other, but none >of them was willing to let the others co-control their format, so >eventually all three were released. > >Any comments from the peanut gallery? There will soon be four formats, I think... Microsoft is reportedly working on their very own page description language that they eventually hope will replace Adobe's PostScript as the de-facto standard (so what's wrong with PostScript besides that Mr. Gates can't buy it?) It will supposedly contain yet another outline font format. -- Robert Claeson E-mail: rclaeson@erbe.se ERBE DATA AB
capslock@cup.portal.com (Allen M Crider) (05/28/89)
Neither Apple's or Sun's formats represent any technological breakthrough
over what Adobe has. Besides, I can do nice halftones, transformations
and even mathematics with my PostScript Interpreter. You get what you
pay for, and neither Apple or Sun are really going to give away their
formats for free.
Besides, I'm in no mood to buy another font library.
karl@umb.umb.edu (Karl Berry.) (05/28/89)
If Sun is not releasing the F3 format, it's not exactly OpenFonts, is it? How distressing. I guess that we will have to create yet another intelligent format for ghostscript. karl@umb.edu ...!harvard!umb!karl
usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) (06/02/89)
In article <2686@osiris.sics.se> dan@sics.se (Dan Sahlin) writes: >Do Apple's new fonts contain "hints" like Sun's and Adobe's? >I understand that that is essential for low resolution devices. Someone from Apple posted a note on comp.sys.mac about this. He said that there are hints, they work on rotated text, and they are good enough that Apple will probably not be distributing bitmap versions of their fonts (he said that down to 8 or 9-point fonts, the hints produce clean characters). +---------------------------+------------------------+ | Anton Rang (grad student) | "VMS Forever!" | | Michigan State University | rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu | +---------------------------+------------------------+