baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) (04/16/91)
In article <62@goblin.ntg.uucp> dplatt@ntg.uucp (Dave Platt) writes:
I bought a copy of FontMonger this week (ordered it from MacConnection
the same day they got their first shipment... it's serial number 26!).
[ favorable review deleted ]
I was just curious... how does FontMonger compare to Metamorphosis and
Evolution? Are there things one can do that the others cannot?
I'm particularly concerned with hinting. You noted that FontMonger
preserves hints, but has anyone tried converting an Adobe Type 1 font
to TrueType and comparing the results?
--
Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart,
Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you."
baumgart@esquire.dpw.com |
cmcl2!esquire!baumgart | - David Lettermandplatt@ntg.uucp (Dave Platt) (04/19/91)
In article <BAUMGART.91Apr15172103@esquire.esquire.dpw.com> baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) writes: >I'm particularly concerned with hinting. You noted that FontMonger >preserves hints, but has anyone tried converting an Adobe Type 1 font >to TrueType and comparing the results? I haven't tried this with any Adobe Type 1 fonts, as I don't own any. I did do a comparison of two freeware Type 1 fonts that I'd converted to TrueType. I printed a small sample of text using the Type 1 PostScript file, then installed the TrueType outline font and printed the identical text. Text was printed in 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, and 36 point type. I don't know whether either of these fonts has a significant amount of Type 1 hinting information. Harrington: there is very little difference between the PostScript rendering and the TrueType rendering. Some subtle differences are visible along certain diagonal outlines... the "staircasing" of the printer's 300 dpi matrix is slightly different (the TrueType rendering looks a trifle smoother in some cases). The TrueType version of the character "t" shows a small roughness along the upper right portion of the stem, where the PostScript rendering has an entirely straight stem; this seems to occur only at 36 points, not at larger or smaller sizes. Graphic Light: slight differences visible. The most obvious differences are in the upper bar of the "T" character, and in the cup at the bottom of the "p". The TrueType versions of these characters appear to be one pixel "thinner" than the PostScript versions, at small point sizes on a 300 DPI printer. Inspection of the larger sizes shows that the TrueType rendering is probably more correct... the top of the "T" is recessed slightly, with respect to the top edges of the serifs, and the botton of the "p" is also slightly recessed or scalloped. TrueType is retaining these insets even at small point-sizes; the PostScript rendering omits them, and simply fills in the bar and cup when rendering at 10 or 12 point sizes. [Sorry about my uses of the terms "inset", "stem", "bar", and "cup", as they're probably wrong... I'm not a typographer.] Harrington and Graphic Light are among the fonts that I've sent off to the Info-Mac archive at SUMEX and to the UMich archive. You can download them from one of those sites if you want to run additional experiments and comparisons. The FontMonger documentation does warn that converting fonts from one outline format to another may change the leading slightly, and require repagination of documents that were originally formatted with the pre-conversion font outline. -- Dave Platt VOICE: (415) 813-8917 UUCP: ...apple!ntg!dplatt USNAIL: New Technologies Group Inc. 2468 Embarcardero Way, Palo Alto CA 94303
Adam.Frix@p18.f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) (04/20/91)
baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) writesl: SB> I was just curious... how does FontMonger compare to Metamorphosis SB> and Evolution? Are there things one can do that the others cannot? SB> I'm particularly concerned with hinting. You noted that FontMonger SB> preserves hints, but has anyone tried converting an Adobe Type SB> 1 font to TrueType and comparing the results? From what I can tell, Ares Software has a right to crow about their hinting methods when translating Type 1 to TrueType. Looks pretty good. There's a buglet in FMonger 1.0 when translating characters with descenders; the entire character gets squished down a bit, and it looks ugly as hell on screen. Allegedly, it prints OK. Anyway, Ares says this is fixed in FMonger 1.01. So far, Metamorphosis Pro 2.0 can do a few things FMonger can't: namely, it can translate to PS and TT formats for the IBM, and to PS format for the NeXT. It can also export font outlines to PICT format, which FMonger 1.0 can't do. However, FontMonger 1.01, which should be available as you read this, _can_ export font outlines to PICT. (Both of them, of course, can export font outlines to Illustrator and EPSF. FMonger gives you the option of having these outlines filled.) As for translating to TT/IBM format, this might be an example of a feature that's before its time: it seems that Microsoft just recently diddled with the TrueType PC format yet again, and that may mean that any fonts translated by Meta Pro 2.0 might not work. Nobody will know until Microsoft releases TT for DOS. Ares Software is waiting to add such a capability to FMonger until the TT/DOS format is finalized. Of course, don't overlook what FMonger _can_ do. Meta Pro is a font conversion utility, plain and simple. FMonger, on the other hand, allows you to diddle with fonts and characters, just like Fontographer can do. And Fontographer is a $250 program, with FontMonger costing only $63. So, you could buy Fontographer for $250 and Meta Pro for $85, **or** you could buy FMonger for $63 and have the same capabilities as the other two combined. And FMonger gives you the power to do some simple things that you need to do: creating real fractions. It's as simple as choosing the format (horizontal divider bar or slash-type divider bar), typing in the upper and lower numbers, and assigning the result to a keystroke. Voila. You can also create a composite character (one keystroke for, say, your company name or whatever), and you can import Illustrator and EPS artwork directly to a keystroke. All in all, I think FontMonger is a winner of a product. --Adam-- -- Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!20.18!Adam.Frix INET: Adam.Frix@p18.f20.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG