changwoo@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Chang P. Woo) (05/21/91)
A minor annoying "feature" about TrueType: Here is the situation. When I use fonts such as Times 12 where bitmapped version exists, choosing styles such as italic creates a slanted image of Times 12 bitmapped instead of creating fonts out of Times Italic outline. Fortunately it only applies to screen so the printout looks fine, but it is annoying to look at un-aesthetic italic fonts on screen. I have a few possible get around to this problem: 1. Delete bitmapped fonts. It forces my Mac to create screen fonts for every size. While it is a nice solution, I find myself struggling to read TrueType-created fonts that are less than 10 points in size. Bitmapped fonts look so much better in those sizes. 2. Get bitmapped version of the styled font. Since I am annoyed mostly by italic and bold italic variations, I can put the appropriate screen fonts. The problem is the only styled screen fonts that I have come from Adobe's version of those fonts, and they have a slightly different letterspacings than Apple's fonts. 3. Avoid usage of "common" fonts if I plan to use italic, etc. By forcing myself to use 11 or 13 point fonts when I need to italicize text, I can avoid the problem. However, that means choosing font size is a lot harder than before since most programs would force me to type the size in a dialog box instead of choosing it from menu. Is there a better solution? Maybe I am whining too much about this minor problem. Don't get me wrong. Even with this problem, TrueType is a way better than what I used to. I am just greedy. That's all. Somewhat related questions: 1. Will we see TrueType version of the other Laserwriter Plus fonts such as Palatino soon? I suppose I can buy ATM Plus Pack and FontMonger to create the necessary TrueType fonts. But for my personal use (I mainly use Stylewriter to print), while buying ATM Plus Pack is very reasonable, I cannot justify myself buying FontMonger for one time use. 2. I saw from an advertisement of MacConnection about Bitstream's TrueType font packages. Unfortunately the ad didn't mention what fonts they have. Furthermore, MacConnection doesn't offer money-back guarantee on those packages so I cannot even see how the fonts look when they are printed. Does anyone in the net know what kind of fonts they include? Thanks. Chang -- Chang P. Woo Chang.P.Woo@dartmouth.EDU