sanglee@.Berkeley.EDU (Sang-Ho Lee) (03/27/91)
Yet another question on TrueType: on style variations of common fonts: Suppose the sfnt versions of Times, Times italic, Times bold, Times bold italic are installed in the System. The bitmap versions (NFNT) of a few sizes of Times (plain) are also installed in the System. If you select Times Italic at a size for which the bitmap of Times (plain) is installed, the latter will be slanted instead of the sfnt of the true italic being invoked. The same thing happens with other styles or other faces. Is this intentional? Why?
minich@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) (03/28/91)
by sanglee@.Berkeley.EDU (Sang-Ho Lee): | Yet another question on TrueType: on style variations of common fonts: | | Suppose the sfnt versions of Times, Times italic, Times bold, Times bold | italic are installed in the System. The bitmap versions (NFNT) of a few | sizes of Times (plain) are also installed in the System. | | If you select Times Italic at a size for which the bitmap of Times (plain) | is installed, the latter will be slanted instead of the sfnt of the true | italic being invoked. The same thing happens with other styles or other | faces. | | Is this intentional? Why? The easiest and probably best solution is to remove the bitmaps of Times from your system, assuming your Times bits look like mine (standard stuff with Apple's sys software), which DO NOT seem to match the TrueType fonts spacing and sizing. I find the TT just as readable at the same size, so I use that instead. Is this intentional? I don't know. Here is my guess for the day: using the bitmap fonts, you can override TT if you like. If you don't want the oblique (QuickDraw just shears the fonts) then get rid of the bitmaps. If you want the bitmaps for other reasons (speed, teeny sizes) then you should get your hands on real italic bitmaps as well. (I don't know where they are since I don't feel the need.) If QuickDraw used TT for the italic and the bitmap for the plain, the fonts I have wouldn't match very well. The same also applys to bold and bold italic also. As a side note, it appears that TT fonts undergo something more elaborate than just a shear of a bitmap. I'm guessing that it slants the outline and then rasterizes that. It looks much better than plain shearing to me. Compare the old Helvetica bitmap sheared for italics with the TT version. The bitmap was sheared to with a "nice" offset per line so it's diagonals are regularly spaced. The TT version uses a nasty angle that doesn't look very good in small to medium sizes on screen. (I don't know how it looks on a medium resolution, like the ImageWriter.) -- |_ /| | Robert Minich | |\'o.O' | Oklahoma State University| "I'm not discouraging others from using |=(___)= | minich@d.cs.okstate.edu | their power of the pen, but mine will | U | - "Ackphtth" | continue to do the crossword." M. Ho
umh@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (03/29/91)
In article <1991Mar27.165700.5267@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu>, minich@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) writes: > by sanglee@.Berkeley.EDU (Sang-Ho Lee): > | Yet another question on TrueType: on style variations of common fonts: > | > | Suppose the sfnt versions of Times, Times italic, Times bold, Times bold > | italic are installed in the System. The bitmap versions (NFNT) of a few > | sizes of Times (plain) are also installed in the System. > | > | If you select Times Italic at a size for which the bitmap of Times (plain) > | is installed, the latter will be slanted instead of the sfnt of the true > | italic being invoked. The same thing happens with other styles or other > | faces. > | > | Is this intentional? Why? > > The easiest and probably best solution is to remove the bitmaps of > Times from your system, assuming your Times bits look like mine > (standard stuff with Apple's sys software), which DO NOT seem to match > the TrueType fonts spacing and sizing. I find the TT just as readable at > the same size, so I use that instead. > |_ /| | Robert Minich | > |'o.O' | Oklahoma State University| "I'm not discouraging others from using > |=(___)= | minich@d.cs.okstate.edu | their power of the pen, but mine will > | U | - "Ackphtth" | continue to do the crossword." M. Ho This is not quite so practical as it might sound. Those of us who are addicted to popchar know by now that this will not display its characters unless th bitmaps at 12point are present. It would not surprise me if there are other bits and pieces around that act in the same way. My solution was to install only the 12 point bitmaps and use times at 14 and helvetica at 13 or 11- really kludgy. A related matter- is there still a system font size limit of 127 points. When I first got TrueType I tried creating banner size letters and every application I tried gave me a maximum size of 127 points. Then a quick skim through of Inside Mac confirmed that the maximum point size was 127. Is this now obsolete so Word 5 and other system 7 programs will allow sizes up to 32000points or whatever? Maynard Handley