[Freetype] Re: [Pfaedit-devel] Re: what is the best format for fonts storage/distribution?

[Vadim Plessky]

On Friday 23 August 2002 3:46 am, Leonard Rosenthol wrote:
|  At 7:08 PM +0400 8/22/02, Vadim Plessky wrote:
|  >On Tuesday 20 August 2002 8:08 pm, Leonard Rosenthol wrote:
|  >|   Because only recently (Windows 2000 & Mac OS X) did the major
|  >|  OS platforms start supporting it w/o the need for add-ons (eg. Adobe
|  >|  Type Manager).
|  >
|  >You need to install ATM 4.1, to be able to render OpenType under Windows
|  > 98.
|
|       I am aware of that - read what I wrote again ;).
|

I had ATM Deluxe 4.0 installed, and had *impression* that it's the last/best 
version.
And in fact ATM 4.1 installer was surprised and asked me *why I want to 
install Light version over Deluxe?*
Probbaly Adobe installer doesn't know that ATM Deluxe 4.1 is not available for 
download (I mean, for free)  :-)

|       If you want REAL OpenType support on Windows, upgrade to
|  either 2000 or XP.  Anything else, as you note, is a hack and not
|  100%...

Thanks for the tip, I would consider this.

|
|  >|   Adobe is shipping ALL NEW FONTS as OpenType, as well as going
|  >|  back and redoing many of their most popular faces as Extended
|  >|  OpenType (with all the ligatures, etc.)
|  >
|  >I did some further research.
|  >
|  >About Adobe:
|  >
|  >I have checked
|  >http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html
|  >and Type -> Type downloads
|  >http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=190
|
|       Forget about that!   Look at their commercial fonts -
|  <http://www.adobe.com:80/products/fontfolio/main.html>.   Note the
|  "more then 175 fonts in the cross-platform OpenType Pro format".
|

Thanks, I have found later that *commercial fonts* are available in OpenType.
Can you explain what is OpenType Pro and where the docs about it can be found?
What kind of improvement OT Pro over OT?

|  >Are you sure that  Windows ME supports OpenType?
|
|       Nope, not sure at all.  Never used it...I can, however, vouch
|  that 2000 and XP support it since I've used OT fonts with both.
|
|  >BTW: I do not see that Win2k/XP get market share from Windows 98.
|  >Win98/95 has about  75% share of all Windows system used, and
|  > WinNT/2000/XP - accounts just for 25%.
|
|       I didn't say they HAD it, but that it is increasing.  And
|  given the improvements in technology in the newer systems (such as OT
|  support) - that's a good thing!
|
|       It would be like you comparing KDE 1.0 ;).

Well, I have licensed copy of Windows 98, wjich came with my notebook.
My wife recently bought a new notebook (3 months ago), and it cam ewith Win98 
SE as well.

So, I comparing *latest hardware with pre-installed /supposely/ latest 
software* with latest release of KDE (which is KDE 3.0.3, stable branch)

And KDE3 is superior to Win98, for sure.
Should I say here that OpenType is supported?  ;-)
// not for printing, though. I bug-reported TrolTech abouth this already.

Not to mention: 255 shades of gray for anti-aliased rendering, etc.
Of course credits go to FreeType and RENDER ext., for supporting these 
features.
But KDE *has* those features, so why not to mention them?

|
|  >Therefor, it's unlikely OpenType will get acceptance soon (next 2-3
|  > years).:-( (as MacOS X is limited to PowerPC / Apple hardware, and
|  > Passport in WinXP is extremly annoying)
|  >
|  >But we can try to promote it on Linux/UNIX'es, though
|
|       Promoting it on Linux is fine, but that won't convince font
|  foundries to support it.  They only care about Mac OS and Windows,
|  since that's where the people who pay for fonts are.
|

Well, my plan is *to bring good fonts to Linux/UNIX* - first priority, and (if 
it doesn't cost extra effort) - to make available those fonts for Windows 
(Mac?) users as well.

But Linux/XFree86 (GNOME, KDE, etc.) is, for sure, my first priority!

As about  font foundries - I do not think they will help here.
We need to do all on our own!
Hopefully, I *was* in Font Development/DTP business, so there is nothing new 
those foundries can offer.
May be, with exception of Adobe - which (as it seems, according to your mails) 
is quite active in OpenType development.
It would be nice if they can donate some code to PfaEdit/FreeType (related to 
OT rendering/generation) - but so far it hasn't happened.

|
|  Leonard

-- 

Vadim Plessky
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