Re: Somewhat related font viewing question

[Dov Isaacs <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 10/8/98 03:48 PM , mark barratt wrote:
>At 11:05 08/10/98 -0400, Debbi Leipold wrote:
>>I am looking for a Windows utility that will allow you to view used fonts
>>and their technical information (the actual bitmap maybe).  Does anybody
>>know of one?
>
>The tools for big girls are
>
>Fontographer (Macromedia) - excels at PostScript 
>
>FontLab (Pyrus) - best for TrueType
>
>Both are in Windows (also Mac). They will tell you more than you want to
>know about any font - and let you change it all.
>
>Maybe these are overkill. Adobe ATM DeLuxe shows & prints samples.
>
>PostScript fonts have bitmaps, but most people use ATM, which builds
>bitmaps 'on the fly' from font outlines to suit screen resolution.
>
>TrueType fonts don't have bitmaps at all: they always build screen images
>from font outlines.
>
>Both formats send outline data to printers where bitmaps at the printer's
>resolution are built by the RIP (raster image processor) built into or
>attached to the printer. (There are exceptions to this, as I'm sure Dov can
>point out).


Did I see my name used in vain?

Actually, Type 1 fonts do not have "bitmaps" at all. They are strictly
bezier curve-based outline data plus control information. In order to accomodate
the Mac's font subsystems, Type 1 fonts for the Mac are supplied with at a bitmap
font equivalent at one pointsize (at least). Note that on Windows, ATM in fact
creates all text from outlines only!

Looking at a bitmap equivalent of an outline font, whether Type 1 or TrueType,
on a screen would be rather misleading. Why? Because unless you specified the
resolution of the target device as well as the target pointsize, you wouldn't
have the correct "grid" and scale for the bitmap. Furthermore, you would not
be able to correct assess the results of hinting applied at the output device.

In terms of where fonts are realized for the output device, normally one
keeps font information as outlines, whether Type 1 or TrueType (Type 42 is
native Adobe PostScript support for TrueType) until the RIPing process itself.
It is possible via PostScript's Type 3 font mechanism to download fonts already
realized as bitmaps at a particular size and resolution, but there is generally
no good reason to do so, especially if you want/need to retarget output to any
number of different device resolutions, such as you would with Acrobat PDF.

	- Dov

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