From: rick@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (Richard M. Warner)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: No TrueType Fonts in OS/2 2.1 ?!
Date: 11 Jan 93 17:33:27 GMT
Organization: San Jose State University, Math & CS

In article <1993Jan09.103742.2486@wes.on.ca> tomh@wes.on.ca (Tom Haapanen) writes:
>Path: sjsumcs!octopus!satyr!apple!agate!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!torn!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!watserv1!wes.on.ca!tomh
>From: tomh@wes.on.ca (Tom Haapanen)
>Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy
>Subject: Re: No TrueType Fonts in OS/2 2.1 ?!
>Message-ID: <1993Jan09.103742.2486@wes.on.ca>
>Date: 9 Jan 93 10:37:42 GMT
>References: <96122@rphroy.ph.gmr.com> <1993Jan7.221102.5932@ais.com> <1993Jan8.160458.15864@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu>
>Organization: Waterloo Engineering Software
>Lines: 19
>rick@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (Richard Warner) writes:
>> MS/Apple caused multiple problems with TrueType, but the worst is that
>> they put the cart before the horse.  They flooded the market with TT
>> fonts while printer and printer driver support was almost totally
>> lacking.                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Printer driver support lacking?  Surely not in Windows or on the Macintosh
>(both have built-in TrueType) where you don't need *any* special drivers
>to use TrueType.  And for the ubiquitous LaserJets and clones, TrueType
>works better than ATM (except for maybe ATM 2.5, which I haven't seen yet.)

Yes, Windows 3.1 and Apple System 7 support it - for supported printers
and then it is iffy.  There was no attempt to provide support for
DOS users (now there is, but that came from another vendor well after
the on-slaught of fonts), Windows 3.0, UNIX, Apple System 6, OS/2,
etc.  Like it or not, Windows 3.1 and System 7 are still used by a
minority of computer users.  Apple and Microsoft have ignored the
rest of the world.

And even in the Win 3.1 world TT support is rather problematic.  Sure,
you can use TT fonts with any *supported* Win 3.1 printers (MS has
abandoned a large number of printers in going from 3.0 to 3.1, BTW).
But that support is not all that good on the low and high ends.  Low
end 9 pin dot-matrix printers and TT do not mix all that well, esp.
at small character sizes.  ATM output on these printers is almost 
always superior to TT output.  Then, MS has totally screwed up the
high-end laser support.  I think one could make a living writing
books on how to coerce decent Win 3.1 output from Linotronic and Agfa
imagesetters.  The PSCRIPT driver has been buggier than Maine in 
June and is especially bad with imagesetters.  One of the first
caveats of imagesetter output is 'thou shalt not use TT fonts' - the
output is horrendous.  MS wrote the TT engine, MS wrote the printer
driver, so MS can take the entire blame for this one.

>TrueType may not be desirable for high-end DTP and graphic arts people, but
>it works well for "normal" users -- in my experience most people are very
>happy to have built-in TrueType.  On the other hand, I bet Adobe wishes now
>that they had been willing to give ATM away free as a part of Windows...  :)

Well, Adobe is virtually giving away ATM with Windows.  Most page
setting programs, word-processors, and graphics programs come with ATM
because Adobe is virtually giving it away to OEM's.  The reason ATM
is not *in* Windows is due to an Apple/MS alliance borne out of
printer and font licensing.

>[ \tom haapanen    "i don't even know what street canada is on" -- al capone ]
>[ tomh@wes.on.ca                   "trust the programmer" -- ansi c standard ]
>[ waterloo engineering software      "to thine own self be true" -- polonius ]
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy