From: eric.baatz@East.Sun.COM (Eric Baatz - Sun BOS Software)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Ares' Chameleon
Date: 11 Nov 1992 19:10:21 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc. - BDC
Distribution: world
Reply-To: eric.baatz@East.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: cabernet.east.sun.com

Any comments on the following?  Am I the last kid on the block to hear
about this?  I wonder about the quality of the output given that
automatic hinting isn't exactly a solved problem.  I also presume,
given FontMonger, that Chameleon's output can be pretty much any
font format I choose.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the Window Manager column by Brian Livingston in the November 2,
1992 edition of "Infoworld:"

Ares' Chameleon will change the face of the font business

[two paragraphs of chitchat deleted]

One of the most interesting developments I've seen is a revolutionary
font technology that will change the way all fonts are packaged and
sold.  Called Chameleon, this technology has been developed under
tight wraps by Ares Software of Foster City, Calif.  Ares is best
known in the Macintosh market for its utilities that convert
PostScript fonts to TrueType and vice versa.  But in the past few
months, it has also released its FontMonger and FontMinder utilities
in Windows versions as well.

Chameleon isn't a font utility but an actual font.  The difference
between Chameleon and ordinary font files, however, is spectacular.
Ares Software has found a way to pack almost every text typeface you
can think of into a single file.  This means that you can install
typefaces like Avant Garde Gothic and Bookman on demand.

Even better, you can modify typefaces or combine two different faces
into an original creation of your own design.  Much like the
"Morphing" effect you see in special-effects movies, you'll be able to
tell Chameleon to give you a typeface that's "80 percent Avant Garde
and 20 percent Bookman."  You can watch the effect change as you tweak
the settings.

Programmers who worked on the project say you'll be able to create more
than 4 billion different typefaces using Chameleon.  Yet it will ship
on a single 720K floppy and list for $295 (with a street price
probably around $175).

I've long complained about the price of PostScript type.  When Adobe
had a monopoly on the PostScript language, it priced individual
PostScript font families higher than some major applications.  Then
Microsoft created a price war among type vendors by pricing the 44
faces in its TrueType Font Pack below $50 (with a Windows 3.1
upgrade).

In response, other TrueType vendors began selling their faces as
libraries, rather than individually.  Now Ares will shift type sales
toward single, low-cost files from which you can create as many
typefaces as you like.

Ares has figured out the essential characteristics of all text
typefaces.  All type designs start with the outline of a basic
alphabet, then dress it up with serifs and so on.

Far from merely copying the outlines of other type vendors, Ares has
generated its own master outline and manipulates it endlessly.  The
company calls this "parametric technology."

I call it something that will shoot a big hole in Adobe's Multiple
Master type technology.  Multiple Master allows a magazine designer to
distort one or two typefaces into enough shapes to fill a whole
publication.  But only three Multiple Master families are currently
available, and they're expensive.  When a designer has 4 billion faces
to choose from, that's selection.

Parametric technology will soon trickle down into desktop
applications.  Your word processor will be able to generate a font
that's say, 2 percent smaller, so your newsletter will fit into 16
pages instead of 16 1/2.  And electronic publishers will distribute
magazines on disk, with Chameleon providing the fonts.

Like a lot of the best new technology that's introduced at Comdex,
Chameleon won't be demonstrated in a booth on the show floor.  Because
the product isn't shipping or even announced--until now--Ares is
showing it in a hotel suite by appointment only.  Contact Ares
Software at (415) 578-9090 for more information.


Newsgroups: comp.fonts,comp.lang.postscript