Here are some interesting discussions about TrueType vs Adobe PS 1 fonts re:
Helvetica /Arial that I found on the web:
Here are some interesting comments I found on the web about the history of
TrueType and Adobe PS1 fonts especially Helvetica / Arial.
FROM: Vadim PlesskyDATE: 12/30/2000 12:20:14SUBJECT: RE: true type fonts
Friday 29 December 2000 20:57, Eleknader ÎÁÐÉÓÁÌ:
| -----Original Message-----
| Dear list,
|
| I hope to do not make a fool of myself with the following question, what
is so special about (or what are the advantages of ) true type fonts?
|
I agree with most things which Eleknader shared with us.As I was in DTP
business in 1992-1993 and started using TrueType from Windows 3.1 (I even
was testing Beta of Win 3.1; still there was no mechanism to report bugs to
MS :-), I'd like to add something for people who are interested in TrueType.
TrueType font technology was co-developed by Apple and Microsoft to give a
fight to Adobe. Yes, Adobe was abolute "King of the Fonts" in 1992, and it
had monopoly much more strong then Intel now on processors (about 70% or 80%
of the market) or Microsoft on Desktop (90% of the market).
Ironically, but MS was in very weak position in 1991-92 concerning fonts,
and Adobe was charging more then $100 for Adobe Type Manager and set of 35
PostScript Type1 fonts (outlines). There were a lot of discussions that
time, and may people were saying that TrueType "will not survive because
Adobe doesn't support it", and "TrueType fonts have bad quality comparing to
Postscript Type 1 fonts". Major difference between TT and PS T1 is that TT
uses for interpolation quadratic polynoms (ax^2+bx+c), while PS - cubic
(ax^3+bx^2+cx+d) Therefor, TT is rendered faster, but requires more
intersection dots. PS T1 has less segments, but needs more processing power.
Microsoft won the battle against Adobe.Thanks to that, Adobe opened Type one
specifications (which was closed), and you can have now Type 1 fonts not
only from Adobe but from many other vendors.
TrueType provides mechanism for *font scaling* and *hinting* Hinting is
process which allows renderer to re-align several pixels making glyph look
like better. If you see some ugly [TrueType] font on your display - that's
becuase hinting in it is bad or just missing.
Here is about names.
Adobe Microsoft (Monotype) Apple (Mac)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Helvetica Arial Geneva
Times Times New Roman ?
Courier Courier New ?
So, when you see FONT tag in HTMl saying fontname="Arial, Helvetica, Geneva,
Sans-Serif" you should read it as follwing:
-if there is Arial font installed (user is on MS Windows platform)
use it
-Helvetica instlled (most likely, you have somebody from publishing business
with Adobe Type manager and Helvetica typeface in Type 1 format) - use it
-there is Geneva - hey, Mac user!
-otherwise - use any Sans-Serif font (read: somebody on UNIX)
I encourage to pay some attention to this link (on my site): Do you have
Arial font installed? Just test it!
http://kde2.newmail.ru/font_test_arial.html
IMHO, it's a lot of fun 😉
| --
| Richard Bos
|
| True Type fonts are a standard. If you make a file that uses True Type
| fonts, there's a chance that someone else who opens or prints it out
will get it
| looking the same you do. Sometimes fonts are a problem: I work on a new
| media company and my co-workers have a lot problems sharing e.g. graphic
or txt
| documents because they or somebody else does not have the same fonts.
And, while
| True Type is supposed to be a standard, a Helvetica in Windows does not
look
| exactly the same as Helvetica in Macintosh...
|
| So, basically, if you want to share documents and would like them to
look
| just the same, you should have the right fonts installed. In my honest
opinion
| fonts in X windows are not good enough. You have to install additional
fonts,
| and propably pay for them. Good fonts are not free...
|
| Cheers, Eleknader
--