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

[Leonard Rosenthol]

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 ;).

	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%...



> |       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".


> 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 ;).



> 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.


Leonard
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Leonard Rosenthol                            <mailto:address@hidden>
                                             <http://www.lazerware.com>