🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi,
	My parents are graphic designers, but mainly do a lot of book design.
They have a Macintosh IIci running System 7.0.1 + TuneUp 1.1.1 , a huge
24-bit colour monitor, and an IBM laser-printer that can output at 600dpi
as well as 300dpi.

	I'm the computer expert in my family, so with my virtually unlimited
ftp access to Type 1, Type 3 and TrueType fonts, and all PD Macintosh
software, it's not too hard to impress them :-)

What I would like to know, is what is the correct and/or best way to install
fonts? I use the PD version of Suitcase, Carpetbag to include bitmap fonts
that reside in a folder full of suitcases. With Carpetbag comes an extension
called LaserPath, which allows you to put all the laser font extensions in
a folder other than your Extensions Folder (I'm talking about system 7.0 here)

As for the ATM files, I leave them lying around in the System Folder. Looks
very messy.


Recently my parents complained to me that some of the fonts I installed
didn't print out. They didn't print out indeed, in fact a completely different
font was used on occasions. I thought this might be some sort of font
numbering conflict, as I had installed 60 or so bitmap fonts.

A friend of theirs came around and decided to share some of his fonts with
them. So he did what every beginner Mac-user is told to do, and copied them
all into the System file!!! Is this a good thing to do, or a bad thing to do?
The System file size increased a lot, and launching applications seemed to
take a lot longer than normal. This friend also left a copy of an
application called Font Harmoniser, which comes from the Suitcase II package
upon inspection of the About... dialogue. I thought what the heck, and
harmonised all the fonts in the fonts folder (installed with Carpetbag). I
even found a couple of dodgy fonts that did not work (Futura family). This
harmonising process took a long time, and did not seem to make any difference.


After shuffling a few files around, I found that we had more fonts than I
started with (the other guy prolly couldn't be bothered shifting everything
into the System file.. I know I couldn't!). In the laser fonts folder, there
were 168 files. I assume that means that I have approx 180 fonts installed
at startup. Unfortunately, the font menu in applications were long, but it
didn't look that long.

Anyway, one of the biggest complaints that my parents have is all the
different names for different styles of the same font, e.g. Helvetica,
I Helvetica, B Helvetica, BI Helvetica, etc....  Is there a program that
will group these fonts together, whether it produce a heirachical menu, or
implicit selection when there is a change made from a Style menu ?
Font Harmoniser said that it would do it, but it didn't. I don't know why.
Do we need Suitcase II ? What about Master Juggler?


Once my parents have this fantastic selection of fonts to use, they tell me
about when they go to the printers or publishers, with 500+ fonts installed
on their Macintoshes. I would really like to find out how they do it without
slowing the machine down to a crawl.


How would one make sample sheet printouts of all the fonts? There is a PD
program called FontPrinter, but It seems our printer runs out of memory
very quickly, and just gives up. Is there any program that can reduce the
size of a PostScript file? Or print selected font families instead of all
of them at once?


Can anyone please explain to me the difference between Type 1, Type 3,
TrueType fonts on the Macintosh, and how they are installed? I am still
unsure. IS there an FAQ? I have searched, but to no avail.


Finally, on the umich archives in the fonts directory, there is a HyperCard
stack that has previews of (apparently) freeware/shareware/PD Type 1/3/TT
fonts available. How often is this updated? What can you do once you click
on the mark box? Can you print out a selection, instead of having to go
through the whole stack again?



I know this is a long posting with lots of questions, but I would truly
appreciate any light on the matters I have raised above. I'm a computer
programmer, not an artist :-)

cheers,


--
Simon.McClenahan@mel.dit.csiro.au  \_\_ CSIRO Supercomputing Support Group
CSIRO Division of Information Technology _\_\_\_\_\_\_ tel: +61 3 282 2623
723 Swanston St, Carlton 3053 AUSTRALIA \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ fax: +61 3 282 2600
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