Thread View: comp.lang.postscript
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Started by Richard Sexton
Wed, 16 Dec 1987 10:15
PostScript Language Journal
Author: Richard Sexton
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1987 10:15
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1987 10:15
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Just received my latest issue of PLJ, and I must say I am impressed.
Very impressed.
The first two were good, well, a little bit better than just good,
but issue #3 is absolutely outstanding. The insights into color
printing were excellent.
Two questions:
What is all this Ikarus stuff ? Details anybody ?
Why were the color illustrations (except for the color fountain)
so pale ? They looked like they wern't saturated enough.
Also, a strange observation: on page mumble-mumble (damn, left the
issue at work) there appears to be a 1 point, white, vertical line
streaking down through all the text. Errant software perhaps ?
--
"Well they say, that Santa Fe, is more, than 90 miles away"
{ihnp4!crash, hplabs!hp-sdd!crash}!gryphon!richard || richard@gryphon.CTS.COM
Re: URW IKARUS (was PLJ)
Author: Andrew Tannenbaum
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1987 19:28
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1987 19:28
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In article <2612@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
> What is all this Ikarus stuff ? Details anybody ?
IKARUS is a system for manipulating typefaces. It was created by Dr.
Peter Karow of URW (a typeface house) in Hamburg, Germany. The IKARUS
format hierarchy includes the following formats:
IG IKARUS graphic, structured hand-digitizations
IK IKARUS, hand-digitizations
DI display, circles/straights
VC vector/circle
VS vector/scaling
VE vectors
SC scanlines, run lengths
SN scanline nibbles
BI bitmap
GS greyscale, bytemap
This table is from section 6.2 of Karow's book "Digital Formats for
Typefaces," (URW Verlag 1987 ISBN 3-926515-01-5) which is distributed
in the US by URW in Nashua NH. (I first heard about this book from a
Chuck Bigelow netnews item from around June 1987.) I got my copies in
Boston from a company called "The Company," which has offices at the
Boston World Trade Center. I haven't seen it in bookstores yet.
What good is IKARUS?
Part of the IKARUS system's grace is that its formats are public
knowledge, and the formats seem quite well thought out. There is some
basis on 16 bit word size, but in the typeface biz, 32767 seems to be a
sufficiently big number for a glyph's X or Y dimension or for the number
of glyphs in a typeface. It seems that IKARUS's use is becoming
widespread in the typeface industry, with users including Adobe, ITC,
Compugraphic, Bigelow and Holmes, and many others. URW offers software
for manipulating data in these formats.
What's in the book?
If you are in the digital typesetting biz, I would advise you to
find a copy of this book (run, don't walk). It discusses
the various devices which use digital typefaces, different sorts of
storage formats, URW's IKARUS system, and detailed instructions about
how to scan in your own typefaces. ("This is a digitizing sensor. It
is held as shown...") After you scan in the images, it explains what
kind of glitches the glyphs will have, and how they are corrected.
Karow's book costs $44 for the first copy, $22 for each additional
copy. (Yes, this is strange.) It's a high quality paperback, 400pp
5.5"x8.25". I know I got $44 worth out of it. I hope they change this
pricing strategy. It's translated from German, which sometimes makes
it somewhere between quaint and ever-so-slightly hard to read.
Considering that technical writing is always a challenge, I'd have
to say that this book is quite readable, and a gold mine of information.
I am currently dealing with the problem of typefaces and compatibility
between video displays, laser printers, and the storage formats of
typeface vendors and software systems. The sooner we have standard
software and data structures to deal with typeface data, the more
productive people who use them will be able to be. IKARUS looks like
a viable format to suit this end, though the data formats seem to be
better developed than the associated user interface software technology.
URW is working on that, and I'd like to hear about others who are
involved in this area. (Are there any font design software systems
out there that aren't prohibitively expensive? Are there any flexible
ones that can be used with different front ends for different formats?)
Andrew Tannenbaum Interactive Boston, MA +1 617 247 1155
Re: PostScript Language Journal
Author: Krik Ziegler
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1987 19:01
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1987 19:01
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In article <2612@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
>Just received my latest issue of PLJ, and I must say I am impressed.
>
What is the address for subscriptions?
Jim Lick
Re: PostScript Language Journal
Author: Harry Burford
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1987 05:44
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1987 05:44
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In article <254@hub.ucsb.edu> basin@hub.UUCP (Krik Ziegler) writes: >In article <2612@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: >>Just received my latest issue of PLJ, and I must say I am impressed. >> > What is the address for subscriptions? > Jim Lick Got a copy sitting here in front of me..... Its: The PostScript Language Journal Box 5763 Parsippany, NJ 07054 $15/Yr (4 issues) or $25/2yr (8 issues) Canada/Mexico +$2/yr. Overseas +$4/yr or +$10/airmail I think you will enjoy it. Harry.Burford@Wichita.NCR.COM -- Harry Burford - NCR E & M Wichita, Printer Engineering PHONE: 316-688-8016 FAX: 316-688-8889 Harry.Burford@Wichita.NCR.COM C-Serve: 76367,151
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