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In article <38688@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
)baumgart@esquire.dpw.com (Steve Baumgarten) writes:
)
)>To be fair, the copy-protection and stuff applies to LetraStudio,
)>their typeface program.  I think they dropped it (or are dropping
)>it?) and I've heard they're going to support Bitstream fonts as well.
)
)Big deal. They dropped CP after their entire customer base screamed bloody
)murder and after they realized nobody was buying the package. So now they're
)going to support Bitstream fonts -- but what about Adobe fonts? And type 3
)fonts? and anything other than they're overpriced fonts and a set of fonts
)nobody in the Mac world really seems to be using?
)
)And why buy Letrastudio when, for less money you can buy Typestyler and hack
)on Type 1 and type 3 fonts? Or buy the new add-on to ATM that does most of
)it even less? 
)

I (also speaking for myself) offer the following remarks on LetraStudio:

Perhaps it might help if I offer a little LetraStudio history (get
comfy). It all begins with the Letraset library, a unique icon in the
world of fonts. It's purpose was made simple: offer the designer a
cheap solution for using high quality display type. Buy a sheet of
specific types for a specific purpose. Great idea and profitable for
all concerned. In the process Letraset became one of the first users of
the Ikarus system (at one time they even owned the rights to it).
Letraset developed a penchant for fine-tuning their fonts by increasing
the number of data points to handle all the unique outline shapes their
fonts possessed.

Then along came desktop. Letraset's dilemma: What to do with a font
structure that no one in the digital world knew what to do with (not
even Apple)? I am referring to the display type designer's practice of
creating alternative characters (not to be confused with alternate
character sets, like small caps...) that will often extend a font set
well beyond 256 characters. Do they slice up the font (like Adobe's
version of Freestyle), or do they maintain its integrity for the sake
of their users? Letraset goes with the users and develops the LetraFont
format and philosophy: maintain the extended layout, the high
resolution data format, and develop LetraStudio as an application for
applying their fonts. 1.5 modifies that philosophy to also allow users
access to PostScript fonts as well.

Regarding copy-protection, as an international company Letraset
originally respected Europe's tradition of font protection. But when
the U.S. users wanted copy-protection lifted, they lifted it.
LetraStudio 1.5 imports fonts in the following format: PostScript Type
1, PostScript Type 3, LetraFonts (162 as of this writing and not
copy-protected).  LetraStudio exports PICT, EPSF, and Illustrator 1.1
formats. Letraset has also enhanced their envelope effects in this
upgrade.

Regarding feature sets, pricing, DA solutions, and two words of
support: 1) TypeStyler's "frame" philosophy has already received
reviews questioning its typographic sensibility, 2) everyone can be
undersold at any time, 3) DA programs have a dim future in System 7.0.,
4) stay loose.

--Mr. Talk Radio


-- 
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	"A lawn savant, who'll lop a tree-ee-uh,"--Marquis de Sod