🚀 go-pugleaf

>What tools are available for defining new characters for PostScript 
>printers?

>Here's the background: I'm a technical writer, and I print a lot of 
>camera-ready copy from an IBM PC. I do most of this with Microsoft Word, 
>but some with Ventura Publisher. I'm becoming convinced that a 
>PostScript printer is the best solution to my recurring problems with 
>typographic quality and flexibility. Before I take the plunge, I have to 
>be sure that PostScript will do everything that my clients expect.

I am also a technical writer, although I print my camera-ready copy
from a Mac, with a certain amount of fiddling on UNIX machines,
using LaTeX. My husband does the layout for a small magazine (he
is art editor for the Society of Creative Anachronism's national
magazine, Tournaments Illuminated, in case anyone cares), also using
TeX, LaTeX, and glue. We both use a variety of PostScript printers,
including LaserWriters, Dataproducts LZR 2665s, and a PostScript
typesetter, and between us we do all the things you want to do.

For PostScript fonts, we use Fontographer on a Macintosh; for the
fiddly stuff he does, he initially draws things in Adobe Illustrator.
I tend toward the keycaps end of fonts design, rather than the swash
capitals end, and do my fiddling directly in Fontographer. This will
take care of both creating new characters, and moving old ones. Once
the fonts are created, they can be downloaded pretty much from anywhere;
this requires some fiddling I am innocent of, but I know I've downloaded
fonts from UNIX, once my husband waved a magic wand over them.

Automatic crop marks can be printed from *anything* via a small piece
of PostScript code which redefines the output page routine in the
printer.  The first time the printing house that we get typesetting
time from saw TeX make automatic crop marks, they just about fell off
their chairs.  Again, this is my husband's magic, but I'm sure he'd be
glad to give you all 3 lines of it. 

All in all, we adore PostScript printers. The ability to go to the
typesetter without difficulty is one of the best points.

	Elizabeth Zwicky
	(zwicky@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
	 zwicky@ohio-state.arpa
	 ...cbosgd!osu-cis!tut!zwicky)

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