🚀 go-pugleaf

> = original posting by myself (Bruce Dunn)
+ = reply by Clancy Malloy

> I just installed ATM. The installation is easy, but the program has a
> number of annoying glitches that lessen its usability.
>
> 1) When using the font selection box on Word for Windows, the box
> claims that fonts which are available from the printer (ie. cartridge
> fonts) are now all printable in all sizes from 6 to 48 point. Of
> course this is nonsense. You have to remember what the actual font
> size is of a cartridge font, independently of the display of point
> sizes in the list box.

+ Read the Manual :-) ATM has the ability to create a typeface in any
+ size. That is the basic function of ATM. It creates typefaces for both
+ the screen and the printer. If you have the "use bitmap font" box
+ checked, ATM will use them. If not, it will create them.

Clancy, I *have* read the manual but you have not read my posting.  I have no
trouble with ATM creating Helvetica, Courier and Times Roman type in all sizes
from 6 point to 48 point.  It works fine, and will print out any of these three
fonts in any selected size (and does it beautifully).  What I object to is that
after ATM is installed and I use Word for Windows, WfW starts lying to me about
my cartridge fonts on my HP IIP Laserjet printer.  I have a "Great Start" HP
cartridge installed, which gives me (among other things) a 12 point Letter
Gothic typeface.  Before I installed ATM, WfW would correctly show me that "Lrt
Gothic" was only available in a 12 point size.  After installing ATM, WfW
claims that "Ltr Gothic" is available in 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 30,
32, 36, 40  and 48 points.  This is nonsense - ATM does not generate Letter
Gothic fonts (at least not the basic ATM package). Selecting Letter Gothic 6
point, Letter Gothic 12 point, and Letter Gothic 48 point from WfW all given a
12 point printout, because the font is defined at the printer.  I still have
the cartridge font but must in effect put a post-it note on my computer telling
users of WfW that no matter what the list boxes in WfW say, Letter Gothic is
only available in 12 point.


> 2) Helvetica and Times Roman fonts are duplicated somehow (both Helv
> and Helvetica, and Tms Rmn and Times appear in the list box of
> Word for Windows).

+Again. Read the Manual ;-) ATM sets aliases for Helvetica and Times. To
+remove them, just change the ATM.INI file.

The manual is far from clear on how to make the changes you suggest. I have
tried removing the alias lines that say Helv=Helvetica and Tms Rmn=Times.  The
list box in WfW still separately lists Helv, Helvetica Tms Rmn  and Times.  Do
you have any other suggestions as to how to achieve this?

Since my original posting, I have found that the two font incarnations appear
to be related as follows.  Both Helv and Helvetica print out the same material
on the printer, in any specified point size.  Helvetica appears to always use
screen fonts generated on the fly by ATM, while Helv appears to use the
original Windows screen fonts (which are in many cases superior in readability
to the ATM screen fonts) for all point sizes which are less than the number
specified in the SynonymPSBegin line of the ATM.INI file.  As ATM initially
sets itself up, this number is 9.  This means that if you specify the Helvetica
typeface you can get on-screen fonts to match any size of printout you desire,
but you are  stuck with the ugly ATM fonts.  If you specify the Helv typeface,
you get better looking screen fonts for 8 point, but you can't get a screen
font for 6 point type  because Windows doesn't have a 6 point screen font (look
at the description of the font sizes available using the fonts section of the
Control Panel) Above 9 points, Helv uses the ATM (ugly) screen fonts.  Tms Rmn
and Times are similarly related.  If this all seems confusing, that is exactly
my complaint. The manual is no help whatever on these matters.


> 3) Although point sizes of 6 are listed for supported fonts, the
> screen fonts are limited to 8 point and larger. Thus asking for 6
> point Helvetica gets you 6 point printing, but an 8 point incorrectly
> spaced screen display. This can be fixed however by changing the point
> size listed in the SynonymPSBegin= line of the ATM.INI file to 6.

+Again. Read the Manual |-) ATM will allow you to change the how small
+you can create a screen font.

I have read the manual.  That is how I started to experiment with the
SynonymPSBegin line in the ATM.INI file (read my posting).  Again the manual is
very obscure. My point is not that ATM can't be made to generate a screen font
for 6 point type, but that when installed out of the box it does not do so for
some of the "duplicated" fonts (see above) and substitutes an 8 point screen
font.  There is no warning either in the manual or on-screen that the incorrect
screen fonts are being displayed and that the word processing is not WYSIWYG.

The manual is not particularly forthcoming about these problem.  It's only
comment about the function of the SynonymPSBegin line is "The ATM program will
substitute a font specified as a Synonym when the font size is larger than the
size specified with the SynonymPSBegin parameter."


> 4) Inspite of the advertising on the package which promises better
> screen fonts, some screen fonts are worse with ATM turned on than
> with it turned off. I frequently use 10 point Helvetica bold. Using
> Window's built-in Helvetica screen fonts, the screen output is quite
> acceptable. With ATM turned on, the bold Helvetica display is quite
> ugly, with very poorly formed letters in many cases. I suspect that
> the ATM fonts might actually be a better approximation to the printed
> output, but the original Windows fonts are far easier to look at.

+This really depends on what you have for a screen. If you have CGA, you
+are probably right. However, I have 1024x768x268 SVGA with a 16" SVGA
+monitor. With this setup, ATM does a much better job. I finally have
+W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G., kerning and all.

I am using both standard VGA and SVGA at 1024x768x16.  The first is probably
the most common setup for Windows, while the second matches your screen
resolution.  In either case, in the smaller screen font sizes such as 8 and 10
(particularly in bold and italics) the screen fonts generated by ATM are in
many cases ****worse*** than the standard screen fonts that come with Windows
for the Times Roman and Helvetica. The latter are presumably hand-tuned to look
good, perhaps at the expense of not quite exactly duplicating the printed
output.  Look for example at an upper case M in 10 point Helvetica Bold, with
ATM both off and on.  The problem is particularly annoying for bold Helvetica,
as Windows seems to use this font for many of its display boxes (such as the
"This will end your Windows session" box).


> 5) The first time Windows has to display a given font, there is a
> substantial pause (presumably while the screen font is calculated).
> This is particularly noticable when turning to the Fonts section of
> the Control Panel, where it takes ages to display the font samples
> at the bottom of the display box.

+Dare I say it? Okay, I will. Read the Manual {-) If you increase the
+size of the cache to a large enough number, this should go away.

I have read the manual.  What I more, I have used the program.  My comment
stands.  The font cache is a cache, and is not filled until the program is
forced to generate a font by an application.  My posting specified that the
***first*** time a given font is displayed, there is a substantial delay.  This
delay is not eliminated even when the font cache is raised to 1024 K from the
96K default, as a font is not calculated until it is first needed.

My current configuration of ATM has the SynonymPSBegin line set at 14. This
gives me the following choices for (as an example) Helvetica type, as selected
from the "Font" Box of Word for Windows

Helv:   Uses the better looking hand-tuned original Windows screen fonts for
point sizes 8 to 14.  Does not suffer a delay for screen font calculation for
these sizes (screen fonts are prebuilt in *.FON files). Uses ATM screen fonts
for point sizes above 14.  Cannot display a 6 point screen font as this is not
in the original Windows set and ATM is prevented from using ATM screen fonts
below 14 points.   Prints all fonts sizes beautifully, but when 6 point type is
selected the screen font used is 8 point and the screen thus does not match the
output.

Helvetica:   Uses the ATM screen fonts throughout.  Must spend several seconds
calculating screen fonts each time they are first called up. In the smaller
sizes, the screen fonts are ill-formed and harder to read than the (presumably)
hand-tuned fonts supplied with Windows.

What I would really like is to have only one choice offered me in Word for
Windows (call it either Helv or Helvetica).  It would use ATM for the 6 point
screen font (lacking in the original Windows package), the pre-built, no-delay,
better looking screen fonts for 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 24 points, and ATM for
16, 20, 30, 32, 36, 40, and 48 points (for which prebuilt fonts are not
available). If anyone can tell me how to achieve this, I would be delighted to
receive the information.


Overall, ATM seems to do a flawless job in determining what to send to my
Laserjet printer to get the specified fonts.  The output is beautiful, and the
printing is reasonably fast.   ATM however is miserably integrated into the
Windows environment, at least when used with Word for Windows.  Its manual is
obscure, and does not deal with the problems described above in any coherent
manner (or in some cases in any manner at all).



--
Bruce Dunn   Vancouver, Canada    a752@mindlink.UUCP