[Too Much Coffee Woman]

When buying a font from a font foundry, do i need to buy both sets?: truetype and postscript?

i understand that ATM rasterizes and scales them...

so what's the deal with bitmap and outline fonts? i know bitmaps are images and are also known as screen fonts and thats what they are best used for.

outline fonts are also known as printer fonts and are mathematically described so and so are best for printing.

what i need is the correct font type for total flexibility...printing to non-postcript printers, postscript, pdf creation. the font foundry charges twice the amount for both sets so....please help. (or if you know of a link i can go to)

[bluedog]

Get the POSTSCRIPT fonts if they don't offer you both versions for the same price. Postscript fonts have additional hinting in them that is not available in the TrueType specifications. Unless they are absolutely the latest font offerings and in OpenType (which is really a container for all type's -- pun intended). Most often type from reputable companies are going to be fine, but if they don't 'offer' a postscript version I'd hesistate to use it for anything but display-type or rasterized into an image.

I've used both versions of several different typefaces and it makes little difference until you become interested in typography and making very large output or very small output of the same type. I believe any serious designer will give you the same answer (anyone to the contrary?).

[ 04-10-2002: Message edited by: bluedog ]

[::maroma::]

Not exactly sure about this, but I do know that my whole font collection is PostScript. I tend to throw out bitmaps, since I only do print work. Doing any of the things you listed (printing to non-postcript printers, postscript, pdf creation) works great with my PS fonts.

I would go with the PS. That's the safest bet. Also, if you have Fontographer, you can make your own bitmaps if you need it (as well as making your own PostScripts from bitmaps).

Fontographer rules!!

[MikeM32]

Font Lesson 101

TrueType fonts are generally used with monitor display purposes. These are often referred to as your "display fonts". Some are so good they print well all on thier own, others do not, but they'll almost always display on your monitor nicely.

Postscript fonts are the part of the font which prints vectors to mathemtical precision. These are essential for ANY real print work (but sometimes a few good truetypes can get by).

The best fonts will contain both a display font and postcript font.

Bitmap fonts are generally the bottom feeders of the font family, these rarely if ever display nor print well. Unless you're actually going for a bitmapped appearance.

Mike

[buchrob]

Final clincher for using Postscript fonts: most trapping software will not handle Truteype properly.

[Too Much Coffee Woman]

thanks guys! this is a confusing subject

[jesperas]

I agree: go for the Postscript version. ATM lets PS fonts print to non-Postscript printers, so I can't think of any reason to need the Truetype version.

As for screen vs printer fonts, both are required for the font to work properly (won't display properly without the screen font; won't print properly without the printer font). Printers usually call if one or the other is missing from a job.