[l'ignorante]

After many years of working with various graphic programs, I still don't know <font color = red> anything </font> about fonts. It's like with electricity, I don't get near it. Sometimes I get some suitcases from friends, I dump them in my Fontfolder, half the time they work, and as often they don't.
I know it is not complicated, but I think I have a seious fontfobia! Anybody know a cure? :o

[MacMerc.com]

Good question. There's a lot of information to cover, what is it you want to know?

There are different font types (Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, TrueType, Multiple Master) and each has its strengths and weaknesses and various idiosyncrasies. Some are only suitable for on-screen work while others are made for high end production work.
Font components (screen fonts, printer fonts and that mystery AFM file).

How do you open fonts? How do you close fonts? What is the best utility to use for organizing, diagnosing and activation fonts?

And then there is the study of typography itself! Serifs, Sans Serifs, Display, Old Style, Slab Serif... the list goes on. There's kerning, leading, tracking, ragging, drop caps, initial caps... there's too much to list.

Is there anything here that you would like explained further?

-Rick

[l'ignorante]

Originally posted by MacMerc.com:
<STRONG>Good question. There's a lot of information to cover, what is it you want to know?

There are different font types (Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, TrueType, Multiple Master) and each has its strengths and weaknesses and various idiosyncrasies. Some are only suitable for on-screen work while others are made for high end production work.
Font components (screen fonts, printer fonts and that mystery AFM file).


Is there anything here that you would like explained further?

-Rick</STRONG>

Thanks, it's the types and components that make me go
.....

[- - e r i k - -]

I'm a font-o-holic, even though I don't know the various types strenghts and weakness and barely know my serifs from my sans-serifs.

Basically what you do is get Adobe Type Manager Deluxe, drop all your fonts in a folder outside your system folder font folder (you get the point ), and then fire up ATM and start organizing

It might seem frightening, and I thought so too...but it's not really hard once you get by the basics. If you've created a few good font-sets, you can switch from the font menu without ever having to worry about going into ATM...

Categorize by styles; I have futuristic fonts, handwriting, serious fonts, fun fonts etc.

[el matteo]

A crash course in typography:

1) thou shalt not letterspace lowercase. that is to say - don't add a lot of kerning between lowercase letters s o a l l y o u r t e x t l o o k s l i k e t h i s.

2) thou shalt not mix script (italics, handtooled, cursive, etc) fonts with sans- or slab-serif fonts.

3) and while we're at it, thou shalt not use more than 2 (preferably 1) font(s) in a design.

4) thou shall know the difference between a ligature (two letters touching to form one shape) and smushing your text (kerning letters so tightly that there's little or no space between the letters).

5) thou shalt not use courier. EVER. courier is what you get when you have a postscript error. it always looks like a mistake.

6) thou shalt not trust your computer's default letterspacing.

7) thou shalt not use garish, handtooled fonts to make up for a inferior design (if it doesn't look good in Helvetica, it won't look good in "SUPERZANY ZIPPERZANG FATTY FACE"

8) thou shall use Adobe Type Manager (or the like) to manage thy fonts.

9) thou shalt not steal all one's fonts from hotline sites

10) thou shalt not artificially (by means of Photoshop or similar software) compress, expand, add gradients, texturize, bevel, or otherwise abuse your fonts.

[ 06-13-2001: Message edited by: el matteo ]

[SunSeeker]

Sadly Adobe have abandoned ATM and are recommending that we all bugger off!!!
http://www.adobe.com/products/atm/atmOSX.html

[l'ignorante]

Originally posted by SunSeeker:
<STRONG>Sadly Adobe have abandoned ATM and are recommending that we all bugger off!!!
http://www.adobe.com/products/atm/atmOSX.html </STRONG>

Well, bugger me...this line I really don't understand:
Adobe has no plans at present to create a version of ATM Deluxe that runs on Mac OS X

Thanks Matteo, I plead however guilty to all violations you listed.( just check my various sigs). My problems are mainly: stuff like,why do I get pixeled fonts in PS and not in Simpletext. Should I use TT or PS or whatever etc. I suppose I have to do some reading and I'll be fine.

[MacMerc.com]

Does anyone know when Adobe made this statement about ATM Deluxe?

-Rick

[SunSeeker]

l'ignorante

why do I get pixeled fonts in PS and not in Simpletext

I assume PS means Photoshop, do you have anti-aliasing off?

Also remember that simpletext should be using atm light to enhance the onscreen text rendering, photoshop doesn't use atm, as it renders the text for itself and this will be dependent on resolution, font size, anti aliasing etc.(although atm light may be working in the text input window of versions 5.5 and earlier???)

MacMerc.com

Does anyone know when Adobe made this statement about ATM Deluxe?

I'm not sure, sometime in the last 1 - 3 months I think, just after I finally got a copy

My biggest problem with fonts was spotting the difference between truetype and postscript.
I also hate that sh1tty powerpoint, as my colleague affectionately calls it, will tell you some text is skia (for example) when you don't even have it installed, despite the fact it is substituting with something else. NO error, nothing.
btw I don't choose to work in powerpoint, it is a requirement of the job (slide production, among other things)

[MacMerc.com]

Originally posted by SunSeeker:
<STRONG>My biggest problem with fonts was spotting the difference between truetype and postscript.</STRONG>

That's easy.
If the font consists of a single file it is either TrueType or an incomplete PostScript font.
To find out which, double click on it to get a preview. If it says "This is a file your computer uses to display characters. To use this font, place this file in the Fonts folder." then you have a PostScript printer font with no matching screen font. If you get a font display window with only one size of font shown, that’s a PostScript screen font. If you get a display of three different sizes, you have a TrueType font.
You can usually tell by the icon as well - the TrueType icon has A's repeating off to the left.
If you are trying to identify fonts within a job, the best way I’ve found is to use Markzware’s Flightcheck or Flightcheck COLLECT! It will diagnose the whole job for errors but it will also point out TrueType fonts that have been hidden in you file.

-Rick

[mindwaves]

Or you can just be like me and use Times New Roman for every single thing that you do so you dont have to worry about fonts at all. I use this font on my web page (the simple one that I have) and also on all of my reports.

edit: Ok, almost everything. Remember that there are exceptions to every rule including this one.

[ 06-13-2001: Message edited by: mindwaves ]

[MacMerc.com]

But, apparently, not on your sig.

-Rick