This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (388 messages)
From what I have learned, PostScript fonts CAN be copywritten simply because they are computer programs (PostScript being an interpretive language) not data files. The actual outlines cannot be copywritten, but the method of describin them can. That doesn't mean that everyone DOESN'T steal them! Gary e
Brian: Mirror Image Productions markets 2 programs, MIfont andd MIoutline, which convert PostScript fonts (Mac and IBM) for use with the Amiga. See the May/92 issue of Amazing Computing for full details. Gary Brusanowski Mirror image Productions e
Mirror Image BBS
Message #52948
NEW MIRROR IMAGE 2400 BAUD 24-HOUR SUPPORT BBS! (416) 492-4030 Mirror Image Productions, distributors of Amiga font conversion software, now have their own support BBS. As well as being a forum for MI questions and bug reports and Amiga DTP problems in general, the BBS also offers full functioning demos…
Ron: There's a file on your MIfont disk (it may not be there; we just added it about 3 months ago) that describes how to set MIfont up under 2.0. If you don't have it, check on this board for the file. Search with "MI" as a keyword. If you…
We sell font conversion programs for PPage and PDraw. There should be some demos up here with text files. Just search for "MI". Gary
Hi. The problem with the Utopia fonts and PageStream is that they are not PFB fonts; PFB is the IBM standard of Type 1 fonts and PgS uses PFB's. What these fonts are, are flat files, or straight ASCII files. Mirror Image's software has no trouble reading them… wish everybody…
NEW Mirror Image BBS
Message #49831
NEW MIRROR IMAGE SUPPORT BBS! Mirror Image Productions, distributers of Amiga font conversion software, now have their own support BBS. As well as being a forum for MI questions and bug reports and Amiga DTP problems in general, the BBS also offers full functioning demos of Mirror Image software and…
Mike: You're right, PPage doesn't have the fonts, although they have CG equivilents and these can be turned into downloadable (albeit inferior) fonts that POST could use. Very complicated stuff, if you ask me. Gary xit
#ProPage & Post1.6
Message #47401
Michael: You need to have the printer font(s) available to POST, in IBM format, in order to print a file. Alternately, if you're using CG fonts in PPage, then you'll need to make PostScript fonts from them and put them in your CGfonts:PS/ directory, so that POST will find them.…
Paul: You could use any Macintosh PostScript font in Prowrite provided it contains: a Mac bitmap font version, an AFM file and a printer font version. All of these things can be converted using our program, MIfont, into standard Amiga bitmap/PPage .metric files (which Prowrite now uses) and the printer…
Steve: See my message to John for clarification. And BTW, I'm not coming down on Saxon. In fact, from what I've heard about SaxonScript (and the new Saxon Publisher), I think it's defintiely something I'll be looking into. They may have their problems, but one thing you can say for…
[ continuation ] the bugs are (or should be) reproducable in all interpreters. However, if I experience problems under a clone interpreter, they might be completely different problems and that's when things get REALLY confusing. So I say: if it's an emulation, tell people before they get involved with it!…
John (and Steve too): What I was saying is that there are built-in HIDDEN functions in PostScript, like hinting, which cannot be duplicated EXACTLY as a PostScript interpreter would do it because those features are undocumented. If I wrote a software based interpreter and claimed that it took advantage of…
Steven: Sorry, but it's impossible for SaxonScript to provide "more" PostScript support (whatever that means) than licensed PostScript interpreters. Real PS interpreters, licenced from Adobe, contain hidden functions which even the laser printer vendors are not privy to (such as the actual Type 1 font hinting mechanisms). So, though I…
[ continuation ] only 2 jumps in the file to find out about any kerning pair value. But it uses string arrays, and I guess that sort of thing is frowned upon in the Land of Programmers…:) Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Mike: From what I've discovered, you're going to have to include the Type 1 in your AFM from PFM utility if you expect it to work flawlessly. The PFM's do not contain character name information, for one thing; the whole format is based on the IBM character layout (so why…
Mike: I'm almost postive that PDraw does the following with type fills (though I could be way to left feild on this one): If a character is made up 2 paths (let's say the letter "O", with and inside path and an outside one), then I believe PDraw simply draws…
SL: In defense of Mr. Mike: The purpose of software "standards" is to ensure effortless interchange of information. How can you possibly condone an alteration to a standard by simply saying, "everybody does it"? Would it be okay for me to create a paint program that outputs IFF pics with…
John: I suppose I probably flew off the handle a bit on that one (I do that, don't I?), but to be perfectly honest, I find it a little frightening when SoftLogik says things like "So and So's commercial fonts don't work in PageStream, so there must be something wrong…
Chris: Hmmm, I don't know why the VI didn't work for Sonata; that's one we tried here during beta testing and worked okay. One of things alot of people don't realize is that Sonata has very unusual conventions in it; you can't just use it like a regular font. Basically,…
Mike (and SL and everybody else…) I'm sure I jumped into an argument on this before, but I might as well do it again… Having written programs which work with Type 1 fonts, I can state categorically: UNLESS YOU INCORPORATE A FULL POSTSCRIPT INTERPRETER INTO YOUR TYPE 1 MANIPULATION SOFTWARE,…
Chris: That's probably our MI-NA1 keymap killing your ALT W for GD's products. If you don't need the MI-NA1 keymap to call extra characters, you're better off getting rid of it. Sorry (just GD making wild assumptions about the keymap again…:( Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Chris: I'm afraid I'll have to agree with James on this one (in a way…:); Gold Disk is following the format as outlined by Adobe, and the program that created the EPSF file is not. The one thing Gold Disk is VERY good at is sticking to Adobe's recommended formats.…
Chris: Change the line: %!PS-Adobe-2.0-EPSF-1.2 to… %!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-1.2 (In other words, take out the third hypen). Dumb, eh? Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Mike: The only place I can think of looking is Adobe (though you would think Microsoft would have some docs in their forum… but NO!!!…. no wonder IBM wants to leap out of bed with those guys). If I can find the time (and I'd better for my next project!),…
Pete: Re: Type 1 to 2.04 scalable fonts: Wait a few months and you'll get your wish… Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Paul: Check out the DTPforum for PD Mac Type 1 PostScript fonts. The 3 files you mentioned are as follows: AFM's contain spacing and kerning information ONLY (comparable to PPage's metric files) ATM fonts… hmmm, not too sure what they might be. Could be outline fonts, but more likely, they're…
John: I haven't been through your code yet, but I'll check out your menukey gosub. I don't use drop-down menus at all (get in the way, can't stand them), so the Amiga key thing would not be a problem. I've been trying to think of a way of getting keyboard…
Pete: If you want to use the Mac fonts in PageStream, use my MI-M2I program, here on Compuserve. It will covert the Mac outline fonts into IBM PostScript fonts. If you want to use them in PPage, our commercial program MIfont will convert the bitmap fonts into standard Amiga fonts…
John: I have the curious distinction of being one of the only Amiga programmers I know to develop programs without ANY text input, simply because I can't figure out how to implement the system text gadgets! (That's okay for one or two programs, but my next project will DEFINITELY need…
John: I didn't know that GFA wouldn't run on a 3000. I have a 2000 and am running 2.04 (sometimes!) off disk and am having no problems with GFA or the software I write with it. At least the resulting software runs on a 3000. And your code was a…
Chris: You're the first Amigan I've heard praise PKAzip; it's about time. If everyone wasn't so hot on LZH on the Amiga, I'd use it religiously. An amazingly bullet-proof program and only 2 releases! Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
PFM Search
Message #42362
Does anyone have some PFM's for relatively new Adobe fonts that they could email me? What I mean by relatively new is NOT core fonts, like Times and Helvetica. Something from the last couple of years. Thanks. Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
John: My God! All the stuff I've been bugging GFA for for weeks and it's been right here on CIS all the time! (WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
John: Whatever info you have on GFA, please send it to me! I'm desperate for news. I'm supposedly at the top of GFA's list for beta testing the new version (they've moved development of GFA for the Amiga to the States, don't ask me why) and I should be recieving…
Chris: Don't know if it was PDraw's prolog file or not, but PDraw 2.01 fixed it up okay for us (we were running on a Lino and getting the problem with the first corner coming out wrong, but it looked okay on the laser. Maybe the laser is more forgiving?)…
John: I plugged PLW in and find that it is PRECISELY what I'm looking for! YEA! Too bad there's no local mode (that I know of). I had to test it from my beat up old Atarti ST (eek!). Seems to work fine though. Have to get someone to call…
Betty: Thanks! I'll download PLW right away, and also look for RemoteLogin. If I can't find it, I'll let you know so that you can upload it. Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Andrew: Thanks! PLW (FF402) and RemoteLogin (FF247) sound like they might do the trick. However, I don't have anyway of getting access to Fred Fish disks. Anyway that you could upload them here to CIS or even email them to me? Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Help (again!)
Message #17040
I have a few questions and you'll have to bear with me… I write in GFA Basic and alot of this stuff is much harder for me to implement than the average C user who fires up his/her includes and off they go. First, I need to be able to…
SIMPLE BBS!
Message #41992
Can anyone suggest the following: A simple BBS (accent on the word "simple") that will upload/download files, maybe have a CHAT mode and have the ability to leave the Sysop messages. Nothing fancy. Even an ARexx shell for Baud Bandit (not the 200+K monster found here on CIS!). It would…
Chris: I noticed a bug with the way ProDraw 2.0 handled corners (giving me bevelled (sp?) corners instead of square (?) ones). I called GD and they immediately (very unusally for GD, I might add:) sent me PDraw 2.01. This could be your problem (not sure how it translates in…
Steve: Okay, I understand the Enforcer thing now. Unfortunately, like I said, most of the Enforcer hits are undoubtedly caused by commands in my language, not by my code, per se. Word is that a update for my language to make use of WB2.0 is in the works as we…
Chris: This is one little bug in MIfont that I can't seem to track down. (And not only is it a rarity, but I can't get it to do it on my system no matter what). Essentially, when you hit the ESCape key, MIfont closes its main window (and custom…
Paul: Thanks Paul, but I think it's my customer's system that's at fault. I'll have to tackle at this end. Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Jeff: Thanks. I guess I'll have to get a test file to my customer and see what's what. My guess is that there is something seriously screwy going on in his machine. Gary – Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
Steve: I've been through this Enforcer thing before with other people. I'm not entirely sure what it means when someone says that my software has ALOT of problems when put through Enforcer. As far as I know, the program does what it's supposed to do, it returns ALL memory to…
Mike: While PPage or PgS could make a font fixed space via software, it would look terrible. A fixed width font has to be designed in such a way that all the characters take up roughly the same space along the x-axis. If I went into the Times .metric file…
Jeff: I think your system meets the requirments (see last message to Don for details). If you want to help, try downloading a file in this area called "MI-M2I.LZH", which is a Mac to IBM Type 1 Converter (don't worry if you don't have any Type 1s to convert; all…
Don: I'm trying to reproduce a bug which a customer has told me about with my software wherein everytime he pushes a button on our programme's screen, the program freezes, or goes into some sort of processor eating loop. I've never heard of this from anyone else and he has…
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