CompuServe Messages

[ continuation ] any machine. Also, the Type 1 standard was released to the Public Domain as a result of industry pressure and apparent legal problems between Apple and Adobe. Gold Disk embraced the Compugraphic Font technology, which although widespread by some accounts and established, was (is) the kind of proprietary technology that PostScript rescued the industry from. In my opinion, the Compugraphic Font approach was a dead end. A non-mainstream technology on an oddball computer. (Right, oddball, like the Sparcstation is oddball!) As far as I can tell, Gold Disk saw some of the handwriting on the wall. They realized that the gold is in the hills of MS DOS. Not in Amiga land. They did _not_ see the truth in the way of PostScript standardization despite their treatment by Adobe. But the double whammy of a limited market in the Amiga 'DTP' arena, and lack of support by the standard bearer must have been hard to take. There probably was some lack of support from CBM in there along the way also. I doubt that CBM actively sought Adobe cooperation for itself or its developers. While I could understand Gold Disk's dissapointment at its treatment by Adobe, I could not understand why they simply didn't develop their own routines for handling type 1 fonts. It was clear to everyone in the industry, even then, that non-PostScript formats were dead (and rightly so). Adobe's atrocious behavior notwithstanding, PostScript itself is a monumental improvement over the tyranny of pre-PostScript proprietary machines and operating systems. I know printers who have been forced into bankruptcy by the dinosaur-like systems of not too long ago, with their $100K-$200K price tags, and need for semi-annual system upgrades ($50K). PostScript changed all that, and the evolution of the change (hmm, that's a revolution) is just really gaining momentum. Adobe's Ivory-tower attitude almost resulted in its demise when its honeymoon with Apple Computer ended. But they are on solid ground now, and I for one hope [ MORE ]