#SEYBOLD
Warnock's annoucement was fantastic and exasperating at the same time
(fantastic 'cuz it means type 1 fonts will become a real standard, exasperating
because I had to completely change the "Font Wars" presentation I gave Saturday
to the PPA).
The announcement caught everybody off guard (at least a little). I'd heard
plenty of rumblings over the past couple of months (and mentioned it at least
once here), but I think it got a little rushed by the Seybold conference and
the latest Apple/Microsoft dealings. URW/The Font Company, for example, had
already "cracked" the type 1 encryption scheme (at no small expense, I'm sure),
and have alreaday written software to create "type 1 compatible" fonts (which
they showed off at Seybold)…NOW they plan to take an extra couple of weeks to
go back and make any changes necessary to insure that they are creating TRUE
type 1 fonts, using the promised information from Adobe (this throws off their
release schedule, though).
Actually, if you really want to see the complete poop on PostScript, you'll
probably see it in the upcoming "Gold Book" first (being created by the SPSS
-the "Society of Page Specification Standards", I think). Adobe seems to be
cooperating with the idea that PostScript needs a more formal definition, and
the Warnock announcement is a large part of that.