#SEYBOLD
I agree wholeheartedly with your statement. However, I think you're letting
Warnock off the hook too easily. If he had thrown open the standard a year
ago, this whole Royal stuff probably wouldn't have happened in the first
placed.
Of course, I'm sure the economics of opening PostScript is driving the
"suits" crazy. The PostScript licensing fees for both the RIPs and the font
encryption have to be a tremendous part of Adobe's income — which they now
stand to lose. The Adobe rep I heard last night said Adobe plans to stand
on its software produ cts and type sales. Obviously, the type library is
being challenged by URW, Bitstream and others. As far as the software, I've
been playing with a beta copy of ATM and the only program it won't work on
properly is Adobe Illustrator (I know, it's unfair to report a beta bug,
but that one strikes me as really strange).
My concern is that someone has to fill the void being created by Apple as
far as determining PostScript-compatibility. It's always been what will
run on the latest Apple Laserwriter. Someone's got to say, "here are the
benchmarks that a RIP must run to be certified compatible with SPS/Adobe
PostScript Version 60.0 or 70.0 or whatever." If it's Adobe, the clone guys
will scream. If it's the clones, Adobe will probably be upset. We need an
independent group.
How about PPA? Any takers?