#Varityper
Listen, I don't want to get into a big fight about this, but how can you
say Adobe isn't the industry standard for fonts in DTP? Name me a service
bureau that carries CG and Bitstream fonts that doesn't carry Adobe. Since
Adobe cut the deal where Linotype is now digitizing its faces, Adobe has
access to one of the largest font libraries around (I've got over 1,800
Merg/Lino faces on my 202s at last count). Likewise, Adobe's connection
with ITC is already reaping benefits (such as the Stone family being
recalled and reworked so it's now in line with ITC's specifications on cap
heights and weights). The CG font library? Yeesh. Ten years ago I scrapped
all my CG equipment and bought Alphatype because my clients wouldn't accept
Helios as Helvetica (they weren't crazy about Triumvirate, either).
The Birmysetter is a fine machine (I saw a demo by the Answers, Etc. crew
at the Folio show in New York a couple of months ago). Yet I can't see why
anyone would lock themselves into a machine that won't run Adobe fonts,
especially now that Adobe-sanctioned machines are coming out at competitive
prices (hopefully Linotype will respond with a much needed price
reduction). Personally, I think there will be a shaking out of typeface
libraries, with Adobe/Linotype providing complete text faces and Bitstream
handling primarily headline faces (kind of the VGC of Postscript). Maybe
I'm wrong, but I just don't see the service bureaus willing to continue to
duplicate font libraries.