#ANIPRO POSTCRIPT FONTS
7 messages in this thread
I've been unbelievably busy over the last several weeks, so unfortunately I
haven't been on the forum very much. In scanning the forum, I've seen several
messages regarding Animator Pro fonts so I thought I'd take the time to
elaborate on the program, the fonts, and the reason they look less than
perfect, i.e. jaggy. The reason for this posting is because my group created
the postscript fonts for AniPro 1.3, 1.3a and 3D Studio R3.
In AniPro 1.3 the postscript fonts look extremely jaggy because the postscript
code is extremely non-standard. When we originally created fonts for the
program, while 1.3 was under development, we discovered that the postscript
implementation was a very unique approach to reading fonts. On the first run
approximately 30% of true postscript fonts wouldn't even work in the program.
The reasons for this were as follows:
1.) The code is extremely non-standard.
2.) The code reads no-hinting information.
3.) The code reads no-kerning information.
4.) The code doesn't implement direct anti-aliasing.
5.) The code improperly reads complex characters.
6.) The code doesn't read the full ascii set.
7.) Etc.
In attempting to deal with this problem there was no time for the AniPro team
to rewrite the code so at the request of Autodesk we went in and strategically
altered the fonts so that they would work with the AniPro 1.3 code. In essence
the fonts are barely even postscript. There are close to a hundred postscript
fonts, including fonts from all major maunfacturers that will totally crash
AniPro 1.3 because the code isn't real postscript.
Several months after the release of AniPro 1.3, Adesk decided to work on an
update that would fix the font problems and correct a few other bugs. After
over 9 months of development work Autodesk released 1.3a. Autodesk sent an
update to everyone who had written a bug report form regarding one of the
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fixes including font difficulties. Autodesk primarily released this update as a
foreign release because the vast majority of the font complaints came from
countries that needed access to extended characters in postscript.
For our part, we created a totally new set of fonts specifically for AniPro
1.3a. The new Postscript fonts have full hinting info and support the full set
of ascii characters. The work inside the postscript code by the AniPro team was
extensive and the individual who wrote a special antialiasing option for the
font sets did a good job. We spent several thousand man hours creating the new
font sets for AniPro 1.3a, and provided them to Autodesk for free so that
AniPro 1.3a users could actually have a full set of fonts to use. We were led
to believe that 1.3a would be released as a full blown update, but Autodesk
changed it's mind at the last minute.
I would suggest that anyone who uses fonts in AniPro, send in a bug report and
get the upgrade. It's free and the difference is extremely evident.
Unfortunately we haven't seen the actual final package ourselves. In typical
Autodesk fashion, we weren't even notified when the product shipped in
December, and now 4 months later we still haven't seen a copy of the update.
As to additional font sets for the Autodesk line of products, we have
thousands. We held off selling such sets for a long period of time because we
were developing the font sets for AniPro 1.3a, and couldn't handle doing both
at the same time. After the "underground" release of 1.3a, we were so pissed
off that we had spent a large amount of time and money developing fonts as a
gift for Autodesk and then once again Autodesk takes the stuff, never
acknowledges receipt and then stealthly ships without notifying anyone in total
violation of the development contract, that we decided to hold off shipping
anything into the Autodesk database for a while.
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We've ported the vast majority of the sets to the SGI platform and have been
selling sets individually for specific packages on various platforms. A number
of 3D Studio shops have copies of our sets and are using them. We are now, as
we have always been, extremely dedicated to 3D Studio. We're just recovering
from the typical asphyxiation associated with dealing with the management of
large companies.
Paul
Paul,
<< not stuffing the data base for awhile.. >>
I forwarded your note to Max Hoffman our new Sr. Manager of
MultiMedia Developer Relations.
jonas[adesk]
Paul:
Could you send us info on your fonts for AAP 1.3a and 3DS? We're an AD
reseller and have customers asking about fonts; it would be good to send them
your way.
THANKS
Ken Sander
AMISYS
6765 Westminster Bl., C444
Westminster, CA 92683