#Toasterfonts
9 messages in this thread
Greetings, All!
I'm new to Amiga and new to Toaster, and already have questions. I want to use
the Toaster to add Russian titles to film. But here are the two problems:
1. Will ToasterCG only use outline or postscript fonts? Or will bit map fonts
work as well?
2. Cyrillic is generally upper ASCII, and the Toaster doesn't seem able to
understand upper ASCII, at least when I tried. Is there a way that it will
recognize upper ASCII characters?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Lesli
Lesli,
The only way I know of to use bit mapped fonts in the Toaster CG is with a
product called Toaster Toolkit 4000…which permits conversion of the bit
mapped fonts to Toaster Color Fonts. DevWare Video sells it Phone 800-879-0759
Later, Jim
The Toaster does use bitmap fonts but you must convert them to the Toaster
format. There is a utility that comes with the Toaster called oddly
enough, ToastFont and it is in the Toaster/Utilities. Copy that file into
you workbench/c drawer. Then from a shell type Toastfont and follow the
template. If you need more help let me know.
The ToastFont will half scale down the height of the bitmap. The max
height for a Toaster bitmap font is 80. An Amiga bitmap of 160 will
become a Toaster 80. Bitmaps will be more jaggie than outline or PS
fonts. I recommend that you find the font you need in PS.
Allied Studios, does have two Russian PS fonts; Russkij Modern and
Russkij Otkrytyj. It is part of a collection called ProStream Plus.
Try calling them at 415 863-1781, although a believe Lion Kuntz has
changed the name of his company — the phone number may still work.
Lastly you can use the bitmap font as a template to make a PS version
using TypeSmith. A font making program from Soft-Logik Publishing.
Joe Maulucci >>> Accadia Electronic Arts
Buffalo, New York
Thanks for all the info! I'll follow up when I've had time to digest it.
Lesli
Joe,
I would like to jump in on this thread since you mentioned Typesmith. I am
sure it will do what Lesli needs as far as bitmap font editing, but I have some
unpleasant news to report about Typesmith 2.0's performance with postscript
fonts.
This isn't a message specifically aimed at you Joe, but to those monitoring
this thread.
I read the ad for Typesmith 2.0 in VTU and was especially interested in their
claim regarding the conversion of mac postscript fonts to the IBM variety of
outlines that Toaster uses. With this in mind, I purchased the package to
convert several of the mac type 1 fonts I have collected over the years for my
DTP work. I read the docs thuroughly ad found no instructions whatsoever on how
to use this supposed feature. I tried using import (after opening a new font
outline) but was unable to load mac PS outlines. Sadly, Typesmith doesn't
deliver the goods in this department and after some very frustrating
conversation with their tech support (who were downright rude) I have come to
the conclusion that the product isn't worth the bother. I feel an obligation to
let people in this forum know that the product DOES NOT PERFORM AS ADVERTISED.
If you decide to buy it for the purposes of creating your own fonts, it will
probably do an excellent job, BUT IT DOES NOT CONVERT MAC POSTSCCRIPT FONTS!
Their ad in VTU is VERY misleading. I attempted to speak with their management
about this and was met with indifference, and as I said previously their tech
support was not helpful at all. I suspect this is a case where a programmer is
being "published" by a company that doesn't understand the product. For those
who read VTU and any other publication that runs the Typesmith 2.0 ad, BEWARE.
My final solution to the problem was a nice little PD utility called FONTCONV
version 1.2 by Gary Knight of Soft-Logik Corp. which can be found on fred fish
disk 528. It will convert type-1 macintosh postscript fonts to the IBM style
that Toaster likes.
Frank
So what you're saying is that Soft-Logik's commercial font program won't
do the conversion, but their free utility will? Why don't they include it
with TypeSmith?
Arnie,
<Why don't they include it with TypeSmith?>
That's a good question, I wish I knew the answer. I suppose that would just be
too easy. A person named Mark from their tech support called today and asked me
to mail him some of the sample files I was working with to see what the big
deal was. I will send him what I was working with, but even after some of his
explicit instructions (which were NOT covered in any of the documentation) I
still could NOT do what I set out to do with the software (convert mac type1
fonts to PC versions of same). IF anything else improves I will post a message
here in CIS. For the moment, I would say that the package IS NOT working for me
as well as the FREE utility I mentioned in the earlier post.
Frank
That's weird. Reading a PC Postscript font is tougher than reading a
Mac font. On the PC, they segmentize the data file into <64K chunks,
and you have to take a little (very little) extra effort to read
them, as compared to a Mac, which doesn't chunk them. No excuse. Did
they give an excuse? The only other thing I can think of, is
skipping a MacBinary header on Mac files, but as you might guess, it
just means skipping a few bytes at the header.
John,
It certainly a POSSIBILITY that TS will read the mac PS fonts. I will post
results as they become available. It just seems rediculous that a previously
released FREE utility handles the task with ease, whereas a heavily advertised
commercial product from the same company can't seem to do the deed. (or at
least if it can, it doesn't document it with the current shipping product)
Frank