Path: ns-mx!uunet!olivea!apple!apple.com!mattd From: mattd@apple.com (Matt Deatherage) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Downloading Fonts to Laserprinters (Re: Pointless Review) Message-ID: <20608@goofy.Apple.COM> Date: 22 Feb 92 01:54:15 GMT References: <1992Feb17.233313.23741@edsi.plexus.COM> <1992Feb18.185408.24326@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <28838@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <1992Feb19.213311.9370@risky.ecs.umass.edu> Sender: usenet@Apple.COM Organization: Developer Technical Support, Apple Computer, Inc. Lines: 42 In article <1992Feb19.213311.9370@risky.ecs.umass.edu>, giovin@risky.ecs.umass.edu (Rocky J Giovinazzo) writes: > > Does anyone have info on getting fonts downloaded to a laserprinter either > by using a specific downloading program or through a special driver? > A friend of mine has been looking for a way to do this for quite some time > now (Adobe asked, "what's a GS?" when he tried to talk to them about it.) > > Thanks, > Rocky Giovinazzo It's next to impossible to correctly download PostScript (Type 1) fonts on the IIgs because the IIgs font structure contains *NO* information that a downloader can use to figure out what the PostScript name of the font is from the IIgs name of the font. Apple IIgs TN #67 gives you a small taste of the problem; the LaserWriter driver has the information for several fonts built-in, but it can't know how to map every Type 1 font in existance. (Another problem, at least before 6.0, is that there is no native Apple IIgs PostScript font file format. Mac Type 1 fonts are stored as 'POST' resources in the font file's resource fork; IBM Type 1 fonts are in a few dozen strange little files with cryptic three-letter dot extensions. Even if the driver had downloaded fonts before 6.0, which it doesn't do in 6.0 either, no one would have had a source for purchasing such fonts except from people who had multiple machines and could convert them for you. With the HFS FST, at least that problem is now solved.) You can't print with TrueType on the IIgs because the IIgs Font Manager has no way to know a given font is a TrueType font, nor can it get the entire TrueType font (the 'sfnt' resource on the Macintosh) to send to a TrueType renderer in the printer. Since we have no TrueType fonts to send and no mechanism to get them at print time, the driver doesn't bother downloading the Apple TrueType scaler to the LaserWriter (like the Macintosh driver does). It would be a classic waste of network bandwidth and time because it would never be used. ============================================================================ Matt Deatherage, Developer Technical | The opinions expressed herein are Support, Apple Computer, Inc. | not those of Apple Computer, and Personal mail only, please. Thanks. | shame on you for thinking otherwise. ^^^^^^^^ Technical questions are not personal. Please post them instead. ============================================================================ Path: ns-mx!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!ames!apple!apple.com!mattd From: mattd@apple.com (Matt Deatherage) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: MacDraw -> PostScript -> EPS Question Message-ID: <20609@goofy.Apple.COM> Date: 22 Feb 92 02:10:27 GMT References: <1992Feb13.204714.11455@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> <1992Feb14.023424.11527@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Feb14.115532.663@cco.caltech.edu> Sender: usenet@Apple.COM Organization: Developer Technical Support, Apple Computer, Inc. Lines: 89 In article <1992Feb14.115532.663@cco.caltech.edu>, toddpw@cco.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) writes: > > Sigh. This is the problem with the "Laser Prep" print system that the mac uses. > > The errors are occuring because your MacDraw or PageMaker file makes use of > postscript subroutines that macs send to the printer ahead of time. On another > system, these routines haven't been sent to the printer, and so they generate > errors. > > Since you want to include this in a TeX file, you'll need a self-contained > postscript file. Your only hope is to find an option that outputs a postscript > file without Laser Prep references in it -- chances are that if there's an > EPS option, it will work. If you were sending these direct to the printer, > then you also have the option of getting a copy of the Laser Prep file and > sending it to the printer beforehand. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you > can afford to do this. > > Todd Whitesel > toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu This explanation is either (a) simplistic or (b) outdated or (c) originated with someone who doesn't understand the entire point of a custom dictionary. OK, from the top. PostScript has this feature called "dictionaries", which (in my traditional oversimplifying way) are basically ways to let you store sets of custom procedures and variables. When you want to use a dictionary, you put it on the dictionary stack and PostScript automatically finds any references to it and resolves them. In the Macintosh and the IIgs, we define a whole bunch of custom operators for the kinds of PostScript the drivers often generate and store them in a custom dictionary. In the Macintosh, it's called "md"; the GS version is "GSDict". Since we do repetitive things over and over (lineto, show, font installation, etc.) we define new, short-named operators for them (like "jn" for job name) and use those instead of sending all the PostScript code for every routine we need to do. Now, originally in both drivers, the custom dictionary was downloaded to the printer at initialization and left there until the printer was reset. This was neat, because it allows the drivers to send the most compact PostScript we can, making transmission times shorter. Unfortunately, it also creates problems when different people on the same network use different versions of the driver to the same printer. The printer can't have two versions of the same dictionary installed, so it has to reinitalize to take the new dictionary. That happens every time an incompatible driver version is used -- it's called "laser wars." This wasn't good. So, starting with System 3.2 on the IIgs and System 7.0 on the Macintosh, the LaserWriter drivers no longer leave the custom dictionary resident in the printer -- they send it with each job. This makes transmission times and file sizes larger, but eliminates laser wars. (It's still a win for longer and complicated print jobs, though, since the dictionary operators save transmission time over the fully-expanded versions every time they're invoked.) Before Macintosh 7.0, the custom dictionary was kept in a separate file called "Laser Prep." That file is no longer needed, because the 7.0 drivers work under 6.0.x system software. So what's really going on? Here's the points. 1. The Macintosh LaserWriter driver is _NOT_ a PostScript conversion utility. It's designed to print to a PostScript printer, not to make PostScript conforming documents or Encapsulated PostScript or any of those things. It allows you to dump a PostScript file for convenience, but it's the same thing it would have sent to a printer. If that doesn't suit your needs, you need a PostScript converter. The LaserWriter driver isn't one. Sorry, but that's the truth of the matter. 2. Since the entire custom dictionary is included in every job, any file dumped with the current IIgs or Macintosh LaserWriter drivers needs no "Laser Prep" file and should execute on any PostScript interpreter -- provided it's not expecting conforming documents or Encapsulated PostScript, which is not what the driver generates. 3. Even in the 6.0.x Macintosh world, you can get a PostScript file that includes all the Laser Prep custom dictionary stuff by using Command-K instead of Command-F to dump the file. "No Laser Prep references" is contrary to the entire design of either driver. ============================================================================ Matt Deatherage, Developer Technical | The opinions expressed herein are Support, Apple Computer, Inc. | not those of Apple Computer, and Personal mail only, please. Thanks. | shame on you for thinking otherwise. ^^^^^^^^ Technical questions are not personal. Please post them instead. ============================================================================ Path: news.weeg.uiowa.edu!news.uiowa.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!mintaka.lcs.mit.edu!hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu!merklin From: merklin@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ed Kemo) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.apple2 Subject: Re: PostScript Printing Message-ID: <1993Mar1.124439.1779@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Date: 1 Mar 93 12:44:39 GMT References: <1993Mar1.051753.29156@serval.net.wsu.edu> Sender: news@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu Organization: /etc/organization Lines: 17 Try sending down this file to the printer, are you on an apple? /Times-Roman findfont 15 scalefont 72 200 moveto (AppleII forever!) show showpage this file should print out the text "AppleII forever" also does anyone have a good gif converter , besides the memory hogging superconvert and shrconvert...maybe the apple world has something like cshow which only needs 640k 8) merk Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Path: news.uiowa.edu!chi-news.cic.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!nwnews.wa.com!nwfocus.wa.com!nmb-news!NewsWatcher!user From: paulp@netmanage.com (Paul Pietromonaco) Subject: Re: Favorite WP/printer combo? Inkjet or laser? Message-ID: Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 01:41:03 -0800 Distribution: na References: <4agb7p$ak6@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Lines: 58 In article <4agb7p$ak6@nntp5.u.washington.edu>, ronlouie@u.washington.edu (Ron Louie) wrote: > What's your favorite wordprocessing/print software/printer combo? I may > be doing something that will need "professional" looking reports, which > seems to be synonomous with laser. Right now, I have a IIGS with a > Uniprint parallel card and a 9-pin Panasonic KX-P1091. What's the > cheapest way to upgrade the look of the text, short of taking my 3.5's to > Kinko's, converting 'em to Mac files, and printing them there? Hi Ron, Here's a trick I use to get really professional documents (and, if you have GS/OS 6.0.1, you don't even have to buy anything!!). Place the LaserWriter driver into the Drivers folder in your system folder. From the control Panel DC printer, select the LaserWriter driver. Now, using PostScript fonts like Times and Helvetica (Palatino, Bookman and other PostScripts fonts work too, if you have them on your GS), create your document. When you go to print it, after clicking OK in the "No network-not supported" dialog box, hit an open-apple f. You'll get a dialog box saying "Creating PostScript File". As you may have guessed, your printer output has now been directed to a file in your System Folder/Drivers directory called PostScript.GS00 (or PostScript.GS01, etc.). Put an 800k Mac disc into your Apple drive (you *do* have HFS support installed, right? (^_^)) and take the file to kinko's and use any postscript transfer utility to send the file to a PostScript laser printer of your choice. If the PostScript printer doesn't work (most Apple LaserWriters do, but some other PostScript printers don't), use a text editor to remove the following lines from your PostScript file: mark currentscreen dup type /dicttype eq { currentscreen (...etc... it's a long line..) ifelse} if /spf xdf cleartomark I've used this trick to print newsletters, postcards of band gigs, etc. You can't tell it's been done on a GS at all - especially if you're using AppleWorks GS. Hope this helps! Paul P.S. If you don't have GS/OS 6.0.1, you can still use this trick. Just rename the LaserWriter driver to something else - I used to use LaserWriter.DC, and the driver will show up in your DC Printer control panel. -- ***************************************************************** "Watashi wa Nihon no Anime o ichiban suki desu. Anime no Tenchi Muyo no Ryoko ni aitai desu. Wastashi mo Ayeka ni aitai desu." 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