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On the Macintosh fonts were drawn from hand-tuned font files that specified individual pixel locations for a font at a particular size. If the user wanted to see a font at another size, the Font Manager found the closest match and applied a basic scaling alogrithm. When scaled to large sizes the effect was comical.
In contrast, printer fonts for the popular Apple LaserWriter were based on PostScript Type 1 (and 3) outlines, resulting in excellent output at any size. Although Adobe provided the Abobe Type Manager software to use the same fonts on-screen, the software was fairly expensive. Nevetheless it became a defacto standard for anyone involved in desktop publishing, to the point where Apple wanted to have a similar system built-in. Making matters difficult was the fact that Type 1 fonts were encrypted, and Abode made considerable amount of their income from licensing the format to interested parties. They were not about to simply allow Apple to include the software for free.
Instead Sampo Kaasila at Apple decided to write an entirely new format, which he worked on under the name Bass (as in Bass-o-matic from the Saturday Night Live sketch) and later Royal. The system developed and was eventually released as TrueType with the launch of Mac OS System 7 in May 1991. The fonts, four-weight families of Times Roman, Helvetica, Courier, and a handful of others, replaced the older bitmap fontMacintosh operating system A bitmap font is one that stores each glyph as an array of pixels (that is, a bitmap). It is less commonly known as a raster font . Scaling Bitmap fonts look best at their native pixel size. At non-native sizes, many text renders that previous Macintosh System versions had used.
One huge drawback of the TrueType system is that it could not use Type 1 fonts on-screen -- not surprising given its genesis. However this meant that the system was in fact not used by the very people it was intended to help, the DTP users. They had already invested considerable money in commercial Type 1 fonts that they were not interested in replacing, and therefore had to continue using Type Manager. Adding to the problem was that there were very few fonts available in TrueType format, so even if one wanted to start fresh there was no real way to do so.
As part of Apple's new tactic of distancing itself from Adobe, Apple licensed TrueType to MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation , headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the world's largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software in exchange for a license for TrueImage , a Microsoft-developed PostScript-compatible printer driver that Apple planned to use in their laser printerA laser printer is a common type of computer printer that produces good quality printing, and is able to produce graphics. The process is very similar to the type of dry process photocopier first produced by Xerox. Indeed, the first laser printer was creas. This driver was never actually included in any Apple products.
When TrueType was released John WarnockJohn Warnock is best known as the co-founder with Charles Geschke of Adobe Systems Inc. the graphics and publishing software company. Although retired as CEO in 2001, he still co-chairs the board with Geschke. Warnock was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct of Abode gave an impassioned speach in which he claimed Apple and Microsoft were selling snake oilSnake oil is a term used for fake, fraudulent, and usually ineffective potions and nostrums. The expression is also applied metaphorically to any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality — such as bogus cryptography (see, and then instantly released the Type 1 format as a published standard for anyone to use. This put even more pressure on TrueType. Apple eventually renewed agreements with Adobe for the use of PostScript in its printers; it is speculated that Apple's tactics resulted in lower royalty payments to Adobe as part of its new licensing agreements.
Apple extended TrueType with the launch of TypeType GX in 19941994 is a common year starting on Saturday, and was designated the International year of the Family''. Events January events January 1 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect January 6 Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an, as part of QuickDraw GX. This offered powerful extensions in two main areas. First was font morphing, for example allowing fonts to be smoothly adjusted from light to bold or from narrow to extended — competition for Adobe's "multiple master" technology. Second was substitution, where particular sequences of characters can be coded to flip to different designs in certain circumstances, useful for example to offer ligatures for 'fi', 'ffi', 'ct', etc. while maintaining the backing store of characters necessary for spell-checkers and text searching. However, the lack of user-friendly tools for making TrueType GX fonts meant there were no more than a handful of GX fonts. Much of the technology in TrueType GX, including morphing and substitution, lives on as AAT (Apple Advanced Typography) in OS X. Few font developers outside Apple attempt to make AAT fonts.