wri responds to font problems (long)
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg7634] wri responds to font problems (long)
- From: David Elbert <elbert at jhu.edu>
- Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 16:16:07 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Mma-Listers: As many of you are aware, printing and/or saving graphics with Mma 3.0 has caused lots of folks headaches. A large chunk of the problem stems from problems with font installation and usage. While these problems vary from platform to platform, many of us have been very frustrated by font usage on Macintoshes; we had a thread on these a few months ago (e.g. mg[6516]). Some of the problems come from confusing and problematic use of TrueType versus Postscript fonts by Wolfram; some from problems getting the fonts downloaded to the printer consistently. Anyway, WRI Tech Support has finally answered my query (sent in March, I think) and the answer is extremely helpful and thorough (thanks to Alan DeGuzman at WRI). I thought I would pass it along so everyone will know where to look for explanations and help (on the web), and so you'll be up-to-date on when fixes may/should arrive. The text follows. Happy Fonting, David Elbert elbert at jhu.edu ------------------------------paste---------------------------- Hell(*sic, but too good to correct:) David, I apologize for the long delay in our response. The problem with font substitution will be fixed in the next Site version. Your site will automatically receive it when the CD is ready. The following information is also available from the Technical Support section of our website at the following URL: http://www.wolfram.com/support/Systems/Macintosh/ManualFontDownload.html _________________________________________________________________ You can use the Apple LaserWriter Utility or Apple Printer Utility to manually download the fonts in the MathFonts suitcase to your printer. At least one of these is included with the standard distribution of Apple's System Software. A copy of the "Apple Printer Utility" is available from Apple's website at the following URL. http://swupdates.info.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Apple_SW_Updates/US/Macintosh /Printing/LaserWriter/Apple_Printer_Utility_2.1.1.sea.hqx While it's possible for the Apple Laserwriter Utility or Apple Printer Utility to download TrueType fonts to a Postscript printer, it's not advisable to do so for any printer that doesn't have a hard disk. TrueType fonts have to be converted to Type 42 fonts to work on Postscript printers, but Type 42 fonts consume much more memory than the originals. Loading TrueType fonts into printer RAM would use most if not all of it up. The Mathematica fonts will not fit as Type 42 fonts within the RAM of most printers. Mathematica version 3.0.1 includes stand-alone Type 1 versions of the fonts in the directory Mathematica 3.0 files:System Files:Fonts:Type1. Users of earlier versions Mathematica can obtain these fonts from the following URL. ftp://mathsource.wolfram.com/pub/outgoing/Support/30fonts/Type1/MathT1.sit.hqx These extra Type 1 fonts are not meant to be installed in the System Folder. Fully installable Type 1 versions of these fonts will be available as part of the Mathematica Font Kit (being prepared for release later this year). Once you've downloaded the fonts to a Postscript printer, the fonts will work for any print job regardless of the type of computer sending it. If you're simply having a problem with the fonts not being rendered in graphics (and you don't have the memory in your PostScript printer to download fonts) the following page addresses this problem without downloading fonts. http://www.wolfram.com/support/FrontEnds/Printing/PSProblems.html Sincerely, Alan DeGuzman Technical Support Wolfram Research, Inc. support at wolfram.com