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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




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