Re: SuperATM and MM fonts instead of embedding (was Re: pixel fonts)

Bill McCoy wrote:

>Thus, every font used in an online document can become an advertisement for
>the font. When someone views an electronic document, the font subset will
>not be installed in the user's system and thus will not be available for
>editing use (this is how Acrobat works today). But an editing application
>could be smart enough that if the user tries to edit document text that uses
>an embedded subset not on the system, the options presented - e.g., change
>to another font, abort the edit - can include the useful option of buying
>and on-the-fly installing the font.

This is a lie.

In the first place, the Acrobat default for font subsetting is 10% -- i.e.
if I include more than 10% of the characters in a given font in my PDF file,
Acrobat will automatically embed the entire font. In the second place, the
font _is_ installed in the user's system, that's how they are able to print
a PDF file. We can strip a fully functional font from a PDF file in a matter
of seconds. If the basic Acrobat encrypting methods are employed (any except
password encryption) it takes a few seconds longer.

John Hudson, Type Director

Tiro TypeWorks
Vancouver, BC
tiro@portal.ca
http://www.portal.ca/~tiro

Received on Sunday, 11 August 1996 18:51:13 UTC