Re: Current Downloadable Font Status....

Clive Bruton wrote:

> For those interested in screen rendering quality TrueDoc is not an
> option, since it destroys the integrity of the font in its production
> process. It may yet prove to have intellectual property problems in
> countries that have copyright protection for type design (ie most of
> the
> developed world outside of the US).

There will undoubtedly be a number of choices in web font technology,
each providing it's own features and benefits. One of these choices is
TrueDoc, currently shipping in Netscape Communicator 4.01. Web designers
and tool developers should evaluate all the choices available to them,
and make a decision one which one(s) they want to use based on their own
particular needs. Bitstream invites anyone interested to fire up a copy
of Communicator and check out the TrueDoc sample pages available at:

    http://www.bitstream.com/world/index.htm

(For those without Communicator, a screen shot GIF is available at
http://www.bitstream.com/world/screen.htm )

TrueDoc is an enabling technology for remotely imaging fonts used in
electronic documents. It is designed to be able image fonts used in
creating publications on any supported authoring environment on any
TrueDoc aware client.  This lets you use the fonts installed on your
system when publishing electronically, much as other technologies let
you print using the same fonts. If you can legally create a printed
document with TrueDoc, you can legally create an electronic publication.

TrueDoc does not create font files on the viewing system- it images the
glyphs directly. This provides the best possible output quality and
protects the font from being copied. Additionally, TrueDoc incorporates
a security technology we have named DocLock that prevents imaging the
fonts with any documents except those created by the owner of the web
site.

It is true that TrueDoc may not generate output identical to the
original font engine on the original authoring system. There are a
number of reasons for this, not the least of which being that TrueDoc
employs very advanced antialiasing, sub-pixel positioning, and edge
filtering algorithms to ensure the best possible output quality on a
variety of video displays. It is not due to any destruction of the
integrity of the glyph shapes- indeed, in a non-pixelated world there
would be no discernable difference.

--
    Brad Chase

    Bitstream Inc.
    617-497-6222
    bchase@bitstream.com
    www.bitstream.com



--
    Brad Chase
    Director of Product Marketing

    Bitstream Inc.
    617-497-6222
    bchase@bitstream.com

Received on Thursday, 21 August 1997 18:14:24 UTC