Fonts viewer software |
The best ways to enhance your desktop-publishing system - utility programs - includes list of utility software companiesHome Office Computing , Nov, 1992 by Steve MorgensternWhat makes one program a utility and another a full-fledged application? It`s mostly a function of function: A utility typically enhances the capabilities of another program (or of your operating system, such as DOS) rather than tackling a major task itself. Utilities are optional--you can successfully run your page-layout program without a single software utility added. But that doesn`t mean utilities are unimportant. The utility programs installed on my computers let me work faster and better, improve my on-screen view of a publication under construction, make the fonts installed on my system manageable, and free up precious hard-disk space. Of the thousands of utilities out there, both commercially available and distributed as shareware, these are the ones I consider my core set; they help me with every desk-top-publishing project. LET ME SEE YOUR FACE When I design a page, I want to see all the typefaces on-screen, with the details of the fonts rendered accurately. That`s possible with a utility provided by Adobe, the creators of the Postscript language. Their Adobe Type Manager utility for both Macintosh and Windows systems builds on-screen typefaces in the specific sizes you need as you need them, based on the same Postscript font files used by the printer. With ATM, you can stop worrying about installing multiple screen fonts, or compromising on the display of odd-sized type. When it comes to displaying Postscript fonts on the Mac, ATM is essentially the only game in town. For Windows, there is a similar program called FaceLift for Windows, from Bitstream. If you use a lot of Bitstream fonts, FaceLift may be your first choice, since it can handle both PostScript fonts and Bitstream`s Speedo format. FaceLift also lets you create customized variations of Speedo and Postscript fonts--add a shaded fill or a drop shadow, for instance. When I tested an earlier version of FaceLift, I was disappointed in its speed compared with that of ATM, but with the release of FaceLift 2.0, the two utilities appear to be running neck and neck. Both ATM and FaceLift have a few additional tricks up their sleeves. Both programs let you print Postscript fonts (but not PostScript graphics) on a non-PostScript printer, with excellent results. On the Windows side, both utilities are also useful when you want to add Postscript fonts from your system, and FaceLift can delete fonts as well. True Type is another way to get an accurate match between what you see on-screen and what comes out of the printer. TrueType technology is built into Windows 3.1 and Macintosh System 7.0, and it`s available as an add-on for System 6.0.7 and higher. When you use fonts in the TrueType format, these operating systems can generate both the screen representation and the printed image--in other words, TrueType acts like the built-in equivalent of the ATM or FaceLift utility. Both Postscript and TrueType fonts produce high-quality output on a variety of printers, though some experts say TrueType is better at very small type sizes. On a practical level, though, the selection of PostScript fonts is so plentiful and diverse, and Postscript is so entrenched as a standard in the desktop-publishing community, that even the inclusion of TrueType in operating-system software hasn`t caused a major defection from Postscript. PUT FONTS IN THEIR PLACE A rich and varied collection of fonts is a highly desirable resource. However, it isn`t enough just to have a font file sitting on your hard drive--you have to install each font so that the operating system will know it`s available. The potential problem lurking here lies in the fact that each installed font uses up system memory that is then unavailable for other purposes. Besides, it`s time-consuming to scroll through a list of typeface names as long as your arm each time you want a particular font. What you want instead, then, is to have only the fonts you`re actually going to use installed on your system at a given moment. With Windows, that`s still a bother. ATM and FaceLift make installing and deleting fonts easier, but you still have to monkey around with each font individually and restart Windows every time you make a change. On the Macintosh, there`s a better way, thanks to font-management utilities. The two leading contenders in this area are Suitcase from Fifth Generation Systems and Master Juggler from AlSoft. Each of these utility packages actually handles other resources, including sounds and desk accessories, but it`s the font handling that is key for desktop publishing. Under the Macintosh system, screen fonts are stored in "suitcases," which must be installed in order for the computer to use them. Both Suitcase and MasterJuggler let you add or subtract suitcases of fonts from the system without going through the tedious permanent-font-installation process. And you can put several fonts into each suitcase, organizing them according to the way you`re likely to use them. For example, I recently completed a project set in Adobe Caslon and Tekton typefaces in a variety of weights and sizes. I created a single suitcase containing all of the required fonts. When I worked on that project, I used MasterJuggler to install them all in a snap. At other times, I removed them all to free up memory and shorten the scrolling font list. 3-Code 39 Barcode Fonts 5.0The Code 39 Font Advantage Package is much more than a few Code 3 of 9 bar code fonts. This barcode package contains several font versions in many font formats (including TrueType, PostScript, BDF, FON and PCL) for Windows, Macintosh, UNIX and a variety of other operating systems. You also receive font tools, macros (for Microsoft Access, Word mail-merge and Excel) and source code in Visual Basic, C Visit homepage of Code 39 Barcode Fonts Project index
|
||