[Am-info] Re: True-Type fonts "gone!"

[Marcus de Geus]

In reply to a message from "Eric M. Hopper" <hopper@omnifarious.org> dated
2002-08-22 06:38:57 -0500 (Thu):

Hi Eric,

Hold your horses!

> > While I'm on the subject, let me dispel a myth. Type 1 fonts are not
> > expensive.
>
> I never said they were, and I'm not trying to imply they are.

I never said you were; see below.

> > Nevertheless, the right to appropriate copyrighted material (also known
as
> > stealing someone else's product) applies as little to typefaces as it
does
> > to music or computer programs. If you want fonts (or music, or computer
> > programs) for free, look for freeware. Good typeface designers tend to
get
> > paid for their skills, so good typefaces tend to cost money.
>
> This is not what I said, and if you'd bothered to read what I said
> instead of jumping rabidly to Adobe's defense, you wouldn't have
> bothered with any rants about how stupid it is of me to expect
> individual fonts to be free as in beer.

And if you'd bothered to read what I wrote ("I have added some more personal
observations below"; I even inserted extra blank lines to indicate the
change) instead of jumping rapidly (note the "p"; I saw no need to follow
your scurrilous example) to your own defence, you wouldn't have written that
-- I hope. Perhaps I should have adapted my phrasing -- I actually
considered doing so at the time -- to avoid all ambiguity (e.g. by using
"one" or "people" instead of "you"). Next time, OK?

I wasn't fighting Adobe's battle for them; I was just trying to explain --
as per your request -- why, in my opinion at least, Adobe's Type 1 typeface
technology is superior to Microsoft's TrueType stuff. I added some personal
observations on the relative value for money of freeware offerings because I
thought they might be germane to the discussion. That's all.

> I'm sorry, I don't want to live in a world in which Adobe owns everything.
I don't want to live in a world in which Microsoft owns everything either.
When a company plays the game like Adobe did at the time, they play right
into Microsoft's hands. That's Microsoft's turf, and if you play that way,
Microsoft will win.

Agreed (though perhaps it's time to realize that we ARE living in a world in
which Microsoft owns practically everything). Even so, one cannot expect
someone else to develop the technology one wants without giving that person
his due. If an inventor decides to make his material available at no cost,
so much the better, but one cannot expect him to do so other than of his own
accord. Altruism cannot be enforced. Computer users all over the world are
free to come up with a freeware typeface system of their own if they do not
want to use a proprietary system. The fact is that they haven't done so.
Fine, but that entails having to pay the original developers of the
proprietary system of choice for the use of their system. And if one does
so, I maintain that it is as well to opt for the best system available, i.e.
Type 1.

> Adobe truly deserved to have Type 1 and Postscript nearly die as
standards. They certainly didn't act like they wanted anybody else to use
them. If they hadn't acted the way they did, Microsoft wouldn't have had the
leverage they needed to push through TrueType, and we'd all be using nice,
technologically superior Type 1 fonts today.

I doubt it. If Adobe had given in to Microsoft, and given them the use of
(and control over; we're talking MS here) their technology, Type 1 and
PostScript would have been killed off and replaced by TrueType or something
similar (or worse, since lack of competition has not been known to stimulate
innovation at MS). If history teaches us one thing, it is that Microsoft is
consistent in its dealings with other parties. Remember the original subject
of this thread?

Regards,

Marcus de Geus
--
marcus@degeus.com
http://www.degeus.com