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Re: Postscript bug

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Steve writes:

>>>> If it can print o-dieresis properly without the hollow attribute,
>>>> shouldn't it also be able to print it with the hollow attribute?

>>> PostScript is a complete programming language, so it can be
>>> very complex, and hard to debug.  Your "hollow attribute" is
>>> not a built-in feature of PostScript (not a language primative).
>>> So you will have to see where it is defined in the document and
>>> place some debugging code there.

>> "Hollow" is what DeScribe calls it.  In the OS/2 Font Palette
>> editor, there is an emphasis called "Outline" that appear to
>> do the same thing.

> Okay, there is a PaintType attribute that describes an outline
> action.  It says that a font that is designed to be "filled" can
> be "outlined" instead.  PaintType can be part of a font definition.

PaintType does appear in the PostScript file, several times.  After
the first occurrence, a few lines later there are 211 lines of
hexadecimal, which could be defining things.  The second occurrence
is embedded within a longer line.  The third, fourth, and fifth
occurrence are also followed by extensive lines of hexadecimal.

>> The only thing that is obvious in the Postscript file is that
>> the text with and without the hollow attribute is preceded with
>>
>> 478 /HelmetCondensed-Bold1 SF
>> 478 /HelmetCondensed-Bold SF

> In the "Blue Book", "PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook",
> Adobe Systems Incorporated, there is a routine that creates an outline
> font from a filled font (page 203).  So the above makes sense If both
> fonts are in both documents.  Not that there are not fonts that are not
> filled.  To be filled, an outline must exist defining a glyph.  The Blue
> Book and the Language Reference can be downloaded as PDF's. 

I had already found a file PLRM2.pdf, which I presume stands for
Postscript Language Reference Manual.  It's 772 pages long, and I
haven't had time to read through all of it yet.  Nor am I terribly
motivated to do so, just to track down a driver bug, because I
wouldn't know who could fix the driver itself.

> Some fonts are based on lines that are stroked.  Think 'Courier' where
> all the lines that make up a glyph have the same width.  And some
> fonts are made up of bitmaps.  They cannot be filled or outlined either.
> And there are a bunck of fonts that are repackaged True Type fonts.
> The outline information may not be available?  And there are/were
> encrypted fonts that can't be modified.
>
> So, examine your font and find out if it is the right type to have an
> outline that can be accessed to create a new font.  (The fact that you
> are having problems implies...)

HelmetCondensed is a sans serif font, not too dissimilar to
Helvetica Narrow.  Nothing fancy.  The 7-bit ASCII characters
all work fine in their "hollow" or "outline" form, and o-dieresis
isn't all that different from an o or an i.

> Can you use a standard font to create your document?  That may be
> a way to get an acceptable result.

I'm going to experiment with UniversCondensed.  If memory serves, way
back when I had an HP Laserjet III, it came with CG Times and Univers
built-in as the serif and sans serif fonts.  DeScribe recognizes
Univers as both a printer and screen font.  UniversCondensed is a
little bit wider than HelmetCondensed.  I didn't like the aspect ratio
of Helvetica Narrow.  And while DeScribe allows the user to control
the "Set Width" independently of the point size, thus having full
control over the aspect ratio, that capability is available only for
regular text, not a text graphic.  The advantage of a text graphic is
that you have control over the color of the text, whereas document
text is restricted to black and white.

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Thread

Postscript bug tholen@antispam.ham - 2013-06-28 04:11 +0000
  Re: Postscript bug Bogus@Embarq.com (Steve) - 2013-06-28 11:34 +0000
    Re: Postscript bug tholen@antispam.ham - 2013-06-28 21:27 +0000
      Re: Postscript bug "ivan" <ivanjt@free.fr> - 2013-06-29 11:05 +0000
        Re: Postscript bug tholen@antispam.ham - 2013-06-30 07:19 +0000
      Re: Postscript bug Bogus@Embarq.com (Steve) - 2013-06-29 19:48 +0000
        Re: Postscript bug tholen@antispam.ham - 2013-06-30 07:37 +0000
          Re: Postscript bug Bogus@Embarq.com (Steve) - 2013-06-30 13:11 +0000

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