Font problems

Maybe this should go to the Beta list, since the problem is probably
strictly an Amiga OS4 one, but I'll try here first.

I had been using PgS4 4.1.5.6 exclusively to print photos. Yesterday I
published a little 7"x8.5" pamphlet as Spoofbooks, Uninc., just to see if I
could (U.S. Legal sized page, printed duplex and folded in the middle. I
got a little bit dizzy figuring out the page numbers, but it came out
right), and I had such great success I decided to try a serious project.

I needed to select fonts. I could theoretically go through the font
selector, look at and memorize a sample of each, except I can't remember
things. So I decided it would be a quick and easy project to print out
each font name written with the font (skipping the bolds and obliques; I
can guess those differences) on a sheet of paper for reference. Thus began
a long afternoon of rebooting OS4 and, once, hitting the computer reset
button.

At least three fonts caused a guru when I asked for a sample: one of the
Deja Sans Condensed-, MgOpen Modata Regular, and Wedding.That was five
reboots, because after two crashes, the next Open-file caused another
crash.

I finally got a 6016B page page completed, leaving those bad fonts out;
loading it tends to crash PgS4, but not if I load one of the backups first
(this makes no sense to me at all, but it has happened four times this
afternoon).

My initial attempt to print it to my HP Color Laserjet 2605dn ended up in a
complete crash. Since then I have printed it to disk as a Postscript file.
I tried to read it with AmiGS, but after quite a few minutes of watching
the pointer-turned-clock tell me nothing was happening, I went ahead and
rebooted. I have tried twice to copy the file to my printer, and both
times the printer has reported "Printing Document" for two or three
minutes, then gone quietly back to "Ready."

Does any of this ring a bell with anyone?

Bart Mathias

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Do those fonts generally work for you in PgS? I have run across
malformed fonts before that worked with applications that don't put
them through their paces as thoroughly as PgS does.

Tim Doty

On Mar 18, 2008, at 9:58 PM, Bart Mathias wrote:

> Maybe this should go to the Beta list, since the problem is probably
> strictly an Amiga OS4 one, but I'll try here first.
>
> I had been using PgS4 4.1.5.6 exclusively to print photos.
> Yesterday I
> published a little 7"x8.5" pamphlet as Spoofbooks, Uninc., just to
> see if I
> could (U.S. Legal sized page, printed duplex and folded in the
> middle. I
> got a little bit dizzy figuring out the page numbers, but it came out
> right), and I had such great success I decided to try a serious
> project.
>
>; I needed to select fonts. I could theoretically go through the font
>; selector, look at and memorize a sample of each, except I can't
> remember
> things. So I decided it would be a quick and easy project to print
> out
> each font name written with the font (skipping the bolds and
> obliques; I
> can guess those differences) on a sheet of paper for reference.
> Thus began
> a long afternoon of rebooting OS4 and, once, hitting the computer
> reset
> button.
>
> At least three fonts caused a guru when I asked for a sample: one of
> the
> Deja Sans Condensed-, MgOpen Modata Regular, and Wedding.That was five
>; reboots, because after two crashes, the next Open-file caused another
> crash.
>
> I finally got a 6016B page page completed, leaving those bad fonts
> out;
>; loading it tends to crash PgS4, but not if I load one of the backups
> first
> (this makes no sense to me at all, but it has happened four times this
>; afternoon).
>
> My initial attempt to print it to my HP Color Laserjet 2605dn ended
> up in a
> complete crash. Since then I have printed it to disk as a
> Postscript file.
> I tried to read it with AmiGS, but after quite a few minutes of
> watching
> the pointer-turned-clock tell me nothing was happening, I went ahead
> and
> rebooted. I have tried twice to copy the file to my printer, and both
>; times the printer has reported "Printing Document" for two or three
> minutes, then gone quietly back to "Ready."
>
> Does any of this ring a bell with anyone?
>
> Bart Mathias
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>;

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.

Hi Bart,

I would suggest trying with PageStream5 beta if you can. The font
handling code is _completely_ different between the two. The old code
used a TrueType module written years ago by Relog, the same folks that
wrote TypeSmith. That code is long gone and was long in the tooth.

I've used the DejaVu and MgOpen family with 5.0 many times, so I am
pretty confident that your problem with these fonts would be solved with
the newest version.

Deron
> Maybe this should go to the Beta list, since the problem is probably
> strictly an Amiga OS4 one, but I'll try here first.
>
> I had been using PgS4 4.1.5.6 exclusively to print photos. Yesterday I
> published a little 7"x8.5" pamphlet as Spoofbooks, Uninc., just to see if I
> could (U.S. Legal sized page, printed duplex and folded in the middle. I
> got a little bit dizzy figuring out the page numbers, but it came out
> right), and I had such great success I decided to try a serious project.
>
>; I needed to select fonts. I could theoretically go through the font
>; selector, look at and memorize a sample of each, except I can't remember
> things. So I decided it would be a quick and easy project to print out
> each font name written with the font (skipping the bolds and obliques; I
> can guess those differences) on a sheet of paper for reference. Thus began
> a long afternoon of rebooting OS4 and, once, hitting the computer reset
> button.
>
> At least three fonts caused a guru when I asked for a sample: one of the
> Deja Sans Condensed-, MgOpen Modata Regular, and Wedding.That was five
>; reboots, because after two crashes, the next Open-file caused another
> crash.
>
> ...
>

--
Deron Kazmaier - support%40pagestream.org">supportpagestream.org
Grasshopper LLC Publishing - http://www.pagestream.org
PageStream DTP for Amiga, Linux, Macintosh, and Windows

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.

Greetings "Bart Mathias&quot; < mathias%40hawaii.edu">mathiashawaii.edu>
On 19/03/2008 at 02:58 you wrote concerning
[PageStreamSupport] Font problems

Hi Bart,

BM> Maybe this should go to the Beta list, since the problem is probably
BM> strictly an Amiga OS4 one, but I'll try here first.

Not so sure that it is just OS4.0!!! By the way, I am using 4.1.5.6 as well.

<<snip>>
BM> ..... Thus began
BM> a long afternoon of rebooting OS4 and, once, hitting the computer reset
BM> button.

BM> At least three fonts caused a guru when I asked for a sample: one of the
BM&gt; Deja Sans Condensed-, MgOpen Modata Regular, and Wedding.That was five
BM&gt; reboots, because after two crashes, the next Open-file caused another
BM> crash.

The "WeddingText-Normal" font rings a bell!

Couple of months ago -- 3 to 4 maybe -- I tried to reopen an old PageStream file
which used WeddingText Normal on page two. Everything was fine with the file as
long as I did not try to open page 2. Trying to open page 2 'usually' led to
PageStream hanging (busy icon appears and remains in charge) until one would
reboot. Something was wrong with that page. I could reconstruct it easily and
the reconstruction would close/open a few times, then the GR would cut in.
Eventually sent a cut-down version of the file containing the 'bad' page to
Deron, but on his system everything loaded just dandy.

BM&gt; I finally got a 6016B page page completed, leaving those bad fonts out;
BM&gt; loading it tends to crash PgS4, but not if I load one of the backups first
BM> (this makes no sense to me at all, but it has happened four times this
BM&gt; afternoon).

The above sounds even stranger!! By the way, what is "a 6016B page"?

HOWEVER, I think I've got it! Well ..... sort of! Do:

&#43;+ Open PageStream and then a 'New' document.

++ In the new doc, create a text frame. Place the text cursor in the text frame.

++ Use Ctrl-N or "Text -> font...&quot; to open the font list that is available to
you and which is shown in the "Set Font" window.

++ Turn the "Show sample&quot; option 'on' (checkmark) if it is 'off'.

++ Start at the top of your font list and, one-by-one, click on successive
fonts. If the font is displayed in "Show sample&quot; field then that font is okay.
Continue.

++ As soon as you ask for a 'bad' font, bingo, you'll get the Grim Reaper after
the PageStream screen goes black.

Something has gone wrong with the "font loading&quot; methinks.

In my case, I get to the 22nd font (CS ITC Zapf Chancery-LightItalic) and all is
well. The 23rd and 24th fonts appear as (PageStream nomemclature)

DejaVu Sans Condensed-f
DejaVu Serif Condensed-tf

and I figure something is wrong before even trying them. Sure enough, asking
PageStream to display either one brings a black screen followed by the GR. On
opening

File -> System Preferences -> Fonts

I have under "Installed Font Drawers&quot;:

DH0_OS40Final:Fonts
Fonts/Intellifonts
Fonts/ProPage
Fonts/SoftLogikFonts
Fonts/StandardFonts
Fonts/StudioFonts

My problem is in 'DH0_OS40Final:Fonts' I think where 'DH0_OS40Final:' is just
'Sys:' I note;

5.DH0_OS40Final:> list "fonts/dejavu sans condensed#?"
Directory "fonts" on Wednesday 19-Mar-08
DejaVu Sans Condensed Bold Oblique.otag 463 ----rw-d 19-Dec-06 16:51:42
DejaVu Sans Condensed Bold Oblique.font 4 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:29
DejaVu Sans Condensed Oblique.otag 459 ----rw-d 19-Dec-06 16:51:42
DejaVu Sans Condensed Oblique.font 4 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:29
DejaVu Sans Condensed Bold.otag 456 ----rw-d 19-Dec-06 16:51:42
DejaVu Sans Condensed Bold.font 4 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:29
DejaVu Sans Condensed.otag 451 ----rw-d 19-Dec-06 16:51:42
DejaVu Sans Condensed.font 4 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:29

So therefore PageStream should be displaying at least:

DejaVu Sans Condensed-BoldOblique
DejaVu Sans Condensed-Oblique
DejaVu Sans Condensed-Bold
DejaVu Sans Condensed

or something of the above vintage, in its "Set Font" window. Instead, as shown
above, there appears

DejaVu Sans Condensed-f
DejaVu Serif Condensed-tf (I did not list the 'Serif' files but they're there)

In the recent past, I've been presented with the partial list such as

DejaVu Sans Condensed-Book
DejaVu Sans Condensed-Bold
DejaVu Sans Condensed-Oblique
DejaVu Sans Condensed-f

but I've never used those guys until Bart mentioned them.

I suspect that when loading font families with "File -> System Preferences ->
Fonts" that I should have loaded in something other that just 'Sys:Fonts' but
I'm not sure just what!?!?!? Could something be wrong with the 'Add' command in
the "Font Preferences" window? Probably not!

Here I get (from "list sys:fonts&quot;)

Directory "fonts" on Wednesday 19-Mar-08
xen Dir ----rwed 12-Jan-08 12:53:44
imagefx Dir ----rwed 29-Jan-07 02:11:25
imagefx.font 784 ----rw-d 16-Jun-95 11:57:14
_bullet_outlines Dir ----rwed 26-Jan-07 23:44:07
_bullet Dir ----rwed 26-Jan-07 23:42:55
topaz.font 8064 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:25
topaz Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:50:17
times.font 4164 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:25
times Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:49:50
sapphire.font 1564 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:25
sapphire Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:49:45
ruby.font 2344 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:25
ruby Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:49:24
opal.font 1564 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:26
opal Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:49:53
helvetica.font 4424 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:26
helvetica Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:50:02
garnet.font 1564 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:26
garnet Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:49:45
emerald.font 1564 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:26
emerald Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:50:10
diamond.font 1564 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:26
diamond Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:49:48
courier.font 4424 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:26
courier Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:50:09
_TrueType Dir ----rwed 26-Jan-07 23:43:53
_GhostScript Dir ----rwed 24-Dec-06 13:49:44
URW Palladio L Roman.otag 337 ----rw-d 18-Dec-06 14:03:33
URW Palladio L Roman.font 4 ----rw-d 27-Jan-07 00:56:26
«remaining .otag and .font files omitted - about 145 of them»

Also, in the list of font files that I've omitted above, many of them do not
appear in the "Set Font" window. For example, none of the "Bitstream Vera
Sans/Serif ..." guys show up!

In particular, why does something like "Palladio L Roman"; not show up? Does it
correspond to "Pala-Normal&quot; which does show up in the "Set Font" list?

Later: No! "Pala-#?" corresponds to some files in
";pagestream:fonts/standardfonts" which begin with prefixes like:

Filename Prefix: PageStream Identifer for font

pala Pala-Normal
pala_b Pala-Bold
pala_bi Pala-BoldItalic
pala_i Pala-Italic

<<snip>;>
BM&gt; Does any of this ring a bell with anyone?

Yes! As noted above.

So, in my setup, Pagestream claims to have access to a 67 fonts, and of these,
two bring on the GR on attempting to display them in the "Set Font" window. As
to WeddingText Normal, I'm not so sure. Most of the time it seems okay, but
I've had trouble in the past with it.

5.DH0_OS40Final:> list pagestream:fonts/studiofonts
Directory "pagestream:fonts/studiofonts" on Wednesday 19-Mar-08
movistar.afm 13365 ----rwed 06-Mar-00 18:05:34
movistar.pfb 12501 ----rwed 06-Mar-00 18:05:34
titlesfo.afm 16695 ----rwed 06-Mar-00 18:05:34
titlesfo.pfb 26608 ----rwed 06-Mar-00 18:05:34
weddingt.afm 14034 ----rwed 06-Mar-00 18:05:34
weddingt.pfb 21930 ----rwed 06-Mar-00 18:05:36

The 'movistar' files appear as 'MovieStar-Normal'; the 'titlesfo' files as
'Titles-Normal' and the 'weddingt' files as 'WeddingText-Normal' in the "Set
Font"; window. Never had trouble with the first two, but WeddingText is 'iffy'.

What is the 'Fixfonts' program in Sys:System/ supposed to do?

Cheers Don (Green Dragon)

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