Article # 314, added by Geoworks, historical record
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Everything you ever wanted to know about GEOS fonts.



Information about Geoworks fonts and different font formats. 

The world of outline fonts is somewhat complex. There are many 
companies involved at several different levels. This document 
will attempt to clarify some of the terms involved and where 
companies fit into the scheme of things, as well as describing
ways to add more fonts to your Geoworks software.

Overview
========
There are four different types of companies involved with outline
fonts: foundries, rasterizer companies, application companies, 
and converter companies.

Foundry - designs outline fonts. An example of this is URW, which
designed typefaces such as URW Roman. Foundries license their 
typeface designs to other companies.

Rasterizer Company - creates the software for rendering outline 
fonts for display. An example of this is Digital Typeface 
Corporation (DTC), which has a rasterizer known as Nimbus-Q. 
Companies that create rasterizers make money by either licensing
the rasterizer algorithm to other companies, or by creating 
separate software which adds this capability to existing 
programs. Traditionally, the fonts used with rasterizing 
software are licensed from a foundry. For example, many of 
DTC's fonts were licensed from URW.

Application Company - licenses rasterizing software for use in
a PC application. An example of this is Geoworks, which licensed
the Nimbus-Q rasterizer from DTC for use in Geoworks. The fonts 
for Geoworks were also licensed from DTC, who in turn licensed 
the designs from URW.

Converter Company - makes software to convert between one or 
more of the font formats. This market has come into existence
because of the large number of (incompatible) font formats. 
Conversion programs allow application users to use more fonts 
than might otherwise be available for the font format their 
application uses. An example of this is MI.EXE from MicroLogic 
Software, which converts Adobe Type 1 fonts into MicroLogic's
MLS font format.

To keep things interesting, a number of companies fall into 
more than one of the above categories. For example, Adobe has
designed some of its own fonts (acting as a foundry), created
its own rasterizer (acting as a rasterizer company), and also
sells the rasterizer as an add-on product for both Windows and
the Macintosh (acting as an application company).

The Geoworks font format
========================
Geoworks licensed its rasterizer and fonts from Digital Typeface
Corporation (DTC) which acquired the company that created the
Nimbus-Q rasterizer and licensed the designs for its fonts from
URW. Geoworks uses a derivative of the Nimbus-Q format, not the
native Nimbus-Q format.

Here are the original nine Geoworks outline fonts along with names
of equivalent or near-equivalent fonts from other companies.
	Geoworks Name		Is Similar To
	=============		=============
	Cranbrook		Century Schoolbook
	Cooperstown		Cooper Black
	Sather Gothic		Franklin Gothic
	Shattuck Avenue		Park Avenue
	Superb			Broadway
	URW Mono		Courier
	URW Roman		Times Roman 	
	URW Sans		Helvetica
	URW Symbol		Postscript Symbol


There are a number of other ways you can make additional fonts for
GEOS:

+ ATech Software published a conversion program called AllType
  which will convert a large number of formats, including Adobe
  Type 1, True Type, ATech's FastFont format, Nimbus-Q, and 
  Geoworks into any of the other formats. Atech is no longer in
  business, but AllType is distributed by Page Technology:

    Page Technology Marketing, Inc.
    10671 Roselle Street, Suite 100
    San Diego, California 92121-1525 
    (619) 658-0191 
    Fax (619) 658-0194
    Http://www.tfb.com/pagetech/
    Email: pagetech@tfb.com

+ MicroLogic Software offers a font converter that can convert to
  Geoworks font format.  You need MoreFontsImport to convert the
  Type 1 font to the MLS proprietary format.  Then use MoreType
  to convert the font to Geoworks format.

    MoreType and MoreFontsImport from 
    MicroLogic
    1351 Ocean Ave.
    Emeryville, CA 94608
    (510) 652-5464

Now that they're converted, what do I do?
=========================================
Once the fonts are converted to the Geoworks format, simply copy
the font files into the USERDATA/FONT directory.  Restart GEOS 
and it will find the new fonts.