Font smoothing (antialiasing) PDF files with Type 3 fonts in Adobe Exchange
Louis Vosloo
> I am converting some legacy PostScript files to PDF that were generated with
> LaTeX and include Type 3 bitmapped fonts. Using Adobe Distiller 3.02, the
> resulting PDF files print fine, but look terrible on screen when viewed with
> Adobe Exchange 3.01. Apparently, Exchange and Acrobat Reader 3.01 do not do
> any font smoothing (antialiasing) for Type 3 fonts. GSView 2.6 (on Windows
> NT with Ghostscript 5.5) supports antialiasing (called text alpha) on PDF
> files with Type 3 fonts, and the results are very good compared to
> Exchange/Reader. However, Exchange has some nice features like bookmarks,
> thumbnails, and notes that GSView doesn't have.
> Is there a way to enable font smoothing for PDF files with Type 3 fonts in
> Adobe Exchange 3.01?
Apparently not. Also, it wouldn't produce results nearly as good as using
Type 1 fonts, such as the BSR/Y&Y/AMS CM and AMS fonts on CTAN. You best
bet is to go back to the source and regenerate ths PS with DVIPS setup to
use the Type 1 fonts instead of bitmapped PK files.
> BTW, I've tried unsuccessfully to use FixFont to convert these legacy PS
> files to use Type 1 fonts.
FixFont was never ready for prime time. Blame mode_def! Seriously,
you cannot reliably identify bitmapped fonts in output from DVIPS
because the bitmaps depends not only on resolution and point size but
the mode_def used. FixFonts scheme for identifying fonts was too
simplistic to cope with this. We worked for a while on this problem,
but it seemed there would be no market for such a thing, and the
Window of opportunity is too narrow (after some years there will be
no PK fonts anymore, and before that, DVIPS will include comments so
you can tell what fonts those bitmaps come from, making it trivial).
--
Y&Y, Inc. mailto:sup...@YandY.com http://www.YandY.com
Ross Cutler
Louis Vosloo wrote in message <362A5325...@YandY.com>...
>
>Apparently not. Also, it wouldn't produce results nearly as good as using
>Type 1 fonts, such as the BSR/Y&Y/AMS CM and AMS fonts on CTAN. You best
>bet is to go back to the source and regenerate ths PS with DVIPS setup to
>use the Type 1 fonts instead of bitmapped PK files.
Unfortunately I can't do this -- these are legacy PS files, and I don't have
the source. While Type 1 fonts should look best, an antialiased Type 3 font
in GSView looks very good and is acceptable to me for on-screen reading.
>
>> BTW, I've tried unsuccessfully to use FixFont to convert these legacy PS
>> files to use Type 1 fonts.
>
>FixFont was never ready for prime time. Blame mode_def! Seriously,
>you cannot reliably identify bitmapped fonts in output from DVIPS
>because the bitmaps depends not only on resolution and point size but
>the mode_def used. FixFonts scheme for identifying fonts was too
>simplistic to cope with this. We worked for a while on this problem,
>but it seemed there would be no market for such a thing, and the
>Window of opportunity is too narrow (after some years there will be
>no PK fonts anymore, and before that, DVIPS will include comments so
>you can tell what fonts those bitmaps come from, making it trivial).
Are you referring to Y&Y's PrePDF, which I've seen referenced with FixFont,
but never seems to have been released? There may be a market, since there
are terabytes of legacy PS files on the web using Type 3 fonts, much of
which will not be regenerated to use Type 1 fonts. I am converting some of
these PS files (which are research papers) to PDF to create my own on-screen
library.
Ross.
Louis Vosloo
> Are you referring to Y&Y's PrePDF, which I've seen referenced with FixFont,
> but never seems to have been released?
Yes, and is what not released because it was too hard to make it work
reliably as a result of everyone's PK fonts being slightly different,
because of mode_def.
> There may be a market, since there
> are terabytes of legacy PS files on the web using Type 3 fonts, much of
> which will not be regenerated to use Type 1 fonts.
You are right, but as far as our research could determine no one was
willing to spend anything for such a capability, or put any kind of
serious effort into developing it.
> I am converting some of these PS files (which are research papers) to
> PDF to create my own on-screen library.
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