News: HyperCard goes home, to link with AppleScript
Apple will take over development, support
By Raines Cohen
Santa Clara, Calif. - HyperCard is on the way home again.
Claris Corp. and Apple last week announced that responsibility for development, marketing and support of the user-programming tool will return to Apple.
Apple said it will integrate HyperCard with AppleScript, its user-
scripting technology, and will work closely with Claris to ensure a smooth transition and an upgrade path for current users.
Claris will continue to sell and support HyperCard until Apple ships a new release, probably in the summer or fall. AppleScript is due in the first half of the year.
"As our tools strategy has evolved and things like AppleScript have come closer to being an end-user product, it seemed to make sense to have a single, unified tool strategy," said Kirk Loevner, vice president of the Apple Developer Group, HyperCard's new home. "The strategic value of HyperCard really is as an end-user tool rather than as an application."
Users said AppleScript will benefit from the HyperCard front-end and debugging tools, since the AppleScript editor released to developers reportedly has frustrated many potential scriptors.
Apple now has to determine if it will continue development efforts started at Claris. One option is a core-code rewrite of the program in C++ to make it platform-independent and add color support.
Stack users and developers reacted favorably to the announcement.
Danny Goodman, a computer book author and stack developer in San Francisco, said AppleScript and HyperCard will work well together. "It's a union made in heaven," he said. "AppleScript needed a readily accessible user-interface builder, something familiar to developers."
Goodman, who last year spearheaded a campaign to make Claris pay more attention to HyperCard, said the user lobbying may have paid off. "I think it was the cumulative effect of the current HyperCard community recognizing the strategic importance of HyperCard for the Mac," he said.
Others agreed that the move will benefit both HyperCard and AppleScript. "This will be the jump-start for making AppleScript scripting and Apple events in general really take off," said Neil Ticktin, editor in chief of MacTech, a developers magazine published monthly by Xplain Corp. of Los Angeles.
"It makes a lot of sense," said Gerth Hannsen, president of San Francisco hardware developer Radiant Inc. "We played a little bit with Apple events, but the problem has been [lack of a] graphical front end to AppleScript."
Users also said the clear commitment from Apple that the announcement represents will help HyperCard the most. "This is truly great news," said Bernard Aboba, an Oakland, Calif.-based author of a Mac communications book. "There had been a lot of rumors - few of them good - and this puts them to rest. There really is no substitute for HyperCard, so it's good that Apple is recognizing this and moving it forward."
Other users focused criticism on Claris' management of the product.
"Whoever [at Apple] picks it up and runs with it is likely to accomplish more than the Claris folks did," said Bill Woodcock, author of a Mac networking book in Santa Cruz, Calif. "The relative stagnation it suffered through during the Claris-administered period certainly didn't improve its image or reputation."
Ticktin agreed. "Considering the shenanigans that Claris has played with some of the other developer tools, such as XTND, it's a good thing that it is going to Apple," he said. "Claris appears to be not at all interested in the plight of other Mac developers. To have HyperCard out of their hands is really a good step."
Overall, developers said, HyperCard's future now appears bright. "We're very pleased because we felt that HyperCard was competing with FileMaker Pro for attention at Claris," said Dorothy D'Attoma, president of SoftStream International Inc., a Dartmouth, Mass., software publisher. "We're looking forward to some important new energy being thrown into the product."
MacWEEK 02.01.93
News Page 1
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News: New Macs' lean prices offer hefty competition
Models may take on Compaq, Dell CPUs
By Jon Swartz
Cupertino, Calif. - Apple's new CPUs, to be announced next week at Macworld Expo in Tokyo, are among its most aggressively priced to date.
The new low-end and midrange Macs, which are priced competitively to grab market share from personal computer rivals Compaq Computer Corp. of Houston and Dell Computer Corp. of Austin, Texas, start from $1,389 for the Macintosh Color Classic 4/80. The full lineup, with prices, includes:
> Mac LC III. This CPU includes a 25-MHz Motorola 68030 processor, a 32-
bit data bus, 4 Mbytes of RAM and a processor direct slot. It will be priced at $1,379 in a 4/80 configuration and $1,499 for the 4/160 model, according to sources.
> Centris 610. Apple's lowest-cost 68040-based system lets users choose either a 20-MHz 68LC040 - a version of the '040 without a built-in FPU (floating-point unit) - or a full-fledged 20-MHz '040. Users will be able to add as much as 68 Mbytes of RAM. It will be priced from $1,859 for a 4/80 model to $2,959 for an 8/230 configuration with on-board Ethernet and the internal AppleCD 300i CD-ROM drive built in, sources said.
> Centris 650. All configurations of this model include a 25-MHz '040 except for the low-end model, for which users can choose to forgo Ethernet and opt for the less-expensive 68LC040. It includes three NuBus slots, one PDS and RAM expandable to 136 Mbytes. Prices will range from $2,699 for a 4/80 system to $4,379 for an 8/500 model, sources said.
> Quadra 800. The new Quadra model will include a 33-MHz '040, three NuBus slots, one 68040 PDS and built-in Ethernet. It starts at $4,679 for an 8/230 model and goes up to $6,399 for the model with 8 Mbytes of RAM and a 1-Gbyte hard drive, sources said.
Prices will drop on some current Quadra models in response to the new offering, sources said. Prices on some models could decline as much as 35 percent. New configurations with larger hard drives also will be available.
> PowerBook 165c. Apple's first color notebook also will debut next week, priced at $3,399 in a 4/80 configuration, sources said.
Sources said Apple may fine-tune its CPU pricing before next week's introduction.
The first major overhaul of Apple's desktop line in two years reportedly pleased corporate users, who have drifted away from purchasing Macs because they were too pricey or lacked features such as built-in Ethernet, color and internal CD-ROM drives.
"It looks like Apple has got things going [with the CPU introductions], and that's encouraging to users who want more of a choice than just DOS," said Joe Nagy, chief facilities engineer for the U.S. Mint in Denver.
Some corporate users said they will hold off purchasing until PowerPC-
based Macs debut. "The new Macs sound super, both in terms of price and performance. But I'll turn my ears up when I see the PowerPC," said Jeffrey VanSkyhawk, manager of information technology at Bose Corp. of Framingham, Mass.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
News Page 1
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News: Performa sales exceed projections
By Andrew Gore
Cupertino, Calif. - The Macintosh Performas put on quite a show last Christmas, exceeding projected sales. Apple said the new consumer Macs sold so well that it will offer new configurations this spring and may add some new models by year-end.
Keith Fox, general manager of Apple USA's consumer division, said the Performa 400 was the best seller, garnering 60 percent of the line's sales. The Performa 600 CD, with 25 percent of total Performa sales, did surprisingly well, he said, considering it was the most expensive of the three consumer Macs. In fact, the CD-ROM-equipped 600 sold so fast that Apple couldn't keep up with demand, he said.
"The CD phenomenon in the Mac industry is amazing. The CD is the gating factor [in Performa 600 CD shipments]," Fox said.
Only the Performa 200 failed to sell as well as projected, representing about 15 percent of total Performa sales, according to Fox.
The sales figures taught Apple that consumers are more interested in modular Macs than in the compact Classic design, Fox said.
He said Apple will expand the Performa line by adding additional peripherals, such as an external CD-ROM drive, and it will increase the software bundled with systems.
Most dealers sell Performas bundled with integrated software or financial-management packages; the 600 CD comes with about a dozen CD titles.
Third parties who participated in the bundle offers said the dividend came in publicity rather than earnings. "It gave us great exposure, so when the user went to buy another product, they considered Claris," said Bruce Chizen, acting vice president of U.S. sales at Claris. "However, as with any OEM relationship, the benefit was less profit and more exposure."
According to sources, Apple may start including up to a dozen software packages with Performas this spring and expand built-in RAM and hard drive capacities as well. Products being considered for bundling include video games, screen savers, painting programs and contact-management programs, sources said.
According to Fox, a 68040 Performa capable of competing with 486-based clones will be added to the Performa line sometime in the future.
Fox said that 91 percent of Performa systems are being used in the home, Apple's target market. The majority of home users (33 percent) bought Performas as an educational machine for their children. Nineteen percent bought them so they could do work at home; 18 percent purchased Performas for home-based businesses; and 8 percent bought them for home management.
Of the home buyers, 62 percent had never owned a computer before. Of the 38 percent who had owned a computer before, 30 percent owned IBM PCs and compatibles.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
News Page 1
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News: Business users take Mac CD-ROM for a spin
By April Streeter
San Francisco - Apple is busy putting a CD-ROM drive into current and upcoming Macs and handheld devices, and corporate customers seem ready to go along for the drive.
Many businesses are embracing CD-ROM, producing their own discs on in-
house recording systems and using them along with proliferating new titles for key business tasks.
American Airlines Inc. of Tulsa, Okla., is putting its maintenance manuals on CD-ROM and training mechanics and other employees to use them. "There's a lot of hype out there," said Mike Conley, American's CD-ROM project manager. "User acceptance of the technology is an issue, and access speed is still an issue. Overall, though, for large-scale [organizations], it still wins."
Users have demonstrated that built-in drives are a hot commodity. Apple has a backlog of orders for its Performa 600 because it is having trouble obtaining enough CD-ROM drives to put into that popular configuration, Apple said. The 600's success also may buoy its hopes for the success of the 68040 Macs to be unveiled later this month. The Centris 610 and 650 and the Quadra 800 reportedly will offer optional built-in CD-ROM drives.
Handheld and consumer CD-ROM-based devices also will appear this year, making CD-ROM usage even more ubiquitous. Sources said hardware production for Apple's entry in this field, the Sweet Pea, is on schedule for a July debut.
In addition, The 3DO Company of San Mateo, Calif., is putting a CD-ROM drive in its 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, a consumer device that will hook up to television sets. The company also is producing and using CD-
ROMs extensively in-house.
"CD-ROM is the biggest reservoir there is for a lot of data, in fact the only large reservoir out there," said Bart Faber, senior marketing vice president at 3DO. "We are using [CD-ROMs] now as the medium for product testing, product development and archiving, [and we] envision it as the next paradigm."
Prices of systems that allow users to record their own CD-ROM have dropped sharply in recent years. Vendors such as Phillips Consumer Electronics Co. and JVC Information Products Co. now offer desktop recording systems for around $10,000. Pinnacle Micro last month announced a system priced at less than $4,000. These systems, which make limited quantities of CD-ROMs, include a write-once recording unit and premastering software.
According to Julie Schwerin, president of InfoTech of Woodstock, Vt., businesses often use homemade CD-ROMs to distribute technical documentation and financial and marketing databases.
"Where the number of copies is low (less than 20) and the number of times a new disc must be created is high, internal replication makes sense," Schwerin said. "The biggest surprise is that it has become chic to author a CD-ROM in [many] organizations."
JVC has targeted corporate customers with a Mac-based CD-ROM recording system called the Personal Archiver. It lets users simply copy files to the Archiver's hard drive, where they can be pressed onto a Mac-
compatible CD-ROM using a single command.
According to a report by Kathryn Hilton of Santa Clara, Calif.-based InfoCorp, cost savings and quick turnaround are the payoff for companies distributing information via CD-ROM rather than paper.
Data security is another reason companies will use CD-ROMs, said Ed Craig, manager of a division of Hanson Graphics in Baton Rouge, La.
"For our own sense of security, we adopted this technology early on," said Craig, who uses the Philips recorder and Optical Media software to archive all the company's work. "For us it's not only a question of how little I can invest to do this but also the feeling that critical data is secure on CD-ROM."
Kirsten Parkinson contributed to this report.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
San Francisco - Aldus FreeHand and Adobe Illustrator are both in line for upgrades that will increase the similarities between the two premiere PostScript illustration programs, according to sources.
New versions of FreeHand from Aldus Corp. of Seattle and Illustrator from Adobe Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., are in pre-beta, sources said. Upgrades to both $595 programs reportedly are slated to ship by spring. Aldus and Adobe declined to comment.
> FreeHand. Version 4.0 features a streamlined interface that reduces the use of dialog boxes, sources said.
The upgrade will address user complaints about text entry and editing. These functions will be available on screen within a drawing, rather than requiring the user to go to separate dialog boxes to type text and set parameters. Illustrator already handles text in this way.
FreeHand users will be able to set text attributes with a new floating palette. Text will be more flexible, sources said. For example, users will be able to flow editable text from body copy to a curved line back to body copy. A zoom text feature will allow close-up views, and a new copyfitting feature will permit adjustments to word spacing, letter spacing and leading.
New color features will include the ability to drag colors from a palette and drop them onto objects and lines. Users also will be able to drag new colors into the color palette and edit them. The program will allow creation and editing of colors by CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), RGB (red, green, blue) and HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) models.
A tint-selection feature will let users automatically generate a range of tints from 10 percent to 100 percent of any color.
> Illustrator. The current Mac version of Illustrator is 3.2, although Adobe shipped Illustrator 4 for Windows in May 1992. The Mac upgrade reportedly will jump ahead to Version 5.0.
With this new version, Adobe will respond to users' requests for an editable preview mode, which FreeHand and the Windows version of Illustrator already possess. Currently, Mac Illustrator users edit images in a wireframelike view.
Illustrator 5.0 reportedly also will add a Layers palette similar to that in FreeHand. Users will be able to click on icons in the palette to set whether an object is in the foreground, background, printing layer, nonprinting layer and so on. Users will be able to select multiple layers by holding down the Shift key and dragging and also will be able to select noncontiguous layers.
Like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator will use filters to apply special effects to images.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Gateways: Coactive devices allow Macs, PCs to communicate via AppleTalk
By April Streeter
Belmont, Calif. - Coactive Computing Corp. wants to make Mac-style networking for small, heterogeneous workgroups as simple as, well, Mac-
style networking.
In April, Coactive plans to ship two $149 boxes, Connector for DOS and Connector for Windows, which let IBM PCs and compatibles communicate with Macs via LocalTalk. Each two-port box has its own 32-bit processor and enough ROM to hold the AppleTalk protocol stack.
For the Mac and other LocalTalk devices, Coactive will sell a small, $29 v-shaped connector similar in function to Farallon Computing Inc.'s PhoneNET adapter but with two terminated ports.
To set up a PC and Macintosh network, PhoneNET or Coactive Connectors must be hooked to the LocalTalk ports of the Macs, while the parallel ports of the PCs receive the larger Coactive Connectors. Nodes are wired together with unshielded twisted-pair cabling, like PhoneNET. Coactive networks can have up to 32 nodes in any combination. Additional printers may be added through the large Connector's parallel port.
Coactive's PC software has a bare-bones three-step installation process and is compatible with DOS 3.1 and above, as well as all incarnations of Windows.
Macs access shared files through the Chooser. PCs see shared files in volume directories, and Windows users access them through the File Manager.
"With file and print services similar to [Novell Inc.'s] NetWare Lite, the cost of this product is the clincher," said Devin Doherty, a Mac network consultant based in Newport Beach, Calif., who is considering Coactive's solution for some clients. "PC people definitely want that same easy-to-network environment already available to the Mac."
According to BIS Strategic Decisions Inc. of Norwell, Mass., the top three inhibitors to the growth of networks at small, mixed Mac and PC or PC-only sites is price, ease of installation and ease of use. Coactive said LocalTalk, despite its speed inferiority compared with Ethernet or token ring, is the right choice for these users.
Coactive decided to forgo password protection. Instead, each user is assigned a read-only folder that others can drop files into but not open.
Printers hooked directly to the network are available to all; a user with a printer connected through the large Connector's parallel port can choose to share or hide it.
Coactive Computing Corp. is at 1301 Shoreway Road, Suite 221, Belmont, Calif. 94002. Phone (415) 802-1080; fax (415) 593-9304.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
Gateways Page 16
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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GA: Mirror buffs up its color flatbeds with JPEG accelerator boards
By Matthew Rothenberg
Roseville, Minn. - Mirror Technologies Inc. this month will ship a new line of 24-bit-color flatbed scanners and optional hardware acceleration of JPEG compression and decompression.
The $999 Mirror 600 Plus and $1,299 Mirror 800 Plus will feature hardware resolutions of 600 by 300 dpi and 800 by 400 dpi, respectively. Software interpolation will raise their respective resolutions to 600 by 600 dpi and 800 by 800 dpi.
The scanners will include a CCD (charge-coupled device) sensor that captures up to eight bits each of RGB (red, green, blue) data per pixel in three passes and eight-bit gray-scale or monochrome images in a single pass. Each scanner has an image area of 8.5 by 11.5 inches and will scan a 600-dpi, letter-size color image in eight minutes, Mirror said.
Both models are based on proprietary engines and include a SCSI interface and hardware gamma controls. They will ship with MirrorScan software, which supports TIFF, Encapsulated PostScript, PICT and QuickTime JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) formats. MirrorScan lets users preview color images; adjust brightness, contrast and gamma curves; select white and black points; and scale images from 12 percent to 800 percent in 1 percent increments. The software comes as a stand-
alone application, a desk accessory and a Photoshop plug-in.
Mirror also will introduce the $1,399 Mirror 600 Pro and $1,699 Mirror 800 Pro, which will come with a NuBus board that uses a C-Cube 550B chip to speed QuickTime JPEG compression up to five times at ratios of up to 50-to-1, Mirror said. Owners of a 600 or 800 Plus can upgrade to the NuBus board for $599.
Users of any Plus or Pro scanner can get the complete version of Adobe Photoshop 2.01 for $200, $695 off the retail price of the image-editing application. Mirror also offers a $599 transparency attachment for the scanners.
Mirror Technologies Inc. is at 2644 Patton Road, Roseville, Minn. 55113. Phone (612) 633-4450 or (800) 654-5294; fax (612) 633-3136.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
GA Page 28
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BusinessWatch: Democrats take swift action on information nets
By Mitch Ratcliffe
Washington - Senate Democrats with a technological agenda bolted out of the starting blocks on the first day of the new Congress by introducing a bill that would pour $120 million into information networks in 1994.
Senate Bill 4 (S.4), known as the National Competitiveness Act of 1993, resurrects Vice President Al Gore's call for high-speed network connections between the Internet, schools, industry, hospitals and libraries.
The bill draws heavily on Gore's Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992 and President Clinton's campaign promise to assist U.S. businesses to become more competitive in the global market. The Democrats are trying to leverage their ownership of the Senate and White House by pushing for the first infrastructure funding in 1994, two years earlier than Gore had called for last year.
Introduced by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), the bill also would add funding to support research collaboration between high-technology industries and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as for alternative power-generation research. A dozen senators are co-sponsoring the bill.
That S.4 was introduced the day after Clinton's inauguration signals the Democrats' commitment to improve information networks. By Senate tradition, the Democrats were allotted the first five bills of the session for those issues they most want passed, while the next five were given over to the Republicans for their pet initiatives.
Apple CEO John Sculley and other leaders of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Consortium, an industry research facility based in Austin, Texas, have lobbied hard on Capitol Hill since Congress convened last month.
On Jan. 19 Sculley testified before the House Telecommunications and Finance Committee in favor of infrastructure investments. The House will have to consider its own version of the National Competitiveness Act before the legislation can become law.
"There is a priority bill for Sen. Hollings and Majority Leader Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine)," a Hollings staffer said. "There is also a group of Republicans who are interested in technology and tax policies that are good for industry, so there's broad support."
MacWEEK 02.01.93
BusinessWatch Page 34
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Review: Adobe's SuperATM can fake fonts on the fly
By Bruce Fraser
Adobe Systems Inc.'s SuperATM is the latest-and-greatest version of the indispensable Adobe Type Manager utility.
The $149 product offers the first real look at Adobe's much-ballyhooed document-portability technology. In addition to the usual ATM functions - creation of smooth bit maps from PostScript outline fonts for screen display and output to non-PostScript printers - SuperATM contains an entirely new feature: automatic intelligent font substitution for fonts that aren't installed on your system.
We should state immediately that this isn't the font substitution known and hated by desktop publishers everywhere, where carefully chosen and spaced type is rendered as badly spaced, jagged Courier. Instead, SuperATM uses two read-only multiple-master fonts, Adobe SerMM and Adobe SanXMM, to substitute type that closely matches the aesthetic and exactly matches the metrics of the missing font.
Moreover, it does so automatically, with no intervention on the part of the user, provided that the application in use supports the feature. And fortunately, a good number of them do, including:
> Microsoft Word (versions 4 and 5) and Excel (versions 3 and 4).
> Aldus PageMaker 4.2 and FreeHand 3.1.
> QuarkXPress 3.1.
> Adobe Illustrator 3.2.3.
> Claris Corp.'s MacDraw Pro 1.5 and FileMaker Pro (versions 1.0 and 2.0).
> T/Maker Co.'s WriteNow 3.0.
> Fifth Generation Systems Inc.'s Suitcase II 1.12 and Suitcase 2.0.
This is a representative list, not an exhaustive one. SuperATM also is compatible with any system version higher than 6.0.5.
There are limitations. Most of them are well-documented by Adobe, but a few are not. First, PostScript-clone printers that can't print multiple-
master fonts won't be able to print documents containing substituted fonts since these are instances of multiple masters. Apple's Personal LaserWriter NT has the same shortcoming - an upgrade to the NTR is necessary to use multiple-master fonts.
Second, SuperATM works only with Adobe fonts: If the original font came from another vendor, you're out of luck; the document will appear in whatever font the application uses as a default. We'd like to think this limitation is more than just shrewd marketing on Adobe's part.
Installing SuperATM is as straightforward as anything else that uses the Apple Installer. If you usually get two simultaneous messages asking you to insert a particular disk, you'll get them too, until Apple fixes that particular Installer problem. Typing Command-period makes the bogus one from the system go away and allows you to proceed with the installation as intended.
Minimum system. To run SuperATM, you need an SE or higher, with a minimum of 2 Mbytes of RAM under System 6 or 4 Mbytes of RAM under System 7.
You will need 4 Mbytes of free disk space to install SuperATM. The font database that takes care of all the metric-matching magic is 1,425 Kbytes; the two ATM files themselves account for 285 Kbytes; the Multiple Master screen and outline fonts take a further 210 Kbytes or so; Adobe Type Reunion 1.1 takes 50 Kbytes; and a Font Builder application takes another 55 Kbytes. The rest is needed as overhead for the Installer; you get it back once the installation is completed.
We noted that after installation we were left with an Installer Temp folder containing the old versions of ATM, Type Reunion and the Multiple Master INIT, which it seems are no longer required. We weren't sure if the folder should have been deleted automatically or not, and the documentation and read-me files had nothing to say on the subject. Deleting the folder manually did no harm.
SuperATM requires a minimum RAM cache of 128 Kbytes for font substitution to work reliably. The default setting is 256 Kbytes, but if you use large numbers of fonts, you may want to use a higher setting. The manual recommends an allocation of 256 Kbytes for font substitution, plus 50 Kbytes for each font used (remember that bolds and italics are separate fonts).
How it works. Automatic font substitution works transparently in those applications that support it. The only clue that it's taking place is that the cursor changes to a spinning lowercase "a" while it's happening. The substitute fonts, which exactly match the widths of the original, are installed automatically in your system. However, they are deleted when you restart the Mac, for space reasons.
We'd like to see some way of deleting the temporary fonts from the ATM control panel. If you open a document for which you have the font, but you inadvertently forgot to install it, you have to get rid of the substitute fonts before you can install the real thing, which involves either restarting the Mac or rooting around in the System folder.
In applications that use fractional widths as an option, such as Microsoft Word, fractional widths must be turned on to get accurate line breaks. A further limitation on font substitution comes from ATM itself. ATM allows you to preserve either character shapes or line spacing. If you opt to preserve line spacing, the ascenders and descenders of some characters are sometimes clipped when you print to a non-PostScript printer.
But if you preserve character shapes instead, some applications, notably Microsoft Word, will change the line spacing. The work-around is to specify an absolute line-space value in Word, rather than relying on auto-spacing. This isn't really Adobe's fault, and the work-around is well-documented in the manual.
In applications that fully support SuperATM, the substitute fonts appear on the font menu with a diamond symbol beside them to indicate that they aren't the real font.
However, only three applications - PageMaker 4.2, QuarkXPress 3.1 and Adobe Illustrator 3.2.3 - currently are able to add substitute fonts to the menu instantly. In other applications, the font won't appear on the menu until you quit the application and reopen it.
This situation should improve in the future. For now, it's a relatively minor annoyance. And if all you want to do is view or print the document, it isn't a problem at all.
Reliable substitutes. Font substitution seems remarkably robust for such a complex process, even in tricky situations. For example, we created a FreeHand document with type inside a clipping path, then exported the image in Encapsulated PostScript form. We then removed the font and placed the EPS file in QuarkXPress 3.1. Font substitution worked perfectly both on the screen and in print.
SuperATM offers one other useful feature: It lets you create substitute bit-map fonts containing the correct metrics at different sizes. You can do this in one of two ways. The simplest is to install a single size of the bit-map font, whereupon SuperATM automatically creates any other size you call for. Adobe's Type On Call CD-ROM is included in the package, and while the outline fonts are locked until you pay for them, the bit maps are free, so you have access to more than 1,500 bit maps on the CD-ROM.
The second way is to use the Font Builder utility, also included in the package. Font Builder contains a database with metrics information for 30 Adobe typeface families, most of which contain multiple styles. You can choose a face from the database, then create a suitcase containing the substitute fonts or add the substitute fonts to an existing suitcase.
The resulting suitcase acts just like any other screen font, save that it's identified as a substitute font in font menus by the diamond symbol.
Conclusions. In all, SuperATM is both an impressive achievement and a good deal, particularly with the inclusion of Type On Call and the latest version of Adobe Type Reunion. The automatic substitution features work well (while not as transparently as everyone would like) given the inherent complexities.
The list of supporting applications also is impressive and likely to grow, and the minor incompatibilities and assorted glitches are documented thoroughly.
This is the first real sign we've seen that the notion of document portability is more than just a buzzword.
Adobe Systems Inc. is at 1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900, Mountain View, Calif. 94039-7900. Phone (415) 961-4400 or (800) 833-6687; fax (415) 961-3769.
Score Card: SuperATM
Adobe Systems Inc.
Version tested: 1.0
List price: $149*
Overall value ****
SuperATM is more than just the latest version of Adobe Type Manager. It provides the first real experience of Adobe's document-portability strategy by using two multiple-master fonts to simulate in a document fonts that aren't installed on your system. The simulations exactly match the widths and closely approximate the overall typographic quality of the real thing. Substitution isn't as seamless as we'd like it to be, but the shortcomings are largely cosmetic, and the process is both truly automatic and remarkably robust. The list of supporting applications is large, and it includes common productivity, publishing and graphics applications.
Performance ****
Features ****
Ease of use ****
Documentation/support ****
* Upgrades from earlier versions of ATM are $49.
System 7 Compatibility: SuperATM 1.0
Balloon help No
TrueType No
Publish and subscribe n/a
Apple events n/a
32-bit addressing* Yes
*According to vendor.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
Reviews Page 43
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Mac the Knife: Can't always get what you want
That story in The New York Times last week about the Clinton team going into shock after discovering that the White House is littered with typewriters rather than more modern instruments explains a lot, doesn't it? A lot about both the past administration and the current one. But at least William J. has his own CompuServe account, if those who trade in such information are to be believed.
This is not to accuse either the previous or the present gang of rank incompetence, of course. That definitely would be unkind and also quite probably inaccurate. Since the Knife has always made kindness and accuracy top priorities, he has sworn to refrain from releasing actual figures about the availability of the many new CPUs that Apple will introduce next week.
If you dispense with numbers, you're usually left with generalizations. In the case of Apple meeting demand for the new crop, there's every indication that the company once again will hit the ground stumbling.
Consider the current situation: Those sleek PowerBook 180s still are as rare as Marxists in Phoenix. Ditto Quadra 950s and almost any Mac configuration that includes a CD-ROM drive. Duos are in much better supply, probably because the peripherals drought eased up only recently, although the Knife has received a disturbingly large number of reports of Duo unreliability.
What you get. Two of the new '040 Macs, the Quadra 800 and the Centris 610, may join the swelling ranks of Mac models that even money can't buy (the jury is still out on Centris 650 availability). The Knife expects that with the projected aggressive pricing on a well-equipped 610, demand should be as strong as anything Apple has experienced so far, except for possibly the allure of strong quarterly profits.
So that leaves us with the question of what models will be available in quantity. The new low-end LC III should be no problem. Besides, Apple is pulling out all the stops to deliver what it can in a timely fashion, so any small portion of your dealer's order that actually ships should do so in record time.
Perhaps the best strategy is to place orders now for Macs from the last class. Maybe with all the interest in the Centris twins, you'll finally be able to acquire a reasonable quantity of that IIvx model that has so far eluded you.
Instructive shortage. Watch carefully and you might learn something. Since the new PowerBook 165c really is nothing more than a PowerBook 180 with a color passive-matrix eight-bit color display rather than the 180's crisp active-matrix screen, the relative availability of the 165c may tell us something about the current 180 shortage.
One group claims it's the scarcity of active-matrix displays in quantity that's causing the shortage, while another group points the finger at the lack of the 180's 120-Mbyte hard drive. 165c Macs will have an optional 160-Mbyte drive, so if the world suddenly is flooded with color laptop Macs, you can safely deduce that the 180 display is our butler.
Remaindered rumors. Regardless of policy, not all the news fits. For example, the Knife reports that the top folks at the late Claris HyperCard team received very little notice of Apple's surprise decision last week to bring the product back home. The notice was so short, in fact, that most of those on the team who got any word beforehand can measure it in hours.
Then there's the case of the mislabeled PowerBook. You'll remember the item a few weeks ago about the 145 that really was a 140. Now the Knife reports several additional sightings, each of which Apple claims is a one-time occurrence.
The Mambo Kings sing songs of mugs. If you think you deserve to join the band, check with the Knife at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3650, MCI (MactheKnife), AppleLink (MacWEEK) and CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 02.01.93
Mac the Knife Page 114
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
