Discussion

By David Blatner on Feb 27, 2021

This is awesome… My first job doing DTP was running the Linotronic 100 at LaserWrite in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I remember exactly what Frank describes here. What an adventure!

By Dov Isaacs on Feb 28, 2021

Actually, the Apple LaserWriter was NOT the first printer released with Adobe PostScript! That honor goes to the QMS 800 printer that ironically used the same basic Canon CX 300dpi cartridge-based print engine as both the Apple LaserWriter and the HP LaserJet printers.

By Dov Isaacs on Feb 28, 2021

Some clarification with regards to Type 1 font support from Adobe (originally posted at …

Adobe has announced its intention to end support for Type 1 fonts in January 2023. The full announcement may be found at . We strongly recommend that any user of Adobe Creative Cloud applications as well as Adobe FrameMaker read this announcement and plan accordingly.

While you can continue using Type 1 fonts until January 2023, we encourage you to explore alternative fonts in the interim so that you can make a smooth transition when support for these fonts is removed.

Some further considerations and clarifications:

(1) Adobe had previously announced deprecation of support for Type 1 fonts in Photoshop in 2021. Microsoft totally eliminated support for Type 1 fonts in Microsoft Office 2013 on Windows a number of years ago.

(2) Type 1 fonts are an integral part of the PostScript and PDF specifications . Neither PostScript nor PDF are affected by this announcement. PostScript, Adobe PDF Print Engine, and Adobe Embedded Print Engine-based RIPs/DFEs and printers will by definition continue to support Type 1 fonts.

(3) Adobe PDF-based products including Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Acrobat Standard, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and the Adobe Mobile Readers (iOS and Android) will continue to support the display, printing, and text editing of PDF files using Type 1 fonts. This is required by the ISO PDF specification.

(4) Even with the deprecation of Type 1 font support in applications such as InDesign, Illustrator, and FrameMaker in January 2023, you will still be able to place EPS and PDF content with embedded Type 1 fonts into these application documents and subsequently be able to display, print, and export PDF content from same.

(5) The Adobe Fonts service (included with Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions) never has supported Type 1 fonts in any manner whatsoever. Thus, if you are using fonts from Adobe Fonts, you are not affected at all by this announcement!

(6) The announcement applies strictly to new releases beginning in January 2023. It does not affect support for Type 1 fonts in earlier releases. Thus, you can continue to use Type 1 fonts for editing legacy documents after January 2023. Of course, given the continual incompatible operating system updates by Apple for MacOS and increasingly by Microsoft for Windows, the ability to run these older versions may be limited as time goes on. Furthermore, it is possible that Apple and Microsoft may also discontinue support for Type 1 fonts in the future.

The bottom line is that we are encouraging users of Adobe products to examine existing source documents (i.e., not PDF or EPS with embedded fonts) for use of Type 1 fonts and make appropriate formatting updates as soon as possible to minimize problems beginning in January 2023.

By Dov Isaacs on Feb 28, 2021

Regrettably, this discussion facility stripped out URLs I posted above.

The first was https://community.adobe.com/t5/type-typography/announcement-adobe-ends-support-for-type-1-fonts-for-content-editing-amp-creation/td-p/11807973

The second was https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/postscript-type-1-fonts-end-of-support.html

Maybe these will get through ...

By Gordon Pritchard on Mar 01, 2021

In early 1985 I set up the prepress production department for a 28 page weekly newspaper "Prince Rupert This Week" by using a combination of Manhattan Graphics Inc.'s Ready, Set, Go! page layout program (later acquired by Letraset), Cricket Draw to handle the special graphics, and an Apple LaserWriter to generate the camera-ready artwork.Using the LaserWriter output for camera-ready art coupled with the coarse newspaper substrate meant that the type smoothed out enough to eliminate the low resolution "jaggies" in the final paper. It also meant that the publisher did not have to purchase the significantly more expensive traditional option of a Linotype machine or a laser filmsetter.