[TomCC]

Why do the apple fonts look so crappy in Fireworks.......i.e the spacing between letters in words are not even and difficult to read. I love my mac powermac, but I never had these issues with my PC. Also, as I am a relative mac newbie, why can I barely read the text in this thread that I am currently typing??? I hear so much about mac fonts and how great they are, but font problems are my only gripe with my mac to date. I am sure some settings can be changed??????? Help. I love my powermac and am about to order a Powerbook but this font thing really stinks. In fireworks for example, there must be hundreds of fonts to choose from, yet I can only find a handful that will show up legibly and more importantly speced evenly in a word once I convert the PNG over to a jpg or gif. Can someone explain how these font issues can be corrected. I dont think I'll ever go back to a PC if I can get past this issue.
Tom

[WillAdams]

Partially, because the Mac's default screen resolution is 72 dpi, as opposed to the Windows-default of 96---Windows also affords an option to increase this on-screen, so if one has, say a 15" monitor which'll support 1600 x 1200, one can set it to have twice the resolution it had when running at 800 x 600 and get razor-sharp text (the icons get kinda small though)
The other matter is the FireWorks tries to space text so as to come out evenly on the (coarse) on-screen prixel grid---I believe there's a text box for using font metrics, or some such which'll improve this somewhat (it's on a per text block basis though).
Better to use FreeHand to lay out things with lots of text, make a .eps and rasterize that.
William

[Harvestr]

Ok to set the record straight, this issue has very little or nothing to do with monitor resolution or with PC vs Mac monitor differences. You just don't have your system set up right is all. I not saying you are dumb just that you might not have the necessary software or right versions.
First of all, install Adobe Type Manager. It is necessary to smooth fonts on your screen. and should be free download. For OSX, get ATM Lite I think it is called (not sure). I recommend spending the money to get Extensis Suitcase too, so you can turn fonts on and off even while running applications. If not you will have to quit and relaunch an app. everytime you place a new font in your fonts folder. Suitcase lets you drag and drop fonts onto its windo and then turn them on or off and even orgainze them into sets that you name and control.
If you are in OSX, make sure your font display settings are at max - go to Apple menu and chose System Preferences. On that panel, select General, then at bottom you have two things you need to check. Make sure to set Font smoothing style up for Standard if you on normal CRT monitor or on Medium if you have flat panel. Also set the smoothing for fonts 8 points and smaller, not 9, 10 or 12. If either of these settings are way off from what I've listed here then all text in any app could look bad.
Now as for letter spacing issues (technical term for letter spacing is kerning though a more modern term, tracking, is used as well) - this one is absolutely not the fault of Apple. As a professional graphic designer I can undoubtably tell you that this is not my opinion it's a fact and I'll explain why- just like applications, fonts are made, distributed and even licensed by companies. Several companies make them though. Adobe is a big one and they charge lots for them if you actually buy them (ya right, lol). When they design the fonts, they design not only each letter, but they determine how they are spaced as well. Some people do good job at it, while others suck. Adobe's are usually good, but if you buy a generic font CD from store or download fonts from some generic website, you have no idea what you are getting.
Here is your solutions
1. Find a similar font to the one you are using. Some fonts like Times and Helvetica have several fonts that look just like them. Only the trained eye could tell. Hopefully you could find one that is similar but has better letter spacing. This is important if you are having font issues with large amount of copy, suck as long multi paragraph block of copy. You don't want to manually edit the spacing as this would take forever.
2. If you are doing a header like "Contact Information" or something that is a short line of text such as this, then manually edit the spacing yourself. This is key to good typography and I have to do this all the time. I build magazine covers and articles and letterspacing is something I edit constantly. Tons of fonts don't have the spacing right so you have to make it right.
IN FIREWORKS - the controls to do letter spacing in FW suck. Select your type and go to Text menu and chose editor. The letter spacing is set as a percentage. Edit it for whole work or click between letter and edit just the space there. The spacing field is the one just under font name on far left of the editor. It has A/V with arrow above and below it. Type in percentage or use the slider. Also try turning on or off the Auto Kerning option and make sure Antialiasing is turned to smooth antialias. YOU ALWAYS WANT TO USE ANTIALIASING. It smooths your type.
shortcuts for letter spacing
Illustrator and Photoshop - Option arrow left or arrow right - space decrease or increase
Quark Xpress - Command Option + left or right bracket

OK so hope I cleared it all up.

[Naphtali]

Harvestr, please pardon me if my ignorance shows.
You mention needing ATM in OS X. Isn't the display based upon Display PostScript? If yes, why would you need ATM for Type 1 fonts, or the OS X universal font format -- I think it's called UNICASE?
I make the assumption that TrueType format will not manifest the screen problem.

[Harvestr]

The ATM thing was a guess. I don't think you need it at all in OSX but I though maybe it might be or that he might be running an older version of Fireworks in classic. Then ATM might be needed. I don't know much about the current state of ATM. I think you are correct in saying its not needed in OSX though.

[colettesaxby]

ATM control panel is definitley needed... this is not ATM Manager Deluxe (font organising programme) but just a mac control panel... you can download from Adobe.com for free.... Also if you are using suitcase it is best to bin it and reload after the atm control panel is installed. Make sure that your fonts and afm's (ie all the other filles dedicated to that font) are in the same folder as the AFM's make sure that the font looks smooth on the screen. ... hope this works!

[WillAdams]

Naphtali asked:
> You mention needing ATM in OS X.
> Isn't the display based upon Display PostScript?
I wish.
OS X uses ``Quartz'', nee Display PDF. Adobe pulled the plug on Display PostScript when they went back on their promise to first provide a free license, then a low-cost one to facilitate Apple providing a ``Yellow Box'' to allow programs written for what's now called Cocoa to run in Windows (think OpenStep Enterprise for Windows NT).
ATM is useful in Mac OS X to allow programs running in the Classic penalty box to make use of Adobe Type 1 fonts.
For those who wonder, losing DPS means no in-line display of .eps files (w/ no need for lousy bitmap previews), no soft-proofing of arbitrary PostScript files, no extending program at will w/ PostScript code, and no remote display / operation of programs built-into the system.
> If yes, why would you need ATM for Type 1 fonts, or the
> OS X universal font format -- I think it's called UNICASE?
OS X makes use of a number of font formats, incl. .ttf for PC---unique to it are the .dfont (datafont) format of TrueType fonts for ATSUI (Apple Typographic System for Unicode Information). Apple has a knowledgebase article on this.
TrueType fonts do display w/ on-screen metrics until one sets the appropriate checkbox.
Using fonts which're well-hinted (e.g., Monotype's ``ESQ'' (Enhanced Screen Quality) line helps this somewhat as well.
William

[Nobody]

Hey Tom,
Mac newbie huh? Well, welcome. I can assure you that Mac fonts do not stink!
You could get some more help if you let us know what versions of software, Mac OS and hardware you are using. The game is a lot different between OS9 (and earlier) and OSX. For example, ATM only runs in OS9 or earlier, if you are in OSX there is no need, except possibly for Classic apps.
If you are having a problem viewing the text on a forum site like this one, most (if not all) Mac browsers allow you to text zoom. Most even make it possible to add the zooming controls to the browser toolbar via customizing preferences.
If you are in OSX, you need to be sure that the font smoothing preferences are set best for you and your viewing conditions. Go to System Preferences and select "General". There you will find selections for the size at which you want smoothing turned off and (in Jaguar) choices for the degree of smoothing.
Also, in some OSX browsers you can turn smoothing ("anti-aliasing") on and off independant of the OS. (In IE >preferences>advanced select or deselect "enable Quartz")
Do you have the uneven spacing trouble in other apps than Fireworks? Rather than ranting about the Mac OS you may find yourself ranting at Macromedia. As a web and print designer I can tell you that I don't have this sort of trouble that you describe. But then again, I don't use Fireworks. The only time I have had trouble even remotely like this is using bitmap fonts in Flash MX. I use the Adobe pack myself: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Imageready, GoLive. (I am not much for Macromedia except for Flash over LiveMotion).
Give some more info about your system etc and lets try to be some help to you.
Greg Wostrel