You always can upgrade a system to display better-looking
fonts, but only with pain and suffering in the IBM PC world.
Each PC application has different installation methods and
different font file formats. If you require the flexibility
of object fonts, purchase a Macintosh.
Every IBM PC application struggles to provide the features;
the font and character-set management is uneven and inconsistent.
Installing every application and printer is a separate battle.
Even upgrading software versions is a tremendous battle.
However, if you need only the fonts available on the printer,
an IBM PC system can be cost-effective.
The prospects for meaningful change in the IBM world at
the time of this writing are bleak. Ideally, the PC world
will develop printer support at the operating system level.
Ideally, fonts would be installed into the PC operat ing
system and then would be instantly available to all programs
making the PC more like the Macintosh.
The marketplace is pushing DOS in the Macintosh direction
by making Windows programs popular including PageMaker,
Word, Adobe Illustrator, and Excel. Unfortunately, the printer
support for Windows is not generic, nor are fonts supported
or managed easily. Standard font formats do not exist; indi
vidual printer drivers support printer fonts rather than
Windows.
In the spring of 1988, Microsoft announced a generic printer
driver for Win dows and the printer driver that matches
OS/2's Presentation Manager screen.
Prev |
Next
