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Subject: comp.fonts FAQ: Atari Info
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Date: 14 Aug 1996 10:35:24 -0400
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Summary: This posting answers frequently asked questions about fonts.
        It addresses both general font questions and questions that
        are specific to a particular platform.
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Archive-name: fonts-faq/part14
Version: 2.1.5

Subject: 9. Atari ST/TT/Falcon Information

 Erlend Nagel contributed the following information about the Atari
 ST/TT/Falcon.

Subject: 9.1. SpeedoGDOS

 SpeedoGDOS is similar to ATM.

 Fonts included with SpeedoGDOS 4.x
 ==================================

 14 fonts are included with SpeedoGDOS 4.x.

 Bitstream Cooper Black, Dutch 801 Roman, Dutch 801 Bold, Dutch 801
 Italic, Dutch 801 Bold Italic, Monospace 821, More Wingbats SWC, Park
 Avenue, Swiss 721, Swiss 721 Bold, Swiss 721 Italic, Swiss 721 Bols
 Italic, Symbol Monospaced, and VAG Rounded

 Fonts included with SpeedoGDOS 5.x
 ==================================

 24 fonts are included with SpeedoGDOS 5.x.  All fonts included with
 SpeedoGDOS 4.x plus the following:

 American Garamond Roman, American Garamond Bold, American Garamond
 Italic, American Garamond Bold Italic, AD LIB Regular, Allegro Regular,
 Amelia Regular, and Cataneo Bold

Subject: 9.2. Atari File Formats

 Atari Font formats
 ==================

 The standard Atari OS in ROM does not support any type of fonts. To use
 different fonts in applications, either the application has to have
 built-in support for some font format, or an add-on program is needed.
 This add-on program is called a GDOS, a Graphical Device Operating
 System. There are many different versions of GDOS.

 The earliest versions of GDOS supported only GEM bitmap fonts (*.FNT).
 These versions include GDOS, AMC-GDOS (Atari), G-plus (Codehead) and
 Font-GDOS (Atari again). Font-GDOS (available for free) added caching
 to the font-manager, so not all fonts need to reside in memory at the
 same time.

 FontGDOS and FSM-GDOS were develloped in parallel and are both
 successors of Atari-GDOS (1.x).  The FSM stands for Font Scaling
 Manager and allowed vector fonts to be used.  FSM-GDOS was only
 included with Wordflair II and G-Man. FSM-GDOS also still supported GEM
 bitmap fonts.  The font format is the QMS/Imagen format.

 After FSM-GDOS, Atari introduced SpeedoGDOS 4.0, using Speedo font
 scaling technology licensed from Bitstream. 14 fonts are included with
 this version (see 1.15). SpeedoGDOS 4.0 and 4.1 can use GEM bitmap,
 Atari encrypted and commercially encrypted Speedo fonts. As of version
 4.2 also the publicly available X11 Speedo fonts can be used.
 SpeedoGDOS offers improved speed and reliability over FSM-GDOS, as well
 as track- and pair-kerning.

 Recently Compo Software introduced SpeedoGDOS 5.x which supports GEM
 bitmap, Speedo, Truetype and Type 1 fonts. Included are 22 Speedo fonts
 (see 1.15).

 For more information about the GDOS format, consult the GDOS FAQ:
 ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/atari/Gdos/gdosi??e.txt.  The "??" is the
 version number; as of 01 Mar 95, the versions are: 24 in English and 25
 in German.  A LaTeX version of the German edition is also available.

 Also recently introduced was NVDI 3.0 by Behne & Behne, which supports
 GEM bitmap, Speedo and Truetype fonts. The biggest difference when
 compared to SpeedoGDOS 5.x is the improved speed, because NVDI is
 written in Assembler instead of C. Only 2 fonts are included with NVDI
 3.0.

 These fonts are transparent to programs. There are a few other options
 that require support by the program using the fonts. Two major font
 formats are supported in this way on the Atari, namely
 Signum!2/Signum!3 fonts and Calamus fonts.

 The Signum!2 font format is a bitmapped font format supported by many
 wordprocessors and some drawing packages. Amazing print quality on
 9-needle printers. Many high quality designs are available in Signum!2
 and Signum!3 format (Mostly German), especially for some special
 languages like Polish. There are also many PD fonts available in this
 format.

 The Calamus (*.CFN) format was introduced by DMC, in their Calamus DTP
 program that uses soft-RIPping. The Calamus font format has no hinting
 since it is meant to be used on very  high resolution type setting
 machines. Also supported by Digital Art's (DA's) software.  Many
 professional designs are available in this format, as well as a lot of
 PD fonts.

 Atari Font Format Extensions
 ============================

 File formats specific to the Atari platform:

    * .E24

      Bitmapped Signum!2 screen font.

    * .L30

      Bitmapped Signum!2 printer font for Laser and Deskjet printers.

    * .OTL

      Vector font table used by FSM-GDOS.

    * .P9

      Bitmapped Signum!2 printer font for Hi-Res 9-needle printers
      (214*196 dpi).

    * .P24

      Bitmapped Signum!2 printer font for 24-needle printers.

    * .QFM

      Vector font used by FSM-GDOS.

Subject: 9.3. Frequently Requested Atari Fonts

 Some fonts, including a few Speedo fonts are available from various
 archives. The most important Atari archive is atari.archive.umich.edu.

 Most fonts can be had from PD/Shareware distributors around the world...