Re: Using fonts > 255 points

[mattd@apple.com (Matt Deatherage)]

In article <1992Dec10.054453.2276@r-node.gts.org>, taob@r-node.gts.org
(Brian Tao) wrote:
> 
> In that case, instead of Pointless rendering a 50-point font at
> 50 points, it would render it at 500 points.  The resulting bitmap would
> then be passed back to the relevant portions of the system software as a
> 50-point font.  The Print Manager, Font Manager, Menu Manager, QD II, etc.
> all think this extra-large font is a 50-point font.  Only Pointless needs
> to know about this behind-the-scenes magnification.

Yeah, except that if the system thinks it's a 50-point font, when you print
to a StyleWriter it will ask for a 225-point font to scale down, which mean
your system will be asked to image some characters of a 2250-point font.  
That
takes (4.5)^2 times as much memory as the 500 point, which itself takes
(50)^2 times as much memory as a ten point font (remember, the image scales
in both horizontal and vertical directions).

That means if a 10-point bitmap took 8K, a 500-point bitmap would take
about
20 megabytes and a 2250-point bitmap would take about 405 megabytes. 
That's
a lot of memory, but 2250 points is 31 1/4 inches tall, remember.  If
you're
using GS definitions, where one scan line is 1/36" (instead of 1/72"),
a 2250-point font would be 62.5 inches tall.

(You very quickly get into huge problems of scale, especially since the
Memory Manager stops at 8 MB.)

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Matt Deatherage, Developer Support Center, Apple Computer, Inc.
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