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e3 and OSX fonts
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Ian Blair
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Jul 03, 2005 07:01 PDT
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Hi all,
I've just downloaded the OSX version of Expression 3.3. On a dial-up
connection with a 56k modem, the download only took 4 1/2 hours—ouch!
Expression is smooth, stable and fast and I particularly like the way
that complex shapes can be adjusted by moving Bezier handles, which I
prefer to a pen and tablet. The stroke and fill effects are great, but
when transparency and ink effects are added to the mix, the results are
amazing. For what it's worth, I prefer the 'Classic' version to the OSX
version. It's much the same, but to my eyes it just looks and 'feels'
better.
Could another Mac user, or someone from Microsoft help me? On Page 4 of
the e3.PDF manual, it says;
'Enhanced text handling with Unicode text and full support for Mac OSX
ATSUI fonts, new controls for baseline-shift and tracking, and enhanced
accuracy of text-on-path'.
This is great news. AAT (or ATSUI) fonts such as Zapfino, Apple Chancery
and Skia, have lots of special swashes and ligatures, which can
transform the look of an ordinary piece of text. For example, Zapfino
has 1470 characters and eight different character sets, all of which can
be accessed in OSX apps (Text Edit, Intaglio and others), via the Fonts
Panel. Unfortunately, Expression doesn't appear to be able to access the
Fonts Panel, so it's limited to the basic alphabet, numerals and
punctuation.
The OSX text engine also accesses OpenType features/special characters,
but these are also invisible to Expression.
Is the manual wrong? Can Expression access the Typography Panel? I'm
using OS 10.4.
The only other problem is importing line art from other programs, which
is difficult. The only format that works is Illustrator, but it would be
helpful if Expression was able to import PDFs, EPS and PS files saved or
printed in other OSX apps. When these formats are opened in Expression,
the file name appears in the title bar, but the window is blank and
there are no error messages. To get AAT special characters into
Expression you have to use a conversion procedure which is best
described as tortuous. From a non-programmer's viewpoint, one vector
shape is the same as another, so it would be helpful to users if
developers could recognise this and provide a simple means of converting
from one format to another. Other than that, Expression is a wonderful
program.
Thanks,
Ian
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