
     AllType for Font Conversion  
     by Collette McManus                

     AllType, The Universal Typeface Converter; Atech Software; $49.99 at 
     Egghead

     DOS System Requirements:  IBM compatible PC with a hard disk and one 
     floppy disk drive, DOS 3.1 or higher and 640K RAM.
     
     Windows System Requirements:  286 class PC or above running Windows 
     3.0 or higher with 1 meg of RAM.

     Storage Requirements:  DOS version requires 1.3 megs of free hard 
     drive space. Windows requires 2 megs of free hard drive space.  
     Optional Intel math co-processors are supported.

     Applications Supported:  Atech Publisher's Powerpak and FastFonts, 
     Adobe Type Manager, Type Align and Illustrator, Ami Pro, Aldus 
     PageMaker, Microsoft Word, Works, and Excel, WordPerfect, Ventura 
     Publisher (GEM), CorelDraw!, Express Publisher, Micrografx Draw and 
     Designer, HP Type Director, ZSoft SoftType, Lotus 123 and all 
     Microsoft Windows applications.

     Formats Supported:  Microsoft TrueType, Adobe PostScript Type 1 and 3, 
     DTC Nimbus Q, Atech FastFont, Agfa Compugraphic Intellifont, 
     Bitstream Fontware and GeoWorks Ensemble.

     Do you use fonts?  If you do any printing from your computer, you use 
     fonts.  Do you sometimes use DOS and Windows applications?  Do you 
     have Bitstream's Facelift, Atech's Publisher's Powerpak, LaserTools'
     Fonts-on-the-Fly, AND Adobe Type Manager?  One problem is that each 
     of those packages has its own font format which is incompatible with 
     the font format of the other packages.  Another problem is that each 
     package has its own version of Times,  Helvetica, and other fonts.  
     If you have more than one package, you will most likely also have 
     more than one version of the same or similar fonts.  These duplicate
     fonts take up valuable hard drive space.  At a WPSIG meeting, I 
     discussed this with John Wager.  He suggested that I buy AllType, a 
     type converter.  After checking it out at my local Egghead, I bought 
     it.

     AllType's features include the ability to convert any font with any 
     scalable font manger, printer, or application with built in scalable 
     fonts.  You will have the ability to create hundreds of variations of
     your original typeface with custom styles and widths (bold, italic, 
     bold italic, hollow, condensed, expanded, thin, wide, and 
     combinations of these styles).  You can adjust the angle up to 45 
     degrees, and change pitch, leading, and/or weight from zero to 999 
     percent of the original point size of any typeface.  You can rename
     your typefaces as you wish.  The converted fonts will be 
     automatically installed into supported applications. 

     AllType retains font "hinting" data for high quality printer output.  
     Both Windows and DOS interfaces are included.  Also included are two 
     type families, Aurora and Memo (both sans serif faces).  The only 
     conversion drawback seems to be that other typeface formats may not 
     be converted into Bitstream format.

     AllType is easy to install and very easy to use.  The interface is 
     so intuitive, you probably won't even need to read the manual.  You 
     just select the font formats, font directories, and mark the fonts 
     to be converted (source information on the left and destination 
     information on the right).  You can use the Tab key to move from 
     section to section, or use hot-keys, which are listed in each 
     section.  You have the option to change a font's style during 
     conversion.  This means you can take a roman style font and make it 
     italic, outline, condensed, and more.  On my very slow 286, it can 
     sometimes take a long time to convert a font. Twenty-five minutes is 
     not uncommon.  Once I wanted to convert eight fonts all at once.  An 
     AllType prompt told me this would take three hours, so I went out 
     and did my Saturday errands.  The same prompt that informs you of 
     the time it will take to complete your conversion also tells you the 
     amount of disk space the conversion will need for completion.

     AllType supports conversion between a wide variety of type formats 
     and application type formats.  Type formats are:  Atech Fast Fonts, 
     Adobe PostScript Type 1, Adobe PostScript Type 3, Agfa Intellifont
     FAIS, HP LaserJet II, Nimbus Q, Royal URW, and TrueType.  
     Application type formats are:  Adobe Type Manager PostScript Type 1, 
     Avagio (FastFont), Avery LabelPro (FastFont), Chain of Command 
     (FastFont), CorelDraw! ((PostScript Type 1), Express Publisher
     (Intellifont FAIS), FastFonts (FastFonts), Freedom of Press 
     (PostScript Type 1), GeoWorks Ensemble (GeoWorks), HP Type Director 
     (Intellifont), PerForm (Intellifont), PFS Write (FastFont), 
     Publisher's Powerpak (FastFont), SoftType (URW), Spinnaker Format 
     (FNT), Tandy Deskmate 3.05 (FastFont), Windows 3.1 (TrueType), and 
     Word Publisher (Spinnaker).

     As I said in last February's Hard-Copy review, I use PrimeType by 
     LaserTools as my WordPerfect fontmanager.  My most common use of 
     AllType is to translate Shareware fonts that I can only find in 
     another format into "my" format.  Using AllType, I have the ability 
     to use virtually any font I find.  For Christmas I found a font with 
     snow on top of the letters . . . it was a TrueType font.  I 
     converted it to ATM format (Adobe Type Manager format).  Using
     WordPerfect, PrimeType for WordPerfect and my DeskJet, I made some 
     great Christmas labels for my cards and presents.  I have been 
     warned that not all fonts convert well, that sometimes the character
     width tables don't convert properly.  I must be lucky, because so 
     far all my font conversions have yielded fonts that have worked 
     perfectly.

     By using AllType and PrimeType to manage my fonts and font usage, I 
     have maximized my font potential and minimized my disk space usage.  
     Take it from a true font junkie, I'm very happy with AllType and
     have since thanked John for his suggestion.

