Product Announcement: ATM Light 4.1 Now Posted

Question

Hello -
ATM Light 4.1 for Windows has just been posted on the adobe.com web site for free download. If you do not require the font management features that ATM Deluxe supplies, then this is the download you need. Note, the file size is about 12.7 megabytes to accomodate the universal installer.
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/atmwin.htm
If you are an ATM Deluxe 4.0 user, *do not* download this installer as it is incompatible with ATM Deluxe. ATM Deluxe 4.0 users who wish to upgrade to ATM Deluxe 4.1 must purchase the upgrade available for $29. via . This phone number is for upgrades only and the upgrade package does not include a serial number.
Chris Holm, Adobe Systems Inc.
Features
* Rasterization for Type 1 and PostScript OpenType fonts.
* Universal installer automatically installs the proper version of ATM for the version of Windows you are using (Win 95/98; Win NT4; Win 2000).
* Downloads available for 12 languages, including Japanese.

Answer 1

>This is not directly relevant to Jean's problem, but I for one would like to know the mechanics of how Windows 98, Me, etc makes PostScript fonts available to applications?
Well, unaided it doesn't. ATM makes it able to do this. Essentially,
ATM "hooks into" Windows so that at critical points, more fonts are
available. That is if one part of Windows asks another "list all
available fonts", it adds more to the list. Of course, it has to do
much more, concerned with actually displaying or printing the font
when the application chooses to use it, but it is all done with hooks.
This applies only to pre-NT systems (95/98/Me).
>
> the main function of font management programs is to give users the opportunity to load only required fonts into memory leaving those not required sitting out on disc. N
Not really. Firstly, a loaded font isn't entirely in memory. The
amount of memory used is by today's standards trivial. Managing fonts
is necessary because these all systems, but especially these
old-fashioned ones, have limits. For instance, the file names of all
fonts are listed in several places that are limited to 64K and cannot
be increased. In addition, it may benefit the end user by limiting
font selection to relevant fonts, and speeding up the selection
process.
Remember: ATM Deluxe is a font manager in this sense. ATM Lite is not.
There is also auto-activation. This relies on the fact that almost
all applications will try to use a font without first checking if it
is available. Normally, if a font is not available, Windows picks a
substitute. But with ATM, it can see the request coming and activate
the named font. This function relies on hooks that do not exist in
Windows NT systems.
>I note that application software developers are responsible to detect the fonts available in memory when his/her application loads (EnumFontFamilies, EnumFonts)
These are exactly the sorts of place where ATM adds hooks. Not all
applications do this (only) when the application loads, but those
which do may be unable to detect when fonts are added.
Aandi Inston