First look at: International FontPack
 
 
    International FontPack from Berkeley Softworks is a new package consisting
of a new version of Arthur J. Dahm III's geoFont font editor, and a number of
font files, some with European-language characters added.  This product was
advertised in the geoRAM mailing, which indicated it would only be available
directly from BSW.
 
 
What's in the box?
 
    : International FontPack User's Manual, with instructions in English,
      German, Italian, and French, and printout for each font-type and size.
    : Product registration card.  The address on the card is in France.
      and, of course,
    : geoFont v2.0
    : 39 font files
 
What's on the disk?
 
    The fonts will largely be familiar to GEOS users.  They are:
 
 
    ID#:
Hex     Dec     Font Name:
 
050     80     Roma_DA
04E     78     University_DA
02D     45     Roma_FR
02B     43     University_FR
040     64     Roma_GE
038     56     University_GE
037     55     Roma_IT
035     53     University_IT
055     85     Roma_SE
053     83     University_SE
029     41     Roma_SP
03F     63     University_SP
03C     60     Roma_SW
03A     58     University_SW
046     70     Roma_UK
044     68     University_UK
045     69     California_UK
048     72     Cory_UK
047     71     Dwinelle_UK
00B     11     Boalt
012     18     Bowditch
016     22     Brennens
007     7      Bubble
017     23     Channing
00F     15     Durant
014     20     Elmwood
00E     14     Evans
008     8      FontKnox
009     9      Harmon
015     21     Hearst
019     25     LeConte
013     19     Ormond
00A     10     Mykonos
018     24     Putnam
00C     12     Stadium
011     17     Superb
010     16     Telegraph
00D     13     Tilden
006     6      Tolman
 
NOTE:    DA = Danish
         FR = French
         GE = German
         IT = Italian
         SE = Swedish
         SP = Spanish
         SW = Swiss
         UK = British
 
as you can see, there are a number of European versions of the original GEOS
fonts, plus the US versions of the FontPack I fonts.  Note that the
Hearst/Brennens ID collision that was present in FontPack I has been fixed.
    Each of the European fonts has one to eight special characters replacing
less-frequently used GEOS characters.  The manual shows how to generate these
characters for a variety of different 64 and 128 national models, which have
different keyboards.
 
Features:
 
    geoFont v2.0, in and of itself, is a fine font editor.  It works properly,
allowing the user to alter existing fonts, or to create new ones from scratch.
It suffers badly from comparison to Jim Collette's Font Editor 2.5, however.
geoFont runs only in 40 columns, where Font Editor 2.5 runs in both 40 and 80.
Font Editor implements a useful "scaling" feature that makes it possible to
quickly generate new point sizes in existing fonts.  No such feature is
present in geoFont.  While the info box for geoFont mentions that it can be
used with Mega fonts, this is not covered in the User Manual, and there is no
online help in the program.  To the best of my knowledge, the only way to
create a Mega font with this program would be with the tedious techniques
outlined by Susan Lamb in geoWorld #20.  Collette's editor made these
techniques obsolete by the time that article was published.  With that editor,
the creation of Mega fonts is virtually identical to that of conventional
fonts.
 
 
Problems:
 
    No problems with geoFont, or with the fonts themselves, were noted in my
testing.
 
 
In conclusion:
 
    Those looking for a font editor would do better with Jim Collette's Font
Editor 2.5, part of his Font Collection 2.  See recent issues of geoWorld for
ordering information.  The bulk of the fonts in International FontPack are
already in many GEOS users collections.  The European fonts are new, and
worthwhile for those who need them.  With any font editor, you can make your
own custom fonts, including these and other characters.
    The "mail order only" policy and the French address on the registration
card make it clear that this product is really intended for the European GEOS
community.  This package will be of value to US users who don't have FontPack
I, those who wish to use geoWrite to communicate with European friends, and
those who feel the need to own everything BSW sells.
