free fonts

Hi girls 'n guys,

chances are high that you've never heard of 'SoftMaker' - it's a tiny German software company that develops fantastic office software for Windows and Linux.

In addition they sell very precise fonts (True Type, Type 1 for Windows, Linux and Mac), and to promote their company they offer one free font per month.

TextMaker FreeFont

If you look for the ultimate office application suite, please for a small investment, you should check

SoftMaker Germany

You can compare the SoftMaker products to Xara products - small footprint, an endless list of import & export filters, many features you won't find in the 'Industry Standard', and - best of all - a cross platform compatibility for Linux, Windows, Windows CE.

They just released the new word processor: TextMaker 2002. It comes with 16 (!) free language modules, spell checker, thesaurus, translator - you name it, it's in the package.

OK, if it sounds like a promotion you are right - I try to help promote this fantastic product, because it's much better than the 'Industry Standard', faster, more stable and reliable than Word & Co.

Their spreadsheet 'PlanMaker' and Database 'DataMaker' integrate seamlessly into the main applicaton 'Textmaker'. The suite comes with additional applications at no extra cost.

Please don't send flames - I just had your tiny budgets in mind, and since you are happy Xara users, I think you'll welcome a similar 'fair price - high impact' product for your office stuff.

All the best,

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[This message was edited by jens g.r. benthien on May 04, 2003 at 01:04.]

Hi girls 'n guys,

chances are high that you've never heard of 'SoftMaker' - it's a tiny German software company that develops fantastic office software for Windows and Linux.

In addition they sell very precise fonts (True Type, Type 1 for Windows, Linux and Mac), and to promote their company they offer one free font per month.

TextMaker FreeFont

If you look for the ultimate office application suite, please for a small investment, you should check

SoftMaker Germany

You can compare the SoftMaker products to Xara products - small footprint, an endless list of import & export filters, many features you won't find in the 'Industry Standard', and - best of all - a cross platform compatibility for Linux, Windows, Windows CE.

They just released the new word processor: TextMaker 2002. It comes with 16 (!) free language modules, spell checker, thesaurus, translator - you name it, it's in the package.

OK, if it sounds like a promotion you are right - I try to help promote this fantastic product, because it's much better than the 'Industry Standard', faster, more stable and reliable than Word & Co.

Their spreadsheet 'PlanMaker' and Database 'DataMaker' integrate seamlessly into the main applicaton 'Textmaker'. The suite comes with additional applications at no extra cost.

Please don't send flames - I just had your tiny budgets in mind, and since you are happy Xara users, I think you'll welcome a similar 'fair price - high impact' product for your office stuff.

All the best,

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[This message was edited by jens g.r. benthien on May 04, 2003 at 01:04.]

The MegaFont package (10,000 fonts for $49.00 US) sounds too good to be true.

How is the quality of their fonts?

Perhaps Xara should work a deal with them?

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


<a href="http://www.xaraxone.com">
The Xara Xone </a>

Gary,

the fonts are first class and come as True Types and Type 1 fonts on the CD. As far as I know they are licenced fonts from Bitstream, URW and other famous brands.

The CD is a real good deal. I'm using them for years now and can't complain ;-}

The fonts are sorted by type - deko, headline, bodytext etc., so you can even select a complete font group that'll match.

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

Sounds like a great buy. I think I'll go for it.

I do remind people who also buy the disc that Windows gets cranky if you have more than 400 fonts installed. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


<a href="http://www.xaraxone.com">
The Xara Xone </a>

Free Fonts!! How neat.

Regards, Joel

Hi Jens,

Thanks for the links. The font is very nice. I'm always looking for affordable and stable alternatives to MSOffice. IT budgets are always getting smaller, so viable alternatives are greatly appreciated. If you happen upon a good alternative to Outlook or more specifically an Exchange client, please let me know.

Gary - sounds like you've had some of the same experiences with fonts that I have. Microsoft claims that approximately 1000 fonts can be installed, but they also have some reservations about that number. You can read about font limitations for Win95/98/ME. Oddly, they do not have a similar knowledgebase article on limitations in Win2K/XP.

Soquili

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Oddly, they do not have a similar knowledgebase article on limitations in Win2K/XP. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As far as I know there aren't any. We ran a test in a company where I set up the LAN, installed 800 something fonts, and faced no problems. But after I've told them that they should focus on a unique font set for their company (=corporate identity), they reduced the font number to 42 and still like it ;-}

And remember: just because there are 10 k fonts on the disk it doesn't mean that you **must** install all of them.

Concentrate on your objective and you'll see how little you really need (some Zen philosophy).

All the best,

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> If you happen upon a good alternative to Outlook or more specifically an Exchange client, please let me know. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

http://www.pmail.com (Pegasus Mail)

As far as I know it is an xchange client together with Mercury. Powerful, stable, immune to exe, bat, vbs, dll etc attachments and viruses, fast, low on memory. It's **free**.

Mercury is used on many university servers in Germany, so I think it's stable as well. Sorry that I don't know more about it, but I never had any real need to install it because I'm running a server/proxy/firewall that handles all the stuff.

Another alternative would be Linux - but I guess you are looking for a Windows solution.

And then there is 'The Bat' - http://www.ritlabs.com/the_bat/

I've heard many good comments about it, but it's not free.

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

Thanks Jens.

I'll look into those.

I rarely have more than 50 fonts installed at one time anymore on a windows machine. On my Linux machine, I think its only about 10 or less. But, I rarely use a GUI in Linux; preferring to use the command line. Unfortunately, my use of Linux on the corporate network has been curtailed. No one else wanted to learn how to use it. I still keep two Linux machines; one for LAN diagnostics and one DHCP server.

Soquili

If You like to install more fonts, you shoul look here how to do it:
http://www.unleash.com/articles/fonts/fontmanage.html

great link, however it require you have a copy of CorelDraw with the Font Navigator.

For 'normal' users it wouldn't make sense. Does it make sense at all to install 1000 fonts? Are you sure you **really need** them? If not, it's easier to install a font temporarily and remove it later. Sure, this might corrupt your files if you re-open them, but in a finished project you can always convert all fonts to curves - a good idea anyway for data exchange with a printing co.

But at least the author informs the readers to name the second font folger 'tt' or 'ps' and not 'Fonts' ;-}

Oh, BTW, Adobe sold ATM - Adobe Type Manager. Do yourself a favor and never install this app on a Win 2K Pro or XP system - it'll mess up everything, even the NT version!

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

XP doesn't need the ATM anyway, because it supports OpenType fonts.

OT fonts are an amalgamation of TrueTye and PostScrip fonts. They have all the best bits and are the future of fonts.

But this also means that XP natively supports PS fonts and TT fonts, along with OT fonts.



Michael Ward
http://www.leythers.co.uk
http://www.metalandplastics.co.uk

From the Adobe site:

OpenType® is a new cross-platform font file format developed jointly by Adobe and Microsoft. Adobe has converted the entire Adobe Type Library into this format and now offers thousands of OpenType fonts.

The two main benefits of the OpenType format are its cross-platform compatibility (the same font file works on Macintosh and Windows computers), and its ability to support widely expanded character sets and layout features, which provide richer linguistic support and advanced typographic control.

The OpenType format is an extension of the TrueType SFNT format that also can support Adobe® PostScript® font data and new typographic features. OpenType fonts containing PostScript data, such as those in the Adobe Type Library, have an .otf suffix in the font file name, while TrueType-based OpenType fonts have a .ttf file name suffix.

OpenType fonts can include an expanded character set and layout features, providing broader linguistic support and more precise typographic control. Feature-rich Adobe OpenType fonts can be distinguished by the word "Pro," which is part of the font name and appears in application font menus. OpenType fonts can be installed and used alongside PostScript Type 1 and TrueType fonts.



Michael Ward
http://www.leythers.co.uk
http://www.metalandplastics.co.uk

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> XP doesn't need the ATM anyway, because it supports OpenType fonts. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I just mentioned ATM because of the article with the Font Navigator - ATM had a broad user base, and thus someone might think: Hey, I do have a font navigator, my good ol' ATM, so let's install it.

Just wanted to issue a warning that this won't work because ATM had never been designed for W2K Pro or XP.

We didn't mean the support of different font types, but the management of the fonts - so please don't get confused on font handling and font management.

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

quote:
-----------------------------------------------
For 'normal' users it wouldn't make sense.
Does it make sense at all to install 1000 fonts?
------------------------------------------------

Surely, it does not make sense, but it is nice to have.
I have about 100 Fonts installed and
further 4000 in an extra file.
And with Fontviewer it is so easy
to search certain words for projects
and install them. A
nd with a click to uninstall.
By the way, thanks for the great link 'textmaker'.