Here's a reason to hate Windows that you probably don't run into everyday.
As many of you know, I am a cartographer - I make maps. Currently, I am putting together a CD of images, and I have decided to use the PDF format for image distribution, because it prints perfectly and can be opened by anyone on a graphical platform who can download a reader (official Adobe readers, or one of the non-official pdf readers out there). The images were built in Linux out of Encapsulated PostScript format, and then opened in Adobe Illustrator 10 in Windows for editing.
Now, this early in the process, we are already running across examples of Windows suckitude. Normal PostScript (Type 1) fonts like Chicago, Times, Paladino, and Helvetica are available free with any Xorg or XF86 distribution. The Linux mapmaker does everything in Helvetica. For some reason, fonts that are free to use in Linux cost money to use in Windows - plain old normal Helvetica costs US$29 - and that doesn't include italic or bold or bold-italic. Ridiculous, eh? Well, Windows has Arial, a true-type font, that works just as well. And thankfully, Illustrator has a handy tool that lets you go through and change all type from Helvetica to Arial.
So, now I've added shit like scalebars, annotations, and all that. Now I have the file saved in eps format. What I want to do is convert it to pdf. You can save a pdf out of Illustrator, but it is Illustrator/PDF-combo, which is not quite as transferable across platforms as I wanted. The best way to turn EPS into ultra-compatible PDF is to use Adobe Acrobat Distiller. Yes, we are getting into a lot of top dollar programs here, but at educational discounts, its no big deal.
Unfortunately, the Acrobat Distiller doesn't deal with Windows TrueType fonts very well. Apparently, there's all kinds of fucked up things about font metrics in TT fonts that don't translate well through Distiller.
Acrobat Distiller recognizes all Windows and Mac OS fonts; however, the type of font that you use (for example, TrueType) determines how Acrobat Distiller handles the information for that font.
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/325165.htmlUpshot, here's a little image of what happened when Distiller tried to parse Arial text:
Now, that ain't acceptable!
So what's a guy to do?
Solution 1: Pay $87 so I can get Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, and Helvetica Italic into Windows.
Uhm, no. Well, actually, if I was going to be using Windows for graphics like forever, I would consider a full Type1 library for Windows. But for this project, fuck that.
Solution 2: Take the EPS file home to my Mac, change the font back to Helvetica, download the Acrobat Distiller for Mac, install it, distill the EPS at home, and then transfer the PDF back here.
That can become a problem too, because Acrobat will still try and find a copy of Helvetica somewhere on the computer, because Helvetica might not have been embedded into the document. Fucking hassle.
Solution 3: Find a Windows compatible font in Type1 or OpenType format that doesn't cost money.
Fortunately for me, installation of Adobe Windows products like Illustrator also installs a set of OpenType fonts that you get to use. Myriad seems to be the most like Arial and Helvetica, and it is easily and automatically embedded into a distilled document. It's not as slick looking as Arial or Helvetica, but it will have to do.
So seriously, what the fuck? Why is a font free on Linux, but costs money on Windows? Why did Microsoft feel the need to come up with their own stupid font type and force it on everyone else, especially when that type is clearly inferior to Type1 (and its replacement, OpenType)? Is there any sane reason why Microsoft would use a font system that was marginally incompatible with PostScript and HPL, the universal standard printing languages for the last 25 years? And when the fuck will tools like Illustrator and Distiller be available for Linux? Fuck, I wish I had known about the beauty of OSX when I built this fucking system.(1) Mac users get to use Helvetica
and Illustrator.
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(1) which brings me to an important tangent about what should be going on here at the forum. At the time that I decided to get a Dell, I was unaware that Illustrator ran better on a Mac than on Windows, I was unaware that OSX was much more usable than OS9 (which I hated), and I was unaware that there was fully functional *nix environment inside OSX. A big fat G4 or skinny G5 would have saved me infinite headaches (you don't want to hear about my experiences with SFU, trust me) and made my work run much more smoothly. The only benefit of the path that I chose was my fortunate re-introduction to Linux, and the proof of just how bad Windows can suck. Would have preferred the OSX path.
