[clue-tech] gimp fonts for [printed] graphics

[Matt Gushee]

Jeff Cann wrote:
> I'm using gimp 2 to build CMYK flyers which will be printed at a press, rather 
> than to a color laser printer.

Hmm ... last I heard, CMYK support in the GIMP was still rather crude. 
But I haven't really checked lately; maybe it's usable these days. And 
you probably know this, but bitmap graphics are not great for print 
documents. Unfortunately, Linux doesn't yet have a vector graphics 
editor anywhere near as good as the GIMP.

> Previously, we had created these brochures in open office, exported to PDF and 
> printed at kinkos.  The fonts looked clean.
> 
> Now, using the same fonts in gimp, some fonts (esp italicised) look jagged.  
> This particular font is a true-type which I imported from a windoze machine.

Do they look jagged on screen or when you do a test print? The latter is 
easily explained, not so easily dealt with. What resolution are you 
designing at? If the document is shown at its true size on the screen, 
then you're designing at screen resolution, which is probably about 
96dpi. In that case, any font in the world is going to be jagged when it 
prints. If you were laser-printing, I'd say design at the printer 
resolution (e.g. 600dpi). It's not quite so simple with a "real" 
printer, but I think ideally you want a resolution that's a multiple of 
their halftone screen, and no less than 300dpi. (See, if you were using 
vector graphics, you wouldn't have to fiddle with that).

BTW, what fonts are you using? There are huge differences in quality 
among Windows TrueType fonts. The best of them, e.g. the Bitstream fonts 
that used to come with Corel Draw (still do?), are acceptable for 
professional print jobs. If you're using, say, Verdana, Georgia and 
such--they were really designed for the Web, so maybe they don't look so 
good at high resolution.

> So, the question:  what are graphics people using for the cleanest fonts on 
> Linux?  

If I ever meet any graphics people who use Linux, I'll ask them ;-) But 
maybe I'm a sort of graphics person, relatively speaking. First of all, 
unless you

  a) happen to have some quality fonts lying around (like the Bitstream
     fonts mentioned above), or

  b) are content with something very conventional like Utopia

... you'll probably have to spend some money. For my nice fonts, I use 
the FontSite 500 collection (from fontsite.com), which has a bunch of 
clones of classic designs. It's about $50, which is extremely cheap 
considering the quality and quantity of the fonts. I also use Ray 
Larabie's Blue Highway. The full package, including a bunch of styles in 
TT and Type1 formats, was $22, I think. There's also a free version with 
just a few styles (and probably TT only), which you can get from 
larabiefonts.com. He's got some other interesting, if quirky, designs.

Other than that, go to www.myfonts.com and find a design you like from a 
reputable foundry. What's a reputable foundry? Well, Monotype, Linotype,
Adobe, Bitstream, URW ... or do some research. Here's a good place to 
start your research:

   http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html

One last thing: prefer Type 1[*] fonts. It's not that TrueType fonts 
*can't* be great, but they are much harder to get right, so are much 
more likely to be screwed up in one way or another.

Hope this proves useful.


[*] Often called "Postscript," which is technically a misnomer because
     Postscript natively supports a variety of font formats, but Type 1
     is by far the most common of them, and is almost always what people
     mean when they say "Postscript fonts."
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