---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Sun Signs Agreement With Leading Japanese Type Vendor SunFLASH Vol 29 #5 May 1991 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will Help Create A "Common Imaging Model" For UNIX Will Help Developers Port Applications TOKYO --May 23, 1991-- Sun Microsystems and its Japanese subsidiary, Nihon Sun Microsystems, have signed technology licensing agreements with leading type vendor Morisawa & Co., Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, that will enable scalable Japanese outline fonts to be bundled on a UNIX(R) system for the first time. The agreements are part of Sun's strategy to extend its "common imaging model" for UNIX to the Japanese market. In this model, built-in fonts can be both displayed and printed as part of a simple, cost-effective computing solution. Commercial environments, in particular, can improve productivity and lower costs through such a model. Morisawa will use Sun's innovative software tools, called TypeMaker(TM), to produce versions of several Morisawa fonts in the scalable outline F3(TM) format. Sun plans to include two of the popular Morisawa Japanese fonts in F3 format with all Sun SPARCstations(TM), SPARCservers(TM) and printing products sold in Japan. In addition, Morisawa will offer other Japanese fonts in F3 to software developers and end users. These agreements will make Sun's systems even more attractive in the Japanese market, where they are the top-selling UNIX(R) platform. According to Sun, Japanese software developers will particularly benefit from Morisawa fonts in F3 for Sun systems. They get a ready-made, integrated font solution for the first time, simplifying application development and porting. Before now, developers had to design or license font technology for incorporation into their applications. The huge Japanese character set --nearly 7,000 characters-- has made development of fonts for computers expensive and time-consuming, resulting in limited selection for software developers as well as end users. However, Sun's automated tools allow fonts to be developed in a fraction of the time usually required for the large Japanese character set. Sun's F3 fonts are "scalable," which means that a single outline can be turned into a bit map in any point size. In addition, these fonts are "hinted" so that their quality and appearance are maintained even at smaller point sizes and low resolutions. "Our platform will include the core font technology that software developers need. This will stimulate the development of more applications, which means more choices for the end user," said Dr. Eric Schmidt, president of Sun Technology Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems that handles Sun's imaging products. "These are the first non-Latin fonts we'll be offering; in the future, we plan to address the needs of other regions worldwide," he added. WYSISYG, PostScript Capability Sun plans to include two popular Morisawa fonts, Ryumin and Gothic, in F3 format with future releases of its OpenWindows(TM) application environment and NeWSprint(TM) printing software sold in Japan. These fonts are also found in the leading laser printer used in Japan. This is an advantage to software developers, who can include the identical fonts in their SPARC(R) applications that they use in PC and Macintosh applications. In addition, printed output will be identical. Running on a system with OpenWindows, NeWSprint gives these Japanese fonts true WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) capabilities, which has been a rare achievement before now. This means that the same outline fonts and PostScript(R) code are used for displaying and printing output. Currently, both OpenWindows and NeWSprint come bundled with 57 brand-name, Latin F3 fonts. NeWSprint introduced a new approach to printing that complements the performance and distributed computing capabilities of UNIX workstations. In a departure from the traditional PC model, which relies on an "intelligent" printer with a built-in processor and memory, the NeWSprint software resides in a Sun SPARCstation or SPARCserver and uses the system's powerful SPARC CPU to drive output devices such as printers and plotters. NeWSprint allows any raster image device -- like Sun's low-cost SPARCprinter(TM) -- to output in PostScript. According to Morisawa, "Sun's TypeMaker tools are the best of their kind, since they make creating fonts very fast and simple, and will let them quickly make Morisawa fonts available for Sun computers." Morisawa expects its first Japanese-language F3 fonts to be available in 1991, which is also when Nihon Sun will be offering these fonts through distributors. In addition, the two Morisawa fonts that Sun will be including with its products in Japan will be sold worldwide. Morisawa & Co., Ltd., is an influential supplier of phototypesetting machines in Japan, and is leading the world in developing phototypesetting machines. Today, Morisawa contributes to the Japanese printing industry greatly by providing computerized phototypesetting machines such as Linotronic. Morisawa has developed 40 types of digital fonts and as a leading font supplier, contributes to the increasing number of Japanese fonts. Morisawa has also developed Japanese PostScript (Ruymin light KL, Gothic Medium KL(TM)). PR contact Leiann Lee (415) 336-0597 Nihon Sun Microsystems Kazuyoshi Manabe (011-81-3) 221-3595 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For information send mail to info-sunflash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Archives are on solar.nova.edu and paris.cs.miami.edu. All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. (305) 776-7770.