Y2K Font Failure

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Just another in a long list of Y2K failures. Afga, a major font supplier, is pushing their new v9.0 release to owners of v8.0 because, surprise, v8.0 is not Y2K complient. The person that I spoke to about the upgrate stated it quite wonderfully by saying, "Version 8 is not Y2 [sic] complient." I didn't state that year 2 didn't make much sense, but I happily accepted the free upgrade, which apparently includes several hundered additional fonts. Fun, fun, fun.

-- dgi (dgi@fake.ing), August 24, 1999

Answers

oooooooooo, thanks dgi for posting this! We were just about to purchase the new Agfa SnapScan Touch Scanner, but read a report that they just updated their software, ScanWise -- not going to pick it up at the store tonight! Will call Agfa tomorrow and get to the bottom of this, if possible! THANKS

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), August 24, 1999.
How can a font be non-compliant??? Hehehehehe...

"I was typing 2000, but it kept coming up 1900 on the screen"

-- 1900 (ThankYouDrive@through.net), August 24, 1999.

Curious thing happens to my pc when I set the OS clock to 8 digits (RTC and CMOS clocks are Y2K compliant and set to 8 digits). My OS is Win98. Any date sensitive application software, meaning, software loaded with a password for a specific date, automatically configures itself to a "Demo" version rendering it useless. When I reset the OS clock to 4 digits the software works. Thought you would like to know.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), August 24, 1999.
1900,

The fonts themselves are perfectly compliant. Fonts don't care. Unfortunately, the software that controls what fonts you can unlock is not compliant with the, uh... Y2 problem (as the person I spoke with understood it). This is mainly a problem for graphic designers who pay the hefty 2000 some dollars for the fonts. If your computer crashes, as our Mac constantly does, and loses the fonts, v8.0 will no longer let you access the fonts. If you live in the environment that I do, you would recognize that as a pretty big problem.

-- dgi (dgi@fake.ing), August 24, 1999.

I am using Windows NT in a local network setting with about 30 other computers. After installing upgrade number 5, now almost every time I turn the da_ _ thing on, it does not boot up correctly and I have to exit windows and try again. If you do not notice and try to use it without rebooting, the G drive mysteriously disappears and I have to find the technician to get it back to print or save the work just completed. What a system. Another Federal Goverment Contract Acquisition.

-- Moe (Moe@3stooges.gom), August 24, 1999.
Moe,

My employer runs v2.??? of Windoze NT. He won't upgrade for reasons that I can't understand. I've told him that he needs to upgrade, but he doesn't care. He has Mac software that is not complient and he has a complient upgrade in a cardboard box. He won't upgrade because he won't by a few zip disks to back up his current archaic system. I envy your problems, because in a few months I'll have more.

-- dgi (dgi@fake.ing), August 24, 1999.

dgi,

Interest post, but I think you're incorrect. You must be talking about some strange Windoze world problem.

Agfa is not a major supplier of fonts for any Macintosh. Adobe, along with a host of other font houses are responsible for Type 1, Type 2 and True Type fonts that are used on the Macintosh platform.

Agfa does make top notch scanners, their background vis a vis the graphic art industry goes back decades when they developed camera and photographic equipment etc. That is their field, not fonts. These cameras were and are still used in pre-press work every single day around the globe. One of my clients does a substantial amount of work with Agfa.

As for a Macintosh crashing and "losing fonts" you obviously don't use a Macintosh. If you do, then you're doing something very wrong. Fonts can be kept in either the system folder or you can use a product such as Suitcase by Symantec or many other font utilities. These are actually applications which open font "suitcases" based upon "sets" that can be created to open either with an application or even individual file.

If your system is crashing, which is extremely rare these days if you're using anything above MacOS 8.1 to 8.6, then you have other problems such as perhaps a scsi connection that isn't terminated or conflicts with extensions or outdated control panels that reside in your system. You should make a back-up of your hard disk with all those zip disks and then do a clean-install of new system software. Then, one by one if need be, load what ever extensions and control panels you need until you find which might be giving problems. Or, get Conflict Catcher. You may want to invest in Norton Utilities or Techtool to check your system. You could have either a bad boot block, a corrupted system folder or a whole mess of volume hierarchy problems. Typically, this results in error messages or crashes. IF your system is freezing or you're getting strange "time-outs" where your system has activity "behind the scenes" then you should look into some virus scanning software. You may have a worm virus.

However, if you are losing fonts then I have no idea what you did to manage this and it's pretty amazing. You should contact Apple and let them know you've found a bug that hasn't been found in the last 10 years.

I have no clue what it is you are talking about as far as a version 9.0. Is this a scanner driver? As I said, Agfa doesn't make fonts for Macintosh.

Also, dgi, can you please list some of the software that you are worried is NOT Y2k compliant that is for the Macintosh? Because I do a lot of work on this platform I could use this with my clients as well.

A & L, don't worry about anything, just get your scanner. Agfa is responsible for many things in the document systmes industry. They make excellent products. Any updates in drivers, etc. can be downloaded directly from their website and there would be NO Y2k issues with regard to your software for your scanner.

You can trust me : )

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-- helpful (Y2k aware@and.lurking), August 25, 1999.

dgi, do you have a url you can share?

I am incorrect. I checked out the Agfa website regarding "fonts". They do provide a system known as "OpenType"...

Check out

http://www.agfahome.com/agfatype/announcements/10_03_97.html

and see if any of this might apply to you...

snip...

Executive Summary

The demand for high-quality electronic documents has emerged with the growth of the Internet. Until recently it has been impossible to ensure the fidelity of text and page composition for on-line documents. Text quality suffered and font substitution was common. Content creators did not have the ability to guarantee that the viewer would see a page as it was originally designed. OpenType was designed to solve these problems, providing an open, industry-standard font solution.

Based on industry leading font resources of TrueType and Type 1, OpenType has emerged as the font solution for high-quality, cross platform Internet document portability. OpenType is a full-featured font platform, offering the highest quality text, advanced typographic features, international character support and full protection of intellectual property rights for type designers and font vendors.

OpenType is the only Internet font solution available which provides complete font fidelity. With OpenType, industry standard trademarked typeface names and designs are maintained in documents delivered over the Internet.

The OpenType font portability solution is a three-step process, which includes font subsetting, lossless compression and font embedding. Font subsetting is the process of capturing just the characters of a typeface used in a document or on a Web site. Once these characters have been selected, OpenType utilizes 100% lossless compression technology to compress the character data. Agfas MicroType Express compresses TrueType data, while Adobes Compact Font Format (CFF) is used to compress Type 1 data. This subsetted and compressed data is then embedded into the document and delivered via on-line communication channels. Embedding levels vary, depending on the document creation tools and the intended delivery mechanisms. For example, when Microsoft applications such as Word 97 or PowerPoint 97 are used in Intranet applications, the actual font data is embedded in the document and travels with it. For Internet documents, font reference tags are embedded in the page coding. These travel with the document and are read by the Internet browser. If the matching font is located on the users system, commands will retrieve it and rasterize the page. If the font is not resident, a URL address which has been attached in the page coding is contacted by the users browser and the embeddable font data is downloaded to the system. This ensures complete font and document fidelity at all times.

Adobe, Agfa, Microsoft and many of the leading font designers and vendors have endorsed OpenType for its high quality and intellectual property protection features. OpenTypes digital authorization system controls the ability of content developers to embed fonts. The users application reads the digital authentication in the fonts header information, and, if authorized by the font designer, embeds the actual high quality font into a document.

OpenType offers cross platform capabilities, using system level TrueType and Type 1 font rasterizing subsystems on the Windows and Macintosh operating system platforms. For platforms that do not have resident font subsystems, Agfa offers TrueType and Type 1 rasterizers for character generation.

Agfas type and type technology product line provides the full benefits of OpenType to its current and future OEMs and ISVs. Agfa is the only vendor providing complete end-to-end OpenType solutions.

Agfa's OpenTypeProduct Line Solution Guarantees:

The major components of OpenType are available today from Agfa, including:

Agfa offers 37 years of type design and technology development experience. Agfa products have been proven in the graphic arts, office and consumer markets, supported by a strong commitment to customer service and support. Agfas technology development is supported by the industrys largest group of type engineers and designers. Agfas technology provides the highest quality type from the most widely supported and industry proven product line available today for electronic printing, Internet and Intranet connections, emerging sleek or Net PCs, Interactive Television and wireless communication products.

for more info regarding Agfa's current Type offerings check out...

http://www.agfamonotype.com/

If you would like specific information regarding Agfa and Y2k here is their statement which you can find at the url above...

January 12, 1999

Dear Agfa Monotype Font Customer,

The issue of how computer systems will be affected in the year 2000 has become an important concern. The issue revolves around the fact that some computers, software and operating systems use two digits to represent the year rather than four digits. Agfa Monotype would like to use this letter to inform you about year 2000 and its impact on Agfa Monotype font products.

Agfa Monotype supplies fonts in a number of font formats, including TrueType, PostScript Type 1, OpenType and bitmaps. Fonts that exist in these formats rely on several factors in order to operate, most notably: the Operating System, Application Software and the Hardware Platform on which the data resides. These and other factors beyond the control of Agfa Monotype, may influence the ability of the font software to function properly with respect to the Year 2000 and other related issues (such as Leap Year calculations).

All date information in Agfa Monotype fonts is generated in accordance with published specifications and standards for the respective formats. Date information in fonts is generally used for information only and the function of Agfa Monotype fonts should not be affected by the changeover to the Year 2000, provided that other components using the fonts are also unaffected.

Because Agfa Monotype font products are dependent on factors beyond our control, such as the year 2000 readiness of the operating system, we cannot provide a specific warranty for year 2000 compliance.

THIS LETTER IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND APPLIES ONLY TO CURRENT VERSIONS OF Agfa Monotype FONT SOFTWARE. THIS LETTER DOES NOT MODIFY ANY TERMS OR CONDITIONS IN THE LICENSE AGREEMENT UNDER WHICH Agfa Monotype FONT SOFTWARE HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTED AND DOES NOT GRANT ANY RIGHTS OR CREATE ANY OBILIGATIONS BEYOND THOSE SET FORTH IN SUCH LICENSE AGREEMENT. THE INFORMATION IN THIS LETTER IS BASED UPON THE BEST INFORMATION CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO Agfa Monotype, IS PROVIDED SOLELY FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF Agfa MonotypeS END-USERS and IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OR OBLIGATION OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Sincerely,

Ira Mirochni



-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 25, 1999.

by the way... I decided to post as myself instead of lurking around and posting... Mac is my platform of choice and what ever I have to say I figure should be out in the open.

back to lurking

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), August 25, 1999.

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