But weren't you previously saying that TiD's "technology" was no big deal, not a real invention?

Certainly, if Pixietype did swipe the technology (but how can you be sure?) without even giving credit, it's unethical. But without a patent on the part of TiD, it's not illegal. And if they just had the idea of making grayscale fonts by filling in "partial" pixels, and they developed their own techniques to do so, it's probably OK.

Bottom line for me: if we become certain that Pixietype has indeed behaved unethically, we should mount a petition campaign. Otherwise it's more productive to spend the time pushing the envelope further. Handmade ClearType bitmaps, anyone? :-)

hhp

All I have to say about them is, they did a bunch of designs I was looking forwarding to doing. So too bad for me. If they have ACTUALLY copied FFF designs they should be publicly exposed and pilloried.

As far as the tech, we did it first, they figured we would not come after them. they are right.*
Instead:

In September TiD will launch a new library of original fonts guaranteed to work in Flash and Photoshop.

More official leaks soon.
peace please.
-chris

*Unlike other protections, a patent can be enforced on demand.

forwarding haha looking forward.
Seriously, Dodge Text Bold FX is nice, like apple's Chicago on grey.

stealers!
-chris

Even on a CRT monitor, some grey pixels are hard to notice...
And I think I still prefer the plain versions, specially in text-sizes.

This appears to be nothing more than hand-made anti-aliasing. I was doing that in 1988 with Dr. Halo (anyone remember Dr. Halo!? ;o)

So I'm suing all of you.

> In September TiD will launch a new library

Along with a time-reversal machine? ;-)

> Does the gray have much impact on LCD displays?

You can design for LCDs or CRTs (the latter needing less "splay" in the grays), or try to average out both. Same with Windows/MacOS (the latter having a much flatter gamma). I lean towards the former for both.

> I was doing that in 1988

A number of people have done it in the past (like de Groot, and Tankard), but there was no good way of delivering it to users. MacOS for one totally ignores bitmaps (except when it crashes trying to display them).

hhp

No way ... Dr. Halo the 8 bit DOS paint package ... darrel you are way ahead of the game. ;]

A lot of people aren't going to like the look or idea of greyscale pixel fonts. Pixel crispness/crunchiness is a blessing/curse.

With the TiD system, the fine tuning is up to the typographer. You can tweak "splay" in ClearType, MacOS and FreeType, but tuning is basically cooked into Super and Ultra Pixel fonts and anything else using the subpixel technique. If it's well-cooked, fewer people will want to adjust the knobs.

> > In September TiD will launch a new library
> Along with a time-reversal machine? ;-)

make that November. Somebody give me a brain!

I wrote this cause my email reply to this forum never showed up. If it does, see "brain".

Hi,
First of all, english is not my original language so, sorry.
All I do is add quarter and eighth pixels to a standard pixel font. You can call it 'pixel font with greys' or 'hand made anti aliasing'.
Chris Lowery said in another post: ""Super Pixel fonts" describes a patent pending technique which provides reliable rendering on all TrueType environments. Your grey dot fonts will probably be great but they won't be "Super Pixel fonts" unless you license with us and build them like we do. Hrant is right, it takes more than sub-pixels.

All I do is sub-pixels. I DO NOT use the technology that TiD have. So I don't do Super Pixel Fonts.
I DO NO WANT to break any law, do something illegal or steal any technology.
If I'm doing this, sorry, I'll stop selling fonts with semi-pixels, sub-pixel or whatever you want to name it.

Thanks
Hugo Perez
Pixietype.com

Hugo, thanks for your comments. Please look for my response on your pixietype info address.

Any developer who wants to create sub-pixel fonts can get support, licensing, and a good royalty through TiD's new site, which will launch in November. You do not need to know how to create sub-pixel fonts, only to paint all the characters in a GIF. TiD handles the rest. We will publish great fonts from anyone.

To become a licensed developer, contact me through typophile or truth @ truthindesign.com. I apologize for this use of Typophile for commercial information.

-chris

On my Powerbook screen the FX fonts are nearly identical
to the standard versions. Does the gray have much impact
on LCD displays? Anyone else with an LCD who can confirm?