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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc. Bao Smith, B.Sc. Tim Blythman, B.E., B.Sc. Nicolas Hannekum, Dip. Elec. Tech. Technical Contributor Duraid Madina, B.Sc, M.Sc, PhD Reader Services Rhonda Blythman, BSc, LLB, GDLP Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Dave Thompson David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Ian Batty Cartoonist Brendan Akhurst Founding Editor (retired) Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Staff (retired) Ross Tester Ann Morris Greg Swain, B. Sc. (Hons.) Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates (12 issues): $105 per year, post paid, in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au Recommended & maximum price only. Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Editorial Viewpoint Adobe making our lives difficult Once again, Adobe has made a bizarre decision which is causing lots of problems for their customers (and probably others too). They don’t seem to care; they make these decisions, either without considering the hardships for users, or they do realise and simply don’t care. This time, they are getting rid of support for Type 1 fonts, and have given us almost no warning. The first I heard about it was just a few weeks before it started causing us profound grief. Their beef with Type 1 fonts (and it is a valid criticism) is that this older format does not support Unicode; just the basic alphabet, numeric characters etc. On the other hand, Type 1 fonts provide superior rendering because they support cubic Bezier curves instead of the quadratic curves implemented by TrueType. That is why we make (or made) heavy use of Type 1 fonts. So, you may be thinking, what’s the big deal? Either switch to using equivalent TrueType or OpenType fonts, or convert your Type 1 fonts to one of those other formats and use them. Oh, how I wish it were that easy. You see, when you convert a Type 1 font to an OpenType font, two things happen. One is that it can sometimes look nothing like the original font. I don’t understand why this is the case, but when we put the original and converted font side-by-side, they are often so different that you’d have trouble believing they came from the same file. I think it has to do with how the different font rendering engines deal with kerning and hinting, but really, that shouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, it does. The other problem is that the converted font is often considered to have a different name than the original, meaning that our software will not recognise that it is the same. So when we open up one of the many hundreds of issues we need to maintain, we’re presented with dozens of messages indicating “font not found”, even though the appropriate fonts are installed on the system. So thanks, Adobe. You’ve made our lives miserable and created a lot of work for us. And for what? Leaving Type 1 support in your software probably would have been less work than removing it. I can’t imagine it’s saving you much maintenance, either. So if you notice that some of the fonts look slightly different in this issue compared to previous issues, now you know why. Jaycar catalog delay You might be expecting this issue to come with the 2021 Jaycar catalog; it is usually bundled with our April issue. Unfortunately, it has been delayed this year, no doubt due to COVID-19. I have been told that it should be ready later this year. Staff retirements We have just said goodbye to two long-term Silicon Chip staff members, Ann Morris and Ross Tester. Both of them have been with us for more than 20 years – well before I was involved. They have contributed much to the success of the magazine and we wish them the best in their retirement. Printing and Distribution: Nicholas Vinen 24-26 Lilian Fowler Pl, Marrickville 2204 2 Silicon Chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au