Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Ultimate Apple II Fonts


Reviewer : Bill Martens
Version : 1.0
Date : 2008/12/30
Publisher: Kreative Korporation
Website : http://www.kreativekorp.com/software/fonts/apple2.shtml
Category : Mac Intel / Miscellaneous / New Release
Cost : Free

About The Program :

A young college student, Rebecca Bettencourt, has creative a beautiful rendition of the Apple II and Apple IIgs fonts. These fonts have been done in True Type format for both Mac OS X and Windows as well as any other system which can handle true type fonts.

The fonts have been very popular with Apple ][ enthusiasts over the years, but this is the first time they have been made readily available on newer systems.

User Experience :

The fonts downloaded and installed quite easily. Rebecca has even gone so far as to create a keyboard layout patch which allows the end user to quickly change from normal font input to inverse character input. The funny part of all this is that she has stayed true to the original Apple II series by naming the fonts with names such as pr number 3 (PR#3) and the keyboard patch as in number 0.

Positive Aspects :

Very few authors these days stay true to the original spirit of the Apple ][ when developing their software. This package has been a breath of fresh air in that realm with fonts that look exactly like they would on the Apple ][ and ][gs. The font maps are clear and complete and shows a great deal of detail work that went into producing the font package.

Once you have copied the keyboard layout to your Keyboard Layout directory and placed the two font files into the fonts directory, you are good to go. The are there and ready for usage.

We loaded the fonts and then tried them out in Indesign 2.0 with our current issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine. Not only did the fonts works as advertised but they clearly enhanced the look that we were wanting for the current issue.

Negative Aspects :

No minuses in this package. It is all about look and feel and Rebecca has hit a home run.

Summary :

If you want the true look and feel of your old Apple ][ computer, then you will want to check out this package.

Rating : 5 OF 5 APPLES

Platform 1 : The Ultimate Apple ][ Font Package
Download 1 : http://www.kreativekorp.com/swdownload/fonts/bitmap/apple2/pr.zip

Platform 2 : Mac OS X Keyboard Layout Patch
Download 2 : http://www.kreativekorp.com/swdownload/fonts/bitmap/apple2/in.zip

Platform 3 : Shaston Apple IIgs True Type Fonts
Download 3 : http://www.kreativekorp.com/swdownload/fonts/bitmap/apple2/shaston.zip

About the Reviewer :
Bill Martens is the user group Ambassador for Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) and is also the production editor for Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine. (http://www.callapple.org. Non-commercial replication of this article is permitted for User Groups.