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Obtaining MS Visual TrueType

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 10:46 am
by dominikw
I'm a yet another user desperately in need of hinting :wink:

I was wondering whether anyone here had actually managed to obtain VTT from MS and could give me some pointers as to what to expect. I'd sent the fax to MS as requested on their Typography page last week and had been meticulously ignored since then (not that I'd expected a next-day answer anyhow).

Do they just give it to anyone who asks, or will I have to do better on my next "cover letter" to them explaining how vital I am to the world's development of perfect typefaces?

Or perhaps they simply send it by post and I'll get it within the next year or so?

MS funny really

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:40 am
by RED-DOG
Hi dominikw, i was in the same site as you mentioned because i was looking for a true type font and glyph editor and i read something about MS xp owners could get this ms vs or something can't remember full name. Then when i finally foung the right site, it says you can only have it if you send us (ms) an email first. Strange i thought so i didn't bother. I'd still like to know what its like though. BYE Darren aka RED-DOG.

They have bolted, I feel

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 12:58 pm
by JC
The problem with Microsoft not letting in people seems to be a side effect of Outsourcing. I applied for MicrosoftVOLTuserscommunity and did not get a reply for past a week, though it said within 48 hours. The login says I have already applied and is being considered!

I think that this is a work ethic problem that US companies that outsource are facing. Hanging up calls midstream of a conversation to simulate lost connection when the answer seems hard to find, promising to call back to avoid discussion and not calling back again, not creating trouble tickets – these are some problems that I have seen happening across the board.

My wife who works for a big airline faces this problem too. The outsourced group does not seem to understand the gravity of the need to keep to deadlines and responsibility for their own work. Americans can be expected to do their work diligently without supervision, not some others from highly class stratified cultures. I am not racist. I am a South Asian who can clearly understand what's going on.

I'm not sure why I'm doing this

Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 6:53 pm
by Dick Pape
Microsoft doesn't gain anything giving support away.

The VOLT forum has been neglected for years so what you've experienced is nothing new. I don't think VOLT support is outsourced it's just maintained at a very low level!

While you're waiting you might search for and read the documentation that is available online. This is not one of those programming languages with "How To" books at your local Amazon outlet.

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Hinting from certain software tools partially works.

Hinting is not an easy exercise -- witness the number of fonts that have problems. Only the art of hinting practiced by the big foundries works all the time but is very expensive to practice as it takes special knowledge and skill.

That's a good reason to buy a font; and to not expect free fonts to fully function at all sizes.

The use of and issues in VOLT are very subtle and complicated and not easily understood by typographers and programmers alike. And especially newbies!

I would guess if they opened up the doors thousands of redundant, extraneous and stupid questions would be posed. Then a larger group of real customers would be "disappointed" when the support did not respond quickly enough to real problems.

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Americans cannot be expected to do their work diligently without supervision any more than any other set of workers. If outsourcing is out of control you must look at the corporate management, not the outsourcers or the employees.

The role of management is to provide continuous "guidance and feedback" on all business processes and not to say "It's outsourced, therefore, not my problem anymore".

If management has a benign attitude that will get passed to the workers - whether outsourced or in house.

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If not a racist, you are nationalist which is also a blinding attitude. I am from North Dallas so I clearly understand the difference.