Stone Design has announced the release of TrueBlue, a free font converter for Mac OS X. The company has also released an update to Stone Studio, its suite of Mac OS X applications.
TrueBlue enables users to convert TrueType fonts to PostScript fonts, and installs them into Stone Design’s PStill. It’s a PostScript to PDF distillery that enables you to reuse files of various formats including EPS, Illustrator, Freehand and PS in any OS X application you wish.
An expert interface is available for detailed font conversion. The software enables you to convert most TrueType fonts, including those included in Mac OS X’s /System/Library/Fonts directory and the system fonts including in Mac OS 9.
Stone Studio is a Mac OS X application suite comprised of Create 10.4.3, an object-based drawing and layout application; PhotoToWeb 1.3.7, a digital photography Web conversion tool; SliceAndDice 2.4.7, a tool to assist you craft navigation bars, JavaScript-based rollover, image maps and mosaic tilings for Web sites; PStill, an EPS/PS to PDF conversion tool; PackUpAndGo 2.1.6, which creates compressed archive files using Unix archiving and compression; TimeEqualsMoney, a time tracking utility, and GIFfun, a GIF animation utility.
The new version of Stone Studio sports updates to the seven applications which comprise the suite, and has added Japanese language support. The software already includes support for French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and English.
The new version of Stone Studio supports printable PDF versions of all its online help. The Create and PhotoToWeb applications use custom navigation bars in their Web output, and both support named classes in their HTML output, supporting CSS style sheets. PhotoToWeb also utilizes custom Web settings with support for Drag & Drop; those settings can thus be applied to other albums and album trees.
PStill uses a new engine that provides “leaner PDF with improved stability,” according to Stone Design. Embedded TrueType fonts are automatically converted to Type 1 and included in the PDF output.
Best of all, the new version of Stone Studio is a free download for all current users. New licenses of Stone Studio cost US$299. The applications can all be purchased separately, as well.
Stone Design will be exhibiting at next week’s Macworld Conference & Expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif. Look for them in booth 2432.