SpectraWorks FAQs
Q: What does SpectraWorks cost?
A: Please contact swlicense@monotypeimaging.com
and one of our sales managers will contact you to discuss pricing for your
specific market and application.
Q: How long has SpectraWorks been around?
A: The first SpectraWorks™ version was created in 2003, and
SpectraWorks 2.6 is the third-generation of SpectraWorks.
Q: How do I get a SpectraCore for my platform?
A: Platform-specific SpectraCore™ libraries are
created with each platform’s embedded tools chain and are available directly
from Monotype Imaging. Please contact
swlicense@monotypeimaging.com to arrange for a trial version of
SpectraCore for your platform.
Q: When using SpectraWorks, what software languages can SpectraApps be written
in?
A: Currently, SpectraApps™ applications written
in “C” and “C++” and Java® (for Android®).
Q: Our designers do not speak English. What other languages does the
SpectraBuilder tool itself support?
A: SpectraBuilder™ is localized into
Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.
Q: Why doesn’t SpectraWorks generate source code like some other GUI builder
tools?
A: SpectraWorks separates the GUI description from the source code that
implements the behavior so the output of SpectraBuilder is data only. The
result is that changes in the GUI do not always require changes in the
application source code, making testing, validation and updating of the GUI
design highly reliable. Tools that generate source code require a
re-integration step after each GUI change, which requires re-compilation of the
application and invalidates any testing on prior versions of the application.
With SpectraBuilder, multiple compatible GUI designs can be created to operate
with a single executable program, making multi-branding and personalization a
reliable, rapid process.
Q: Why doesn’t SpectraWorks integrate application code development into the
SpectraBuilder like some other GUI builder tools?
A: In order to execute with the highest possible performance and thus run on
the lowest cost microprocessors and consume the smallest amount of memory,
SpectraWorks applications are written entirely in “C” code and compiled using
platform-specific tools. Integrating application code development into the
platform-independent tool such as SpectraBuilder would cause a significant
execution slowdown and increase in memory usage on the embedded device.
Q: Why is SpectraWorks so memory efficient and high performance?
A: The fundamental SpectraWorks design goals are to be high performance and
memory efficient, and SpectraWorks was designed from the ground up to be an
embedded systems product. Embedded systems software engineers designed and
implemented SpectraWorks and continue to optimize the product’s performance and
add new high-performance features.
Q: Does SpectraWorks support bitmap fonts?
A: SpectraWorks supports embedded character bitmaps in the TrueType® font
format. It is possible to make a TrueType font that is completely composed of
bitmaps, but not the usual method.
Q: Does SpectraWorks support compressed smaller memory scalable fonts?
A: SpectraWorks supports multiple formats of small memory footprint scalable
fonts – enabled through the iType® font rasterizer’s support of
CATT™ (Compact Asian Technology for TrueType®) Edge Technology hinting techniques and stroke economized memory font formats.
Q: Does SpectraWorks support touch-screen GUIs?
A: Yes, many SpectraWorks applications are built for touch-screen, and
SpectraWorks has API support so that various styles of touch screen interaction
are possible.
Q: Our design group uses tools like Adobe® Photoshop® and Illustrator® today for
graphical asset creation. How difficult will it be to adopt SpectraWorks into
our existing workflow?
A: The SpectraWorks design tool, SpectraBuilder, picks up where Photoshop and
Illustrator stop. SpectraBuilder takes as input a variety of standard graphics
formats – BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF and many more. Then, with SpectraBuilder, the
designer can construct the GUI tree and create and control all the interactive
objects within the design. In addition, the designer will manage and
interactively validate the fonts, text, text styles, and localization for the
GUI.
Q: We use Adobe Flash or Flash Lite today and are not happy with the performance.
Can SpectraWorks provide a similar look/feel with better performance?
A: SpectraWorks is used to build leading-edge GUIs for a broad variety of
devices, and outperforms many of the competing solutions such as Adobe Flash®
and Flash Lite on identical hardware.
Q: How much memory is required for a SpectraApp to run?
A: The run-time memory requirements for SpectraApps depend on many different
factors, including size and complexity of GUI, bit depth and pixel resolution
of the display and number of languages and complexity languages supported.
Memory budgets for actual products range from a low of about 512KB to a high in
the most complex situation of 8MB.
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