Now that I think of it, Gerber did have some dumb@$$ proprietary job save system back then. That cartridge may BE the program, but it would have plugged into a Font Cartridge slot in the SignMaker console, not the IIe. It saved text parameters for cutting jobs so you didn't need to re-type them for a future copy. Almost everyone used paper forms instead of Gerber's incredibly expensive kluge.
The SignMaker III series font slots were exactly the same as Apple IIe expansion slots. First to market and the class of the industry, but Gerber's line remained a horrible proprietary kluge from top to bottom. One of the guys I convinced to pass on the GDS and to buy a real computer (generic PC clone) to run a real program (Generic CAD) with a stock digitizing tablet later thanked me for giving him his start on the off the shelf DTP path by gifting me with a 40" CAMMjet printer/vinyl cutter and the $5k hard-keyed Mac program to run it. They were upgrading to a PC based system and didn't need it any longer. It's still in my living room next to the HackStation, makes a great entertainment center!
edit: let me rephrase that, the IIe was a perfectly fine computer, but everything but Gerber's stuff ran on PCs at the time. There weren't many Mac folks in the sign business in the late 80s, that came later, what I used on the Mac was primitive, but I could do things with it that nobody else could do there for a while.
The SignMaker III series font slots were exactly the same as Apple IIe expansion slots. First to market and the class of the industry, but Gerber's line remained a horrible proprietary kluge from top to bottom. One of the guys I convinced to pass on the GDS and to buy a real computer (generic PC clone) to run a real program (Generic CAD) with a stock digitizing tablet later thanked me for giving him his start on the off the shelf DTP path by gifting me with a 40" CAMMjet printer/vinyl cutter and the $5k hard-keyed Mac program to run it. They were upgrading to a PC based system and didn't need it any longer. It's still in my living room next to the HackStation, makes a great entertainment center!
edit: let me rephrase that, the IIe was a perfectly fine computer, but everything but Gerber's stuff ran on PCs at the time. There weren't many Mac folks in the sign business in the late 80s, that came later, what I used on the Mac was primitive, but I could do things with it that nobody else could do there for a while.