The basics
By Darren Edwards

Everywhere you look during the day you’ll see dozens of fonts [typefaces]. But do you dream of fonts? [if you answered yes, seek help or drink more coffee].

Anyway.
Back to the slim plot. 

Where do they live and what flavors do they come in?
 Your fonts folder, unless you are using a third party software 
utility will hold a maximum of 128 fonts to play with. Generally 
fonts are quite heavy on the memory size. My personal folder has 
98 fonts that come in at 12.1 MB, a typical memory value of a 
font can be anywhere between 32k and 600k depending on the size, 
quality and characters contained in the fonts.

If you double kick on the Fonts folder you’ll see many fonts  
looking like the above screen shot. This is a selection of fonts 
in their ‘suitcases’. A suitcase is where a font or font family 
live on your Mac. 

A ‘Family’ of fonts can be best described as a group of 
typefaces under the same name but with different screen 
values under the same Font name? I mean like below is the 
Font we all know as ‘Times’, but in the folder you’ll see it 
comes as bold, italic and standard formats to name but a few. 
This grouping or ‘Family’ of typefaces lets you use the same 
font with varying degrees and effects when printing or 
emphasizing text.

If you select one of the above family members and double click once more you’ll see an info box like this appear:
 
[This info box on the right lets you see the 
way your font is going to look at different 
point sizes.]

Types of Fonts
To really unravel the mist around fonts you 
have to learn that there is not just one type 
of font, oh no that would be too easy.

Bitmapped
These are a real pain the lower sitting area 
of your body. These fonts have the words 
‘old technology’ embedded in them. 

Bitmapped Fonts only have a DPI [dots per 
inch] value of 72. 72 dpi produces effect 
like the example below on screen and on 
your printer:

 

The biggest draw-back with Bitmapped Fonts is

  that you MUST have the font value you wish to

use installed to view and print text. If you have

  a font that can only be read at 14 pts you’ll not

          

be able to use it at 72 pts let alone read it.

True Type
The gems of the Mac. You can basically use any value you so please with this type of font. You can still maintain excellent quality at 12 pts through to 175 pts if you so choose. Super smooth and simple to use, True Type came about from Apple in the early 90’s as an answer to Adobes more complicated Post Script font format.

Before I go on any further you should know that there has been a debate over True Type v Post Script for many years, you just have to find your own ground and what best suits your needs. I personally only use True Type, I find Postscript and pain to use. To understand why read on.

[By the way
Point size
This is the size of the text you are using, for instance this DocMaker file you are reading is Geneva at point 10, so it would be 10 pt for short.]

PostScript or Type 1 Fonts
This format has virtually been with the Mac since the first release of the Macintosh range by Apple. Designed by Adobe the Post Script Font is a quality out-put tool BUT requires the knowledge and the will to use them.

DPT publishing and design companies love to use PostScript because high-end printers have Post Script software or transfer rates quicker than True Type. For that reason PostScript is a better choice BUT for the home, Internet designer, bin the PostScript fonts and stick to True Type–less hassle. 

I could go on but that’s a simple version of the three formats. [Please all those DTP and Imagesetter workers don’t email me about Post Script I know it’s best for you but have you seen the results on a home printer?]

You could not talk about Fonts without mentioning Dingbats!

Dingbats
These are fonts that have character values other than or as well as text and numbers.

[To your left some examples of the various and creatively different 
Dingbats]

Dingbats are great fun to use when brightening up artwork, I like 
using them as quick art extras to the ezine or site work, simple but 
effective ways to put over your creative style.

Well there you go–a sort sharp dip into fonts.

Darren Edwards