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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.276
! The FAQ is divided into chapters. The first chapter is a general overview.
! Most of the remaining chapters are more-or-less platform specific.
+ For more information about the FAQ, please consult the beginning of the first
+ chapter. The FAQ is always available via anonymous ftp from ibis.cs.umass.edu
+ in /pub/norm/comp.fonts/FAQ*
! This chapter covers the following topics:
! 0. Please help!
! 1. Where do I get X?
! 2. X fonts and font utilities
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***************
*** 2466,2471 ****
section, please forward it to norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>.
! 1. X fonts and font utilities
The following programs will allow you to create fonts for display under
X. IBM has contributed Type1 font support for X11R5 but, at present,
--- 2586,2595 ----
section, please forward it to norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>.
! 1. Where do I get X?
+ The standard location for X software is export.lcs.mit.edu.
+
+ 2. X fonts and font utilities
+
The following programs will allow you to create fonts for display under
X. IBM has contributed Type1 font support for X11R5 but, at present,
***************
*** 2514,2533 ****
-- END OF PART VII --
!
!
! FAQ for comp.fonts: Part VIII: Font utilities
! Version 1.0.0, Release 02OCT92
! This section is divided into the following topics:
! 0. Notes about the utilities
! 1. PS2PK
! 2. TeX Utilities
! 3. MFPic
! 4. GNU Font Utilities
! 5. Font Editors
! 6. t1utils
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- 2638,2665 ----
-- END OF PART VII --
! FAQ for comp.fonts: Chapter VIII: Font utilities
! Version 1.1.0., Release 30OCT92
+ Welcome to the comp.fonts FAQ. These articles, posted monthly, describe many
+ of the basic questions that seem to be repeated frequently on comp.fonts.
+ Your comments are both welcome and encouraged.
! The FAQ is divided into chapters. The first chapter is a general overview.
! Most of the remaining chapters are more-or-less platform specific.
! For more information about the FAQ, please consult the beginning of the first
! chapter. The FAQ is always available via anonymous ftp from ibis.cs.umass.edu
! in /pub/norm/comp.fonts/FAQ*
!
! This chapter covers the following topics:
!
! 0. Notes about the utilities
! 1. PS2PK
! 2. TeX Utilities
! 3. MFPic
! 4. GNU Font Utilities
! 5. Font Editors
! 6. t1utils
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***************
*** 2915,2918 ****
--- 3047,3068 ----
called 'edfont'. It's not the best but it works.
+ Gary <Gocek.Henr801C@Xerox.COM> reports:
+
+ The standard X distribution for X11R5 contains "xfed", which allows you
+ to play with BDF fonts. "xfedor" has a more elaborate user interface,
+ and is available on most contrib directories.
+
+ The last time I tried:
+
+ "xfedor" couldn't handle BDF files with more than 256 characters.
+
+ "xfed" aborts if the BDF file contains a COMMENT line with no other
+ text. The workaround is to edit the BDF file, to put text after the
+ word COMMENT. A single blank space is sufficient. For some reason,
+ the standard BDF files included in the X release contain blank spaces
+ on the otherwise empty COMMENT lines. It was probably easier to add
+ the space to the COMMENT lines of every BDF file than it was to fix the
+ lex code for xfed. :-)
+
- PK -
***************
*** 2934,2937 ****
--- 3084,3644 ----
-- END OF PART VIII --
+ FAQ for comp.fonts: Chapter Appendix A: Vendor List
+
+ Version 1.1.0., Release 30OCT92
+
+ Welcome to the comp.fonts FAQ. These articles, posted monthly, describe many
+ of the basic questions that seem to be repeated frequently on comp.fonts.
+ Your comments are both welcome and encouraged.
+
+ The FAQ is divided into chapters. The first chapter is a general overview.
+ Most of the remaining chapters are more-or-less platform specific.
+ For more information about the FAQ, please consult the beginning of the first
+ chapter. The FAQ is always available via anonymous ftp from ibis.cs.umass.edu
+ in /pub/norm/comp.fonts/FAQ*
+
+ Masumi Abe <abe@adobe.com> contributed the following list of commercial
+ font vendors. Since a number of people have suggested other vendors for
+ fonts (both commercial and shareware), I have taken the liberty of merging
+ those suggestions into a single vendor list. If there are any errors in
+ the following list, please blame norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>, not Masumi.
+
+ I've made some effort to continue Masumi's annotations regarding available
+ font types, platforms, and languages. Innacuracies and ommisions are
+ both present and accidental. Updates are always welcome.
+
+ --------------
+
+ Acorn Plus, Inc. (HP/IBM)
+ 4219 W. Olive Ave. #2011
+ Burbank, CA 91505
+ (213) 876-5237
+
+ ADH Software (Mac)
+ P.O. Box 67129
+ Los Angeles, CA 90067
+
+ Adobe Systems Incorporated : The Adobe Typeface Library (Mac)
+ 1585 Charleston Rd. (Mac) (HP/IBM)
+ P.O. Box 7900
+ Mountain View, CA 94039-7900
+ (415) 961-4400
+ (800) 344-8335
+
+ Advanced Vision Research (HP/IBM)
+ 2201 Qume Dr.
+ San Jose, CA 95131
+ (408) 434-1115
+
+ AGFA Compugraphic Corp. : CG Type
+ 90 Industrial way
+ Wilmington, MA 01887
+ (800) 622-8973
+
+ Allotype Typographics : Downloadable Fonts (Mac)
+ 1600 Packard Rd. Suite #5 Kadmos (Greek)
+ Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Czasy & Szwajcarskie
+ (313) 663-1989 Demotiki
+
+ Alphabets, Inc.
+ P.O. Box 5448
+ Evanston, IL 60204-5448
+ (312) 328-2733
+
+ Alphatype Corp.
+ 220 Campus Dr., Suite 103
+ Arlington Heights, IL 60004
+ (312) 259-6800
+
+ Altsys Corporation : FONTastic Fonts, Fontographer Fonts (
+ Mac)
+ 720 Avenue F, Suite #109
+ Plano, TX 75074
+ (214) 424-4888
+
+ Artworx Software Co. (Mac)
+ 1844 Penfield Rd. Hebrew Typefaces
+ Penfield, NY 14526
+ (716) 385-6120
+ (800) 828-6573
+
+ Architext, Inc. (HP/IBM)
+ 121 Interpark Blvd. Suite 1101
+ San Antonio, TX 78216
+ (512) 490-2240
+
+ Asiagraphics Technology Ltd. (Mac)
+ 9A GreatMany Centre Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai
+ 109 Queen's Road East
+ Wanchai, Hong Kong
+ (5) 8655-225
+ Fax: (5) 8655-250
+ Modem: (5) 865-4816
+
+ Autologic, Inc. (Mac)
+ 1050 Rancho Conejo Blvd.
+ Newbury Park, CA 91320
+ (805) 498-9611
+
+ Berthold of North America
+ 7711 N. Merrimac Avenue
+ Niles, IL 60648
+ (312) 965-8800
+
+ Bitstream, Inc. : MacFontware, SoftFonts (Mac) (HP/IBM)
+ Athenaeum House Greek, Amharic, Arabic, Hebrew,
+ 215 First St. Devanagari, Tai Dam, Laotian and Kanji
+ Cambridge, MA 02142 (Ryobi Mincho and Gothic).
+ (617) 497-6222 Arabic = Malik (simplified), Madina
+ (800) 237-3335 (traditional), Sharif (headline)
+
+ Blaha Software/Janus Associates : Big Foot (Mac) (HP/IBM)
+ 991 Massachusetts Ave.
+ Cambridge, MA 02138
+ (617) 354-1999
+
+ Blue Sky Research : Computer Modern Fonts
+ 534 SW Third Avenue, #816
+ Portland, OR 97204
+ (800) 622-8398
+
+ Canon Canon Font Gothic, Canon Font Mincho
+
+ Casady & Greene, Inc. : Fluent Fonts, Fluent Laser Fonts (Mac)
+ 26080 Carmel Rancho Blvd. #202 Russian/Ukranian/Bulgarian/Serbian
+ P.O. Box 223779 Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Kana, Polish
+ Carmel, CA 93922 Glasnost
+ (408) 484-9228
+ (800) 331-4321 -------------no longer valid
+ (800) 851-1986 (California)-no longer valid
+
+ Caseys' Page Mill (Mac)
+ 6528 S. Oneida Court
+ Englewood, CO 80111
+ (303) 220-1463
+
+ Century Software (MacTography) font developer for MacTographyc
+ 702 Twinbrook Parkway : LaserFonts (Mac)
+ Rockville, MD 20851
+ (301) 424-1357
+
+ Coda Music Software
+ 1401 E. 79th St.
+ Mineapolis, MN 55425-1126
+ (612) 854-1288
+ (800) 843-1337
+
+ Compugraphic Corporation (Mac) (HP/IBM)
+ Type Division
+ 90 Industrial Way
+ Wilmington, MA 01887
+ (800) 622-8973 (U.S.)
+ (800) 533-9795 (Canada)
+
+ Computer EdiType Systems (HP/IBM)
+ 509 Cathedral Parkway, Ste. 10A
+ New York, NY 10025
+ (212) 222-8148
+
+ Computer Peripherals, Inc. : JetWare (HP/IBM)
+ 2635 Lavery Ct. #5
+ Newbury Park, CA 91320
+ (805) 499-5751
+
+ Computer Prod. Unlimited (Mac)
+ 78 Bridge St.
+ Newburgh, NY 12550
+ (914) 565-6262
+
+ Conographic Corp. (Mac) (HP/IBM)
+ 17841 Fitch
+ Irvine, CA 92714
+
+ (714) 474-1188
+
+ Corel Systems Corp. (HP/IBM)
+ 1600 Carling Ave.
+ Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA KIZ 7M4
+ (613) 728-8200
+
+ Data Transforms (HP/IBM)
+ 616 Washington St.
+ Denver, CO 80203
+ (303) 832-1501
+
+ Davka Corp. (Mac)
+ 845 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 843 Arabic, Hebrew
+ Chicago, IL 60611
+ (312) 944-4047
+
+ Devonian International software Co. (Mac)
+ P.O. Box 2351 Cyrillic
+ Montclair, CA 91763
+ (714) 621-0973
+
+ Digi-Fonts (HP/IBM)
+ 528 Commons Drive Greek, Cyrillic
+ Golden, Colorado 80401
+ (303) 526-9435
+ Fax: (303) 526-9501
+
+ Digital Type Systems (DTS) (HP/IBM)
+ 38 Profile Circle
+ Nashua, NH 03063
+ (603) 880-7541
+
+ Dubl-Click Software, Inc. : World Class Fonts (Mac)
+ 9316 Deering Ave.
+ Chatsworth, CA 91311
+ (818) 700-9525
+
+ Eastern Language Systems, Inc. (Mac)
+ 39 W. 300 North Arabic, Hebrew
+ Prove, UT 84601
+ (801) 377-4558
+
+ Ecological Linguistics (Mac)
+ P.O. Box 15156 Cyrillic, Greek
+ Washington, DC 20003
+ (202) 546-5862
+
+ The Electric Typographer
+ 2216 Cliff Dr.
+ Santa Barbara, CA 93109
+ (805) 966-7563
+
+ EmDash : EmDash Fonts (Mac)
+ P.O. Box 8256
+ Northfield, IL 60093
+ (312) 441-6699
+
+ The Font Company
+ 12629 N. Tatum Boulevard
+ Suite 210
+ Phoenix, AZ 85032
+ (602) 996-6606
+
+ The Font Factory (HP/IBM)
+ 2400 Central Parkway
+ Ste. J-2
+ Houston, TX 77092
+
+ FontCenter (HP/IBM)
+ 509 Marin St., #121
+ Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
+ (805) 373-1919
+
+ Font FunHouse CD-ROM (PC/Mac)
+ Wayzata
+ PO Box 807
+ Grand Rapids, Minnesota 55744
+ (800) 735-7321
+
+ Font World (Mac)
+ 2021 Scottsville Rd. Cyrillic, Hebrew
+ Rochester, NY 14623-2021
+ (716) 235-6861
+
+ Genny Software R&D (Mac)
+ P.O. Box 5909
+ Beaumont, TX 77706
+ (409) 860-5817
+
+ Gradco Systems Inc.
+ 7 Morgan
+ Irvine, CA 92718
+ (714) 770-1223
+
+ Hewlett-Packard (HP/IBM)
+ P.O. Box 15
+ Boise, ID 83707
+ (208) 323-6000
+
+ ICOM Simulations, Inc.
+ 648 S. Wheeling Rd.
+ Wheeling, IL 60090
+ (312) 520-4440
+ (880) 877-4266
+
+ Image Club Graphics, Inc. : Laser Type (Mac)
+ 1902 11th Street SE, #5
+ Calgary, Alberta
+ T2G 3G2 Canada
+ (800) 661-9410
+ (403) 262-8008 (Canada)
+
+ Image Processing Systems :Turbofonts (HP/IBM)
+ 6409 Appalachian Way, Box 5016
+ Madison, WI 53705
+ (608) 233-5033
+
+ Invincible Software (Mac)
+ 9534 Burwick
+ San Antonio, TX 78230
+ (512) 344-4228
+
+ Keller Software (HP/IBM)
+ 1825 Westcliff Dr.
+ Newport Beach, CA 92600
+ (714) 854-8211
+
+ Kensington Microware Ltd. (Mac)
+ 251 Park Ave. S
+ New York, NY 10010
+ (212) 475-5200
+
+ Kingsley/ATF Type Corp. (Mac)
+ 200 Elmora Ave.
+ Elizabeth, NJ 07202
+ (201) 353-1000
+ (800) 289-TYPE
+
+ Laser Technologies International : Lenord Storch Soft Fonts
+ 15403 East Alondra Blvd. (HP/IBM)
+ La Mirada, CA 90638
+ (714) 739-2478
+
+ LaserMaster Corp. : LM Fonts (HP/IBM)
+ 7156 Shady Oak Rd.
+ Eden Prairie, MN 55344
+ (612) 944-9330
+ (800) LMC-PLOT
+ Fax: (612) 944-0522
+
+ LeBaugh Software Corp : LeFont (HP/IBM)
+ 2720 Greene Ave.
+ Onaha, NE 68147
+ (800) 532-2844
+
+ Letraset USA : LetraFont (Mac)
+ 40 Eissenhower Dr.
+ Paramus, NJ 07653
+ (201) 845-6100
+ (800) 634-3463
+
+ Linguists' Software, Inc. (Mac)
+ P.O.Box 580 Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi,
+ Edmonds, WA 98020-0580 Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai,
+ Tibetan,
+ (206) 775-1130 Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Tamil,
+ Punjabi
+ Fax: (206) 771-5911 Burmese,
+
+ Linotype Company (Mac)
+ 425 Oser Ave.
+ Hauppauge, NY 11788
+ (800) 645-5764 (US)
+ (800) 832-5288 (NY)
+ (800) 387-9553 (Canada)
+
+ MacTography
+ 326-D North Stonestreet Ave.
+ Rockville, MD 20850
+ (301) 424-3942
+
+ Megatherium Enterprises : Mac The Linguist 2 (Mac)
+ P.O. Box 7000-417
+ Redondo Beach, CA 90277
+ (213) 545-5913
+
+ Metro Software, Inc. (HP/IBM)
+ 2509 N. Cambell Ave., Ste. 214
+ Tucson, AZ 85719
+ (602) 299-7313
+
+ Modern Graphics :Organic Fonts (Mac)
+ P.O. Box 21366
+ Indianapolis, IL 46221
+ (317) 253-4316
+
+ Monotype Typography Inc.
+ Suite 504-53 West Jackson Blvd.
+ Chicago, IL 60604
+ (312) 855-1444
+ (800) MONOTYPE
+
+ Network Technology Corp. : LaserTEX Font Library (HP/IBM)
+ 6825 Lamp Post Lane
+ Alexandria, VA 22306
+ (703) 765-4506
+
+ Nippon Information Science Ltd. (NIS) (Mac)
+ Sumire Bldg. 4F
+ 5-4-4 Koishikawa
+ Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112
+ Japan
+ (03) 945-5955
+
+ Olduvai Corporation : Art Fonts (Mac)
+ 7520 Red Road, Suite A
+ South Miami, FL 33143
+ (305) 665-4665
+ (800) 822-0772 (FL)
+
+ Page Studio Graphics : PIXymbols (Mac)
+ 3175 N. Price Rd. #1050
+ Chandler, AZ 85224
+ (602) 839-2763
+
+ Paperback Software : KeyCap Fonts
+ 2830 9th St.
+ Berkeley, CA 94710
+ (415) 644-2116
+
+ Prosoft (HP/IBM)
+ 7248 Bellair Ave., P.O. Box 560
+ North Hollywood, CA 91605
+ (818) 764 3131
+
+ Qume Corp. (HP/IBM)
+ 2350 Qume Dr.
+ San Jose, CA 95131
+ (800) 223-2479
+
+ R.M.C. : PrintR fonts (HP/IBM)
+ 12046 Willowood Dr.
+ Woodbridge, VA 22192
+ (703) 494-2633
+
+ S. Anthony Studios : Fonts Vol. 1
+ 889 DeHaro Street
+ San Francisco, CA 94107
+
+ ScenicSoft Inc. : PC-Monochrome (Mac)
+ 250 Harbor Bldg.
+ 100 2nd Ave. S
+ Edmonds, WA 98020
+ (206) 776-7760
+
+ SMK (Mac)
+ 5760 S. Blackstone Ave.
+ Chicago, IL 60637
+ (312) 947-9157
+
+ SoftCraft, Inc. : Fancy Font (HP/IBM)
+ 16 North Carrol St., Suite 500
+ Madison, WI 53703
+ (608) 257-3300
+
+ SoftDisk Publishing : DTPublisher Fonts
+ P.O. Box 30008
+ Shreveport, LA 71130-0008
+ (318) 221-8718 or
+ (800) 831-2694
+
+ Software Apple-cations (Mac)
+ 1934 Ridge Point Way
+ Boise, ID 83712
+ (208) 345-0547
+
+ Software Complement : Complementary Type (Mac)
+ 8 Penn Ave.
+ Metamoras, PA 18366
+ (717) 491-2492
+
+ Software Shop : Studio 231 (Mac)
+ 233 Bedford Ave.
+ Bellmore, Long Island, NY 11710
+ (516) 785-41447
+
+ Software Touch : FontWorks
+ 9625 Black Mountain Rd.
+ San Diego, CA 92126
+ (619) 549-3091
+
+ Specific Solutions : FontPacks (Mac) (HP/IBM)
+ 1898 Anthony Ct.
+ Mountain View, CA 94040
+ (415) 941-3941
+
+ Springboard Software, Inc.
+ 7808 Creekridge Circle
+ Minneapolis, MN 55435
+ (612) 944-3915
+ (800) 445-4780 (US & Canada)
+
+ Straightforward : ZFont (HP/IBM)
+ 15000 Halldale Ave.
+ Gardena, CA 90249
+ (213) 324-8827
+
+ Studio 231, Inc.
+ 231 Bedford Ave.
+ Bellmore, NY 11710
+ (516) 785-4422
+
+ SWFTE International (HP/IBM)
+ Box 5773
+ Wilmington, DE 19808
+ (800) 237-9383
+
+ T/Maker Company : LaserLetters (Mac)
+ 1390 Villa St.
+ MountainView, CA 94041
+ (415) 962-0195
+
+ Treacyfaces, Inc : Treasyfaces (Mac)
+ 303 Conway Ave.
+ Narverth, PA 19072
+ (215) 668-8548
+
+ TypeXpress
+ 150 Fencl Lane
+ Hillside, IL 60162
+ (800) 343-4424
+
+ Typographics Ltd. : Typo
+ 46, Hehalutz St.
+ Jerusalem 96222
+ Israel
+
+ U-Design, Inc. : Type Foundry
+ 201 Ann St.
+ Hartford, CT 06102
+ (201) 278-3648
+
+ The Underground Phont Archive (TrueType,Shareware)
+ 395 Kaymar Dr.
+ Amherst, NY 14228
+ USA.
+
+ Varityper, Inc. (Mac)
+ 11 Mt. Pleasant Ave.
+ East Hanover, NJ 07936
+ (800) 631-8134 (US except NJ)
+ (201) 887-8000 ext. 999 (NJ)
+
+ VS Software (HP/IBM)
+ P.O. Box 6158
+ Little Rock, AR 72216
+ (501) 376-2083
+
+ Weaver Graphics : LJ Fonts (Mac) (HP/IBM)
+ 5165 S. Hwy A1A
+ Melbourne Beach, FL 32951
+ (407) 728-4000
+ Fax: (407) 728-5978
+
+ Wikes Publishing Corp. : Softjet (HP/IBM)
+ 25251 Paseo de Alicia #200
+ Laguna Hills, CA 92653
+ (714) 855-0730
+
+ Wu Corp. : FeiMa (Mac) Chinese wordprocessor
+ 46 West Avon Rd.
+ Avon, CT 06001
+ (203) 673-4796
+
+ Xiphias : Digital Type Fonts (HP/IBM)
+ 13464 Washington Blvd.
+ Marina Del Ray, CA 90292
+ (213) 821-0074
+
+ ZSoft Corp. : Soft Type
+ 450 Franklin Rd. Suite 100
+ Marietta, GA 30067
+ (404) 428-0008
+ Fax: (404) 427-1150
+ -- END OF PART Appendix A --
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu comp.fonts:6620 news.answers:4472
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!nic.umass.edu!dime!dime.cs.umass.edu!walsh
From: walsh@cs.umass.edu (Norman Walsh)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,news.answers
Subject: comp.fonts FAQ.1a.General-Info
Summary: This posting answers frequently asked questions about fonts.
It addresses both general font questions and questions that
are specific to a particular platform.
Message-ID: <WALSH.92Dec7141253@ibis.cs.umass.edu>
Date: 7 Dec 92 19:12:53 GMT
Expires: 8 Jan 93 00:00:00 GMT
Sender: news@dime.cs.umass.edu
Reply-To: walsh@cs.umass.edu (Norm Walsh)
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Dept of Comp and Info Sci, Univ of Mass (Amherst)
Lines: 652
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
Supercedes: <9211021515.WW57848@cs.umass.EDU>
Archive-name: fonts-faq/part01
Version: 1.1.1.
FAQ for comp.fonts: Chapter I: General Info
Version 1.1.1., Release 07DEC92
Welcome to the comp.fonts FAQ. These articles, posted monthly, describe many
of the basic questions that seem to be repeated frequently on comp.fonts.
Your comments are both welcome and encouraged.
The FAQ is divided into chapters. The first chapter is a general overview.
Most of the remaining chapters are more-or-less platform specific.
In response to end-user demand, the FAQ is now posted in context-dependent
sections rather than as one long document divided into 1000 line sections.
The FAQ is always available via anonymous ftp from ibis.cs.umass.edu in
/pub/norm/comp.fonts/FAQ*
The chapters are:
1. General-Info
2. Mac-Info
3. MS-DOS-Info
4. Unix-Info
5. Sun-Info
6. NeXT-Info
7. X-Info
8. Utilities
A. Vendors
Even if you don't use a particular architecture, you may find it helpful to
read the FAQ for that platform at least once. Some ideas, like font format
conversion, may be relevant to more than one platform even if they are
expressed in platform-specific tools at this time.
This months diffs are for the FAQ as a single whole (the way it was posted
last month), in the future, diffs will be sensitive to the fact that the
FAQ is posted in chapters.
This chapter covers the following topics:
0. Notes about the FAQ.
1. What's the difference between type 1 fonts, type 3 fonts, type 5 fonts,
Macintosh fonts, Windows fonts, TrueType fonts, LaserJet fonts, etc.
2. Where can I get _____ fonts.
3. Where can I get fonts for non-Roman alphabets.
4. How can I convert my _____ font to _____ format?
5. Are fonts copyrightable?
6. General Font Information
6.1. File Formats
6.1.1. File Format Extensions
6.2. Font Formats
6.2.1. Font Format Extensions
6.3. Ligatures
6.4. Standard Laser Printer Fonts
6.5. Glossary
7. Other Resources
7.1. The Bibliography
7.2.1. (En)Coding Standards
7.2.2. TrueType
8. Rules of Thumb
8.1. General guidelines:
8.2. Good rules of thumb:
9. Acknowledgements
10. A Brief Introduction to Typography
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0. Notes about the FAQ.
Words printed in single quotes 'like this' will someday appear in the
glossary. The glossary doesn't contain very much right now. This
convention isn't followed very thoroughly at present. If you notice
something that should be marked or something you feel should be in the
glossary, please let us know.
If you want to skip quickly forward through the questions, the following
regular expression matches only the beginning of each question: "^[0-9]+."
All trademarks are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Standard disclaimers apply.
The FAQ is maintained by Norm Walsh <walsh@cs.umass.edu>
1. What's the difference between type 1 fonts, type 3 fonts, type 5 fonts,
Macintosh fonts, Windows fonts, LaserJet fonts, etc.
This question is not trivial to answer. It's analogous to asking
what the difference is between various graphics image file formats.
The short, somewhat pragmatic answer, is simply that they are
different ways of representing the same "information" and some of
them will work with your software/printer and others won't.
At one level, there are two major sorts of fonts: bitmapped and outline
(scalable). Bitmapped fonts are falling out of fashion as various
outline technologies grow in popularity and support.
Bitmapped fonts represent each character as a rectangular grid of pixels.
The bitmap for each character indicates precisely what pixels should be
on and off. Printing a bitmapped character is simply a matter of
blasting the right bits out to the printer. There are a number of
disadvantages to this approach. The bitmap represents a particular
instance of the character at a particular size and resolution. It is
very difficult to change the size, shape, or resolution of a bitmapped
character without significant loss of quality in the image. On the other
hand, it's easy to do things like shading and filling with bitmapped
characters.
Outline fonts represent each character mathematically as a series of lines,
curves, and 'hints'. When a character from an outline font is to be
printed, it must be 'rasterized' into a bitmap "on the fly". PostScript
printers, for example, do this in the print engine. If the "engine" in the
output device cannot do the rasterizing, some front end has to do it first.
Many of the disadvantages that are inherent in the bitmapped format are not
present in outline fonts at all. Because an outline font is represented
mathematically, it can be drawn at any reasonable size. At small sizes,
the font renderer is guided by the 'hints' in the font; at very small
sizes, particularly on low-resolution output devices such as screens,
automatically scaled fonts become unredable, and hand-tuned bitmaps are a
better choice (if they are available). Additionally, because it is
rasterized "on demand," the font can be adjusted for different resolutions
and 'aspect ratios'.
LaserJet .SFP and .SFL files, TeX PK, PXL, and GF files, Macintosh
Screen Fonts, and GEM .GFX files are all examples of bitmapped font
formats.
PostScript Type 1, Type 3, and Type 5 fonts, Nimbus Q fonts, TrueType
fonts, Sun F3, MetaFont .mf files, and LaserJet .SFS files are all examples
of outline font formats.
Neither of these lists is even close to being exhaustive.
To complicate the issue further, identical formats on different platforms
are not necessarily the same. For example Type 1 fonts on the Macintosh
are not directly usable under MS-DOS or Unix, and vice-versa.
Henry Schneiker <reachable electronically?> created the following
description of the differences between several scalable font
technologies.
It has been pointed out that the following description shows signs
of its age (for example, the eexec encryption has been thoroughly
hacked). I don't dispute the observation and I encourage anyone
with the knowledge and time to submit a more up to date description.
It has further been suggested that this commentary is biased toward
Kingsley/ATF. The omission of details about Bitstream (and possibly
Bauer) may be considered serious since their software lies inside many
3rd-party PostScript interpreters.
The moderators of this FAQ would gladly accept other descriptions/
explanations/viewpoints on the issues discussed in this (and every
other) section.
*-[Semi-Quote]------------------------------------------------------*
[Ed Note: Liam R. E. Quim supplied many changes to the following
section in an attempt to bring it up to date. Hopefully it is a
better reflection of the state of the world today (12/07/92) than it
was in earlier FAQs]
There has been a lot of confusion about font technologies in recent
times, especially when it comes to Type 1 versus Type 3 fonts,
"hints," PostScript compatibility, encryption, character
regularizing, kerning, and the like.
Encryption (eexec)
All fonts produced with Adobe's font technology are protected through
data encryption. The decryption is provided by the `eexec' (encrypted
execute) PostScript operator and, until recently, was only present in
Adobe's licensed PostScript.
Adobe has published the details of the Type 1 font format in the `Black
Book', Adobe Type 1 Font Format (version 1.1), Adobe Systems Inc., 1990.
The encryption was mainly used because of font copyright problems;
unencrypted fonts can also be used, but these tend to use an efficient
binary encoding, also in documented the Type 1 book, and so are still not
readable PostScript.
Type 1, Type 3, and Type 5 font formats
There are generally three font formats used in Adobe PostScript
printers: Type 1, Type 3, and Type 5. Type 1 fonts are Adobe's
downloadable format. Type 3 fonts are third-party downloadable
format. Type 5 fonts are the ROM-based fonts that are part of your
printer.
There is no functional difference between a Type 1, Type 3, or Type 5
font. A Type 3 font can do anything a Type 1 or Type 5 font can do.
The only real difference between them is where the `BuildChar'
routine comes from. For Type 1 and Type 5 fonts it's built into the
printer. For Type 3 fonts it's built into the font. In other words,
anything a Type 1 font can do a Type 3 font can also do.
[Ed note: the reverse is not true. Type3 fonts can do things that
Type1 fonts cannot. But they aren't hinted...]
When PostScript is asked to generate a character, PostScript looks in
the font's dictionary for FontType. If FontType is 1 or 5 PostScript
executes an internal routine that knows how to interpret the font
data stored in CharStrings. If FontType is 3 PostScript executes the
routine BuildChar from the font's dictionary to interpret the font
data (often stored in CharStrings).
However, each BuildChar routine is written to read data formatted in
a method convenient to the vendor. Adobe, Altsys, Bitstream, and
Kingsley/ATF all format their font data differently and, hence, have
different BuildChar routines.
[Ed note: relative hard disk efficiency of Kingsley vs. Adobe fonts
deleted on 12/07/92]
Type 5 fonts are special in that they often include hand-tuned
bitmaps for the commonly used sizes, such as 10- and 12-point. Other
sizes are generated from the outlines in normal fashion.
Don't confuse Type 1, Type 3, and Type 5 fonts with Bitstream's Type A,
Type B, Type C, and Type F. They are not the same and serve only to confuse
the issue.