ProFont began life as a better version of “Monaco 9” which is especially good for programmers. It was created circa 1987 by Andrew Welch.
Here is a portion of his description of ProFont:
In version 1.1 of the ProFont distribution, ProFont ceased being just a 9 point bitmap font. Carl Osterwald contributed bitmaps at several larger sizes and an outline version of ProFont in both TrueType and Adobe Type 1 (ATM) formats.
In version 1.2 of the ProFont distribution, Carl extended ProFont to include the entire Macintosh character set including accented characters with ASCII codes from 0x80 to 0xFF.
In the current release of the ProFont distribution (version 2.0), Carl has provided an ISOLatin1 encoded version of ProFont. The shapes of several of the characters have been modified for improved readability, and a 7 pt bitmap version of ProFont is included.
• What is the ProFont Distribution?
ProFont was originally released as shareware by Andrew Welch. At that time, it was distributed inside an installer application which could replace Apple’s Monaco 9 with ProFont 9. This made using ProFont as a substitute for Monaco 9 very easy. When the Mac II and SE came out, the magic used by the original installer became ineffective. Over the years I (Steve Gilardi) have figured out how to install ProFont 9 in place of Monaco 9 through the various releases of the System Software. After a time I asked Andrew for permission to distribute ProFont along with my instructions and he agreed and also decided to change ProFont’s status from shareware to freeware.
The methods for accomplishing the substitution for Monaco 9 have gone through significant changes over the years as the Macintosh font architecture has evolved. The various releases of what has become the “ProFont Distribution” have been my effort to share my knowledge of how to use ProFont as a replacement for Monaco 9.
Since Carl Osterwald became involved with the project, ProFont has blossomed into a full-fledged font in its own right and most recently into a suite of related fonts. ProFont is unusual among fonts in that the outline version was designed to closely follow the original 9 pt bitmap version. More often, fonts are conceived as outlines and then rendered at the various point sizes.
Recent versions of the ProFont Distribution have included very involved instructions and utility programs to allow installation of ProFont as a replacement for Monaco 9. Release 2.0 contains none of those instructions. Instead, I have developed a control panel called “Monaco Tuner” which allows you to substitute a font of your choosing for Monaco. The substitution can be just for Monaco 9 or for all sizes of Monaco. Of course, I think the best substitute font to use is ProFont! See the information in the “Monaco Tuner 1.0 ƒ” folder for details.
• What does ProFont 2.0 look like?
Here’s a sample:
Also, each font folder in the ProFont distribution contains a file showing the font’s character set at various sizes. You don’t need to install the corresponding font to see the character set.
• What is included in this distribution?
The distribution includes 6 items:
+ “About ProFont Distribution 2.0” SimpleText document
This is the file you are reading now.
+ “ProFont Quick Start” SimpleText document
Quick instructions for installing ProFont and Monaco Tuner.
+ “ProFont 2.0 ƒ” folder
Version 2.0 of the “ProFont” font. This includes both TrueType and ATM versions of ProFont.
+ “ProFontISOLatin1 2.0 ƒ” folder
Version 2.0 of the “ProFontISOLatin1” font. This is the first release of this font, but it is version 2.0 to keep its version number in sync with that of the “ProFont” font. TrueType and ATM versions of ProFontISOLatin1 are included.
+ “Monaco Tuner 1.0 ƒ” folder
“Monaco Tuner” is a control panel which replaces the complicated instructions for installing “ProFont(Monaco)” included in previous releases. It lets you pick a font (such as ProFont) to be substituted for Monaco in all applications. See the file “About Monaco Tuner” inside this folder for details.
+ “ProFontClassic 1.2 ƒ” folder
ProFontClassic 1.2 is the 9 pt size of ProFont from the 1.2 release of the ProFont distribution. It’s included mainly for those who prefer the look of ProFont 1.2 to that of ProFont 2.0 and who are only interested in substituting ProFontClassic for Monaco 9 using Monaco Tuner.
• What kind of Macintosh and System Software do I need to use ProFont?
The family of ProFont fonts are standard Macintosh fonts and should work on any Macintosh (or compatible) running any version of System 7. The fonts may be compatible with System 6.0.8, but that has not been tested. Monaco Tuner requires System 7 and has been tested on several machines including a PowerBook 100 running System 7.0.1 and a PowerMac 8100/100 running System 7.5.3 with and without Quickdraw GX.
• What happens if I have problems with ProFont Distribution?
“ProFont Distribution” is provided in the hope that it will be useful. However, it is provided AS IS and carries NO WARRANTY that it will do anything good and NO WARRANTY that it will not do anything bad. Your use of the fonts and software that make up “ProFont Distribution” is ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. SQ Software, Stephen C. Gilardi and Carl R. Osterwald hereby disclaim any and all liability for any difficulty you may have as a result of using any part of “ProFont Distribution”. If these terms are not acceptable to you, then you must not use any part of “ProFont Distribution”.
That being said, if you do have any difficulties or any suggestions, I’ll be very appreciative if you let me know about them so I can attempt to improve future releases of ProFont Distribution.
• How do I install the various versions of ProFont?
The various versions of ProFont included in this release are standard Macintosh fonts. You install them into any version of System 7 by dragging the font suitcase containing the font you want to install onto the System Folder icon on your startup disk.
“ProFont 2.0” and “ProFontISOLatin1 2.0” also include ATM versions. Since the System Software prefers TrueType fonts to ATM fonts, special suitcases are included in the distribution which do not contain the TrueType outline version of the font. These suitcases and the corresponding PostScript font files are inside a folder called “ATM Version” within each font’s folder. To install the ATM version of one of these fonts, drag the two files contained in its “ATM Version” folder onto the System Folder icon on your startup disk.
Note: During testing it was discovered that some internal tables in “ProFontISOLatin1” suitcase can be damaged if you use the Finder to remove the TrueType version by dragging it out of the suitcase. Fortunately, you don’t need to do that because ProFont Distribution includes the suitcase called “ProFontISOLatin1 Bitmaps” which is does not contain the TrueType version. As the instructions above indicate, please use the “ProFontISOLatin1 Bitmaps” suitcase if you want to use ProFontISOLatin1 with ATM.
• Which characters changed shapes in ProFont 2.0 and why?
The shapes of the following characters changed in ProFont 2.0:
The “left parenthesis,” the “left square bracket,” and the “left curly bracket” were all moved left one pixel within their bounding boxes to make them symmetric with their “right” counterparts.
The “at-sign” was changed to improve its look.
The capital “eye” was made wider to better distinguish it from the lowercase “ell”. The accented versions of capital “eye” were changed to follow suit.
The “one” was made wider to distinguish it better from the lowercase “ell” and to make its overall weight more like that of the other numerals.
The “tilde” was lowered to be more consistent with TrueType Monaco.
The “underscore” was lowered two pixels to make it truly an underscore and to prevent inadvertent “ligatures” from occurring as used to be the case with “_L”.
The “ordmasculine” and “ordfeminine” characters were shifted vertically to a more standard position.
All of these changes were agreed to by both Carl and myself. There were other changes proposed and rejected for lack of consensus.
If you’re a user of previous versions of ProFont, you may have a similar experience to one both Carl and I had. We each found that it took a few hours using the new version before we were comfortable with the new look. The new capital “eye” and the new “one” took the most getting used to. I recommend you give the new version a try. I now strongly prefer the look of version 2.0 to the look of version 1.2.
The original “ProFont” was created by Andrew Welch. It was originally shareware. Andrew generously gave his permission for it to be distributed freely: “let’s make it free though [...] just credit me for making the font in the first place, and you’re good to go!” Andrew’s ProFont 9 font is no longer distributed in the ProFont Distribution, but the fonts included in ProFont Distribution 2.0 are based on it.
Thanks Andrew!
+ Carl Osterwald
The fonts included in ProFont Distribution 2.0 were created by Carl Osterwald. Carl created the outline versions of ProFont and implemented the Macintosh Extended ASCII Character Set for all versions of ProFont. Most recently Carl created the ProFontISOLatin1 font and did the modifications of some of the character shapes for ProFont 2.0. Please send praise, comments, etc., about the fonts in “ProFont Distribution 2.0” to him.
Thanks Carl!
Carl can be reached at “carl_osterwald@nrel.gov”.
+ Steve Gilardi
I am the author of the “modern” (post Mac II/Mac SE era) ProFont distributions. I have gotten ProFont to work with successive System releases for my personal use, and have shared the methods with other folks from time to time through these distributions. Most recently I developed the “Monaco Tuner” control panel to ease the use of ProFont as a replacement for Monaco 9. Please send comments, suggestions, and questions about Monaco Tuner, ProFont in general, or the ProFont Distribution as a whole to me.
I can be reached at “squeegee@concentric.net”, or if that doesn’t work, I can always be reached at “squeegee@aol.com”.
Enjoy ProFont!
--Steve
Stephen C. Gilardi
SQ Software
16 April 1996
• Version History:
Version 2.0:
+ ProFont 2.0 includes modifications to several characters
+ ProFont 2.0 includes a 7 pt bitmap version
+ ProFontISOLatin1 2.0 released in response to requests from international users
