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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.
-