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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.285 take hundreds of hours. Given that, there are two major programs used for font design on the Macintosh, Fontographer ($280) and FontStudio ($400). These programs will allow you to import scanned images, and then trace them with drawing tools. The programs will then generate type 1, 3, TrueType and Bitmap fonts for either the Macintosh or the IBM PC. They will also generate automatic hinting. They also open previously constructed outline fonts, allowing them to be modified, or converted into another format. As far as I know, there are no shareware programs that allow you to generate outline fonts. 5. Problems and possible solutions 1) Another font mysteriously appears when you select a certain font for display. This is often the result of a font id conflict. All fonts on the Macintosh are assigned a font id, an integer value. When two fonts have the same id, some programs can become confused about the appropriate font to use. Microsoft word 4.0 used font id's to assign fonts, not their names. Since id's can be different on different computers, a word document's font could change when it was moved from one computer to another. Other signs of font id problems are inappropriate kerning or leading (the space between lines of text). Some font ID problems can be resolved by using Suitcase, which will reassign font ID's for you, as well as saving a font ID file that can be moved from computer to computer to keep the id's consistent. Font ID problems can also be solved with several type utilities, which will allow you to reassign font id's. Most newer programs refer to fonts correctly by name instead of id number, which should reduce the frequency of this problem. 2) When using a document written in MSWord 5.0, the font mysteriously changes when you switch from your computer at home to work, or vice versa. This is the result of a bug in MSWord 5.0. The MSWord 5.0 updater, which can be found at the info-mac archives at sumex (in the demo folder), will fix this bug. 6. Creating Mac screen fonts from Type 1 outlines A) Berthold K.P. Horn <bkph@ai.mit.edu> contributes the following solution. This is a commercial solution. A font manipulation package from Y&Y includes: AFMtoPFM, PFMtoAFM, AFMtoTFM, TFMtoAFM, AFMtoSCR, SCRtoAFM, TFMtoMET, PFBtoPFA, PFAtoPFB, MACtoPFA, PFBtoMAC, REENCODE, MODEX, DOWNLOAD, SERIAL, and some other stuff I forget. To convert PC Type 1 fonts to MacIntosh use PFBtoMAC on the outline font itself; then use AFMtoSCR to make the Mac `screen font' (repository of metric info). You may need to use PFMtoAFM to first make AFM file. To convert MacIntosh font to PC Type 1, use MACtoPFA, followed by PFAtoPFB. Then run SCRtoAFM on screen font to make AFM file. Finally, run AFMtoPFM to make Windows font metric file. Y&Y are the `TeX without BitMaps' people (see ad in TUGboat): Y&Y makes DVPSONE, DVIWindo, and fonts, for use with TeX mostly, in fully hinted Adobe Type 1 format. Y&Y, 106 Indian Hill, Carlisle MA 01741 USA (800) 742-4059 (508) 371-3286 (voice) (508) 371-2004 (fax) B) Mac Screen fonts can be constructed from outline fonts using Fontographer, as well. -- END OF PART II -- FAQ for comp.fonts: Part III: MS-DOS-specific Info Version 1.0.0, Release 02OCT92 This section is divided into the following topics: 1. MS-DOS font notes 2. Font installation 3. Font utilities 4. Converting Macintosh Type1 fonts to MS-DOS format 5.1 Converting PC Type1 fonts into TeX PK bitmap fonts 5.2 Converting TeX PK bitmaps into HP LaserJet softfonts (and vice-versa) 5.3 Converting TrueType fonts to HP LaserJet bitmap softfonts (HACK!) 6. MS-DOS Screen Fonts (EGA/VGA text-mode fonts) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. MS-DOS font notes The easiest way to get outline fonts under MS-DOS is with MicroSoft Windows 3.x or OS/2 2.x. MicroSoft Windows 3.0 with Adobe Type Manager (ATM) and OS/2 2.0 support PostScript Type1 fonts. MicroSoft Windows 3.1 supports TrueType fonts natively. Bitmap fonts are available in a variety of formats: most formats are designed with the printer in mind and not the display since (prior to graphical environments like Windows, GEM, and OS/2) the majority of work under MS-DOS was done with a character-based interface. 1.2. Frequently requested fonts Many fonts are available at various archives. The biggest font archive for MS-DOS format fonts is ftp.cica.indiana.edu. Note: you can use any Mac format Type1 font on your PC by converting it to PC format with the free/shareware as described below. The following fonts are in Type 1 format for MS-DOS. Some are also available in TrueType format. Hebrew ShalomScript, ShalomOldStyle, ShalomStick Japanese Shorai Start Trek Crillee, TNG monitors 2. Font Installation If you have any information that you feel belongs in this section, it would be greatly appreciated. Windows Pat Farrell <pfarrell@cs.gmu.edu> contributes the following description of font installation under Windows. Installing Fonts into Windows: This only covers Windows 3.1. Font is a four-letter word in Windows versions prior to 3.1 due to the distinctions between screen fonts and printer fonts. The upgrade price of Windows 3.1 is justified by the integration of TrueType into the package and the inclusion of useful fonts for all printers. Commercial fonts usually have installation instructions with their manuals. The approach may differ from the method used for PD and shareware fonts. To install PD and shareware fonts in Windows 3.1: 1. Copy the fonts onto a suitable scratch area (i.e. a floppy, or any temporary area of your hard disk. 2. Execute "Control Panel" by double-clicking on the icon in the Windows Program Manager's "main" group. 3. Double-click on the Fonts icon. 4. Double-click on the "Add" button. 5. Select the scratch directory holding the new fonts. 6. A list of the fonts will be displayed. You can manually select the fonts you like, or you can use the "Select All" button. 7. Make sure the "Copy Fonts to Windows Directory" check-box is checked. This will copy the fonts from the scratch area to your Windows directory. 8. Click on the "Ok" button. Special notes for Windows applications: Word for Windows (W4W) stores font/printer information in its own initialization files. After you add new fonts, you have to tell W4W that the printer can use the new fonts. Do this by selecting "Printer Setup" from the W4W main "File" menu item, click on the "Setup" button, and then click on two "Ok" buttons to back out of the setup mode. Note concerning Windows 3.1 upgrade: There are two upgrade packages available from Microsoft for Win3.1. There is the standard version which contains TypeType support, and about six font families (Times New Roman, Arial, Courier, Symbols, Wingdings, etc.). It costs something like $50 (US). The second version contains a number of TrueType fonts that includes equivalents for the 35 standard Postscript fonts. This adds an additional $50, which is a pretty good value. However, if you plan on buying Microsoft's PowerPoint, it includes the same additional fonts/typefaces. So you can save money by not buying the fonts twice. More about Windows Q: Why are don't the TrueType fonts that come with Microsoft products (Word-for-Windows, PowerPoint, Windows 3.1 TrueType Font Pack, etc.) display and print properly on my system? A: The font matching algorithm in Win3.1 is fairly simplistic. If you install lots of TrueType fonts, the algorithm can get confused. In this case, "lots" is more than 50 or so. According to Luann Vodder who supports Microsoft Word on CompuServ: "There is a procedure which Windows must go through when an application requests a font. Each font contains a list of attributes such as Family, FaceName, Height, Width, Orientation, Weight, Pitch, etc. When an application requests a font, it fills out a logical font for Windows containing the necessary attributes, then starts going through a font mapping algorithm to determine which of the installed fonts most closely matches the requested (logical) font. Penalties are applied against fonts whose attributes do not match the logical font, until the fonts with the fewest penalties are determined. If there is a "tie", Windows may need to rely on the order of the fonts in the WIN.INI file to determine the "winner". If the fonts you want are in your WIN.INI file, and show up in Windows' Control Panel, then try moving them higher in your WIN.INI file with a file edittor such as SYSEDIT. Other Programs It is an unfortunate fact that almost all MS-DOS programs do things differently. Your best bet is to read the manual that comes with the program you want to use. 3. Font utilities PS2PK PS2PK allows you to convert PostScript Type1 fonts into bitmap fonts. The bitmap files produced are in TeX PK format. PKtoSFP PKtoSFP allows you to convert TeX PK fonts into HP LaserJet softfonts. PFBDir/PFBInfo PFBDir and PFBInfo format and display the "headers" in a binary Type1 font. 4. Converting Macintosh Type1 fonts to MS-DOS format Converting Macintosh Type1 fonts into PC Type1 fonts can be done using purely free/shareware tools. I've outlined the procedure below. Make sure you read the "readme" files that accompany many fonts. Some font authors specifically deny permission to do cross-platform conversions. THE TOOLS YOU NEED: ------------------- XBIN: xbin23.zip in /pub/msdos/mac on oak.oakland.edu (or other mirrors) UNSIT: unsit30.zip in /pub/msdos/mac on oak.oakland.edu UNCPT: ext-pc.zip in /pub/pc/win3/util on ftp.cica.indiana.edu REFONT: refont11.zip in /pub/pc/win3/fonts on ftp.cica.indiana.edu BMAP2AFM: bm2af01.zip in /pub/norm/mac-font-tools on ibis.cs.umass.edu XBIN converts Mac "BinHex"ed files back into binary format. BinHex is the Mac equivalent of UUencoding, it translates files into hexadecimal digits so that mailers can send them around without difficulty. It also aids in cross platform copying too, I'm sure. BinHexed files generally have filenames of the form "xxx.yyy.HQX". UNSIT explodes "Stuffit" archives. Stuffit archives generally have filenames of the form "xxx.SIT". UNCPT explodes "Compactor" archives. The ext-pc implementation is called "extract" and does not require windows (even thought it's in the windows section on cica). Compactor archives generally have filenames of the form "xxx.CPT". REFONT converts Mac type1 fonts into PC type1 fonts. BMAP2AFM constructs AFM files from the metric information contained in Mac screen fonts (.bmap files). The screen font files do not have any standard name (although they frequently have the extension .bmap). The screen fonts have file type "FFIL" which, in combination with some common sense, is usually sufficient to identify them. I've listed the tools that I've used and the sites that are reasonable for me to retrieve them from. It's probably a good idea to check with archie for closer sites if you're not in North America. These tools run under MS-DOS. XBIN and UNSIT can also be run under Unix. HOW TO DO IT: ------------- Collect the Mac fonts from the archive or BBS of your choice. Most of these files will be in BinHexed format. As a running example, I'm going to use the imaginary font "Plugh.cpt.hqx". When I download this font to my PC, I would use the name "PLUGH.CPX". The actual name you use is immaterial. Run XBIN on PLUGH.CPX. This will produce PLUGH.DAT, PLUGH.INF, and PLUGH.RSR. The data fork of the Mac file (the .DAT file) is the only one of interest to us, you can delete the others. If the original file had been "Plugh.sit.hqx", we would be using the UNSIT program. Since I chose a .cpt file for this example, I'm going to run UNCPT. Run UNCPT on PLUGH.DAT. You want to extract the AFM file (if present), the documentation or readme file (if present), and the Type1 outline file. The AFM and README files will be in the data fork of the archive file. The Type1 outline will be in the resource fork. The AFM and README files have Mac "TEXT" type. The Type1 outline file has "LWFN" type. I'm not trying to describe this part in a step-by-step fashion. Use the docs for UNCPT and UNSIT as a guide. If you got this far you probably won't have much difficulty. If you do, drop me a line and I'll try to help. If the font does not contain an AFM file, extract the screen font. Screen fonts frequently have the extension .bmap and are "FFIL" type files. Use Bmap2AFM to construct an AFM from the screen font. If the archive _does_ contain an AFM file, it's safe to bet that the author's AFM will be better than the one created by Bmap2AFM. Finally, run REFONT on the Type1 outline that you extracted above. The result should be an appropriate PC type1 outline. REFONT will create a PFM file for you from the AFM file, if you desire. Remember to register your shareware... 5.1 Converting PC Type1 fonts into TeX PK bitmap fonts The release of PS2PK by Piet Tutelaers <rcpt@urc.tue.nl> is a godsend to those of us without PostScript printers. PS2PK converts PC/Unix format Type 1 fonts into TeX PK files. Used in conjunction with the AFM2TFM utility for creating TeX metric files, this allows almost anyone to use Type 1 PostScript fonts. PS2PK is distributed under the GNU License and has been made to run under MS-DOS with DJGPP's free GNU C compiler. The PC version requires a 386 or more powerful processor. Check with Archie for a source near you. Note: if TeX PK files are not directly usable for you, there seems to be a fair possibility that LaserJet softfonts would be useful. If so, check below for instructions on converting TeX PK files to LaserJet softfonts. 5.2 Converting TeX PK bitmaps into HP LaserJet softfonts (and vice-versa) There is some possibility that someone will yell 'conflict of interest' here, but I don't think so. I wrote the following utilities: PKtoSFP: convert TeX PK files to LaserJet (bitmapped) softfonts SFPtoPK: convert LaserJet (bitmapped) softfonts to TeX PK files But they are completely free, so I don't gain anything by "advertising" them here. These are MS-DOS platform solutions only. If you know of other solutions, I would be happy to list them. 5.3. TrueType to HP LaserJet bitmap softfonts (HACK!) If you have the tools, the following suggestion does work, but it isn't easy and it hasn't been automated. To be honest, I haven't really tested it. If you are using Windows 3.1, get a LaserJet printer driver (you don't need the printer, just the driver). Using the LaserJet driver, direct output to a file and print a simple file containing all the letters you want in the softfont in the font that you are converting. When the print job has completed, the output file will contain, among other things, a LaserJet softfont of the TrueType font you selected. If you know the LaserJet format, you can grab it out of there. I didn't say it was easy ;-) This method will not work with ATM [ed: as of 7/92] because ATM does not construct a softfont; it downloads the whole page as graphics. Here is an overview of the LaserJet bitmap softfont format. It should help you get started. If you have any questions, ask norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>. If anyone wants to write better instructions... ;-) Many details are omitted from this description. They are thoroughly discussed in the HP Technical Reference for each model of laser printer. I recommend purchasing the Tech Ref. If you have additional questions and do not plan to purchase the Tech Ref (or do not wish to wait for its arrival), you can ask norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>. An HP LaserJet softfont can occur almost anywhere in the output stream destined for the printer. In particular, it does _not_ have to be wholly contiguous within the output file. In fact, fonts can be "intermixed" at will. The following "pieces" make up a font: A begin font descriptor command (followed by the descriptor) and a series of begin character descriptor commands (followed by their associated data). When a new character descriptor is encountered, it is added to the _current_ font (which may change between descriptors). In the discussion that follows, the following notational conventions are followed: Key elements are surrounded by quotation marks. The quotation marks are not part of the element. Spaces within the element are for clarity only, they are not part of the element. All characters (except ESC and #, described below, are _literal_ and must be entered in the precise case shown). ESC means the escape character, ASCII character number 27 decimal. # means any decimal number. The meaning of the number is described in the commentary for that element. What is a font descriptor? A font descriptor begins with a font descriptor command and is followed immediately by the data for the descriptor. Font descriptors define data global to the font. In general, more recent printers are less strict about these parameters than older printers. What is the font descriptor command? "ESC ) s # W" In this command, # is the number of bytes in the descriptor. The first element of the descriptor indicates how many of these bytes should be interpreted as the font descriptor (the remaining bytes are commentary only--to the printer, at least). This area is frequently used for copyright information, for example, although some systems insert kerning data into this area. What is the font descriptor data? The data is: UI Font descriptor size UB Descriptor format UB Font type UI Reserved (should be 0) UI Baseline distance UI Cell width UI Cell height UB Orientation B Spacing UI Symbol set UI Pitch UI Height UI xHeight SB Width Type UB Style SB Stroke Weight UB Typeface LSB UB Typeface MSB UB Serif Style SB Underline distance UB Underline height UI Text Height UI Text Width UB Pitch Extended UB Height Extended UI Cap Height UI Reserved (0) UI Reserved (0) A16 Font name ?? Copyright, or any other information Where, UI=unsigned integer, SI=signed integer, UB=unsigned byte, SB=signed byte, B=boolean, A16=sixteen bytes of ASCII After the font name, ?? bytes of extra data may be inserted. These bytes pad the descriptor out to the length specified in the begin font descriptor command. Note: integers are _always_ in big-endian order (MSB first). What is a character descriptor? A character descriptor describes the character specific info and the layout of the bitmap. Newer printers can accept compressed character bitmaps. What is a character descriptor command? "ESC * c # E" The # is the length of the descriptor, in bytes. What is the character descriptor data? UB Format B Continuation UB Descriptor size UB Class UB Orientation SI Left offset SI Top offset UI Character width UI Character height SI Delta X ?? Character (bitmap) data. Although older printers cannot accept characters that include continuations, newer printers can. If the "continuation" field is 1, the character bitmap data begins immediately after that byte and the remaining fields _are not_ present. Ok, now I understand the data, what do I look for in the output stream? "ESC * c # D" defines the font number (remember the number). "ESC ) s # W" defines the font descriptor (as described above). "ESC * c # E" specifies the character code (the #, in this case). The next character descriptor maps to this position in the font. Characters do not have to appear in any particular order. "ESC ( s # W" defines the character descriptor (as described above). Remember, these can occur in any order. Experimentation with the particular driver you are using may help you restrict the number of different cases that you have to be prepared for. Please report your experiences using this method to norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu> (both to satisfy his own curiosity and to help improve the FAQ). 6. MS-DOS Screen Fonts (EGA/VGA text-mode fonts) Editors note: the following description was mercilessly stolen from comp.archives on 02SEP92. It was originally Yossi Gil's <yogi@cs.ubc.ca> posting. FNTCOL12.ZIP contains more than 100 text mode fonts for EGA/VGA displays. It includes fonts in different sizes for Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic, math symbols and various type styles including smallcaps and script. It is available at cs.ubc.ca in /pub/pickup/terse/fntcol12.zip -- END OF PART III -- FAQ for comp.fonts: Part IV: *nix-specific Info Version 1.0.0, Release 02OCT92 This section is divided into the following topics: 0. Please help! 1. Font utilities ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Please help! This section needs a lot of work. At the time of this release, I'm not in a position to write it so I'm leaving it basically blank. Even if you don't have time to write it, if you know what _should_ be in this section, please forward it to norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>. I have just built and installed the GNU Font utilities. I may have more information for this section before the next posting... 1. Font utilities PS2PK PS2PK allows you to convert PostScript Type1 fonts into bitmap fonts. The bitmap files produced are in TeX PK format. PFB2PFA Converts 'binary' Type1 fonts into 'ascii' Type1 fonts. -- END OF PART IV -- FAQ for comp.fonts: Part V: Sun-specific Info Version 1.0.0, Release 02OCT92 This section is divided into the following topics: 0. Please help! 1. Fonts under Open Windows ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Please help! Someone mailed a file of Sun-related font tips. Unfortunately, I cannot find the file. If you have any suggestion for this section (or if you are the person that mailed me the other list), please forward your suggestions to norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>. 1. Fonts Under Open Windows The following information regarding fonts under Open Windows was stolen from Liam R.E. Quim's <lee@sq.com> Open Windows FAQ. Does OpenWindows support Type 1 PostScript fonts? No. If you have FrameMaker there is a utility to import them, I'm told. The 57 fonts supplied with OpenWindows are fully hinted, though, and comparing them to the Microsoft Windows and Apple TrueType fonts is interesting... The F3 font format is described in a publication from the Sun OpenFonts group, listed in the Bibliography below. Documentation on the unbundled version of TypeScaler is also available from Sun OpenFonts. Sun has a program that converts Type 1 fonts to Folio format, but it's not cheap. You can buy Folio fonts, although the Sun sales office I called weren't able to help me do so :-( The latest release of Sun's NeWSPrint supports Type 1 fonts. Improving font rendering time Although the Sun type renderer (TypeScaler) is pretty fast, it's not as fast as loading a bitmap :-). You can pre-generate bitmap fonts for sizes that you use a lot, and you can also alter and access the font cache parameters. If you have a lot of memory you might want to increase the font cache size. $ psh -i Welcome to X11/NeWS Version3 <--- psh will say this at you currentfontmem = % type this line ... 300 % and here's whai my server was using -- 300 Kbytes 1024 setfontmem % Just to check: currentfontmem = 1024 See pp. 328ff of the NeWS 3.0 Programmer's Guide. You need to say psh -i so that the PostScript packages are loaded - see the psh man page. Making bitmap fonts for faster startup: $ mkdir $HOME/myfonts $ cd $HOME/myfonts $ makeafb -20 -M $OPENWINHOME/lib/fonts/Bembo.f3b Creating Bembo20.afb $ convertfont -b Bembo20.afb Bembo20.afb->./Bembo20.fb Chars parameter greater than number of characters supplied. $ ls Bembo20.afb Bembo20.fb Synonyms.list $ bldfamily * Bembo ./Bembo.ff (Encoding: latin) cat: ./Compat.list: No such file or directory $ xset +fp `pwd` $ xset fp rehash If you want the server to see your new font directory every time, add this directory to your FONTPATH environment variable in one of your start-up files, e.g. .login or .profile. Converting between font formats (convertfont, etc.) You can also use Folio fonts with an X11 server, by converting them to a bitmap (X11 bdf format) first. Your licence forbids you from using the fonts on another machine, and unless you have NeWSPrint you shouldn't use them for printing. Having said all that... you can use makeafb and convertfont to generate bdf files that you can compile with bdftosnf or bdftopcf. Use mftobdf (from the SeeTeX distribution) to convert TeX pk fonts to X11 bdf format, which you can then use with either X11 or OenWindows. Xview/OLIT fonts at 100 dpi There aren't any. More precisely, the various text fonts, such as Lucida Typewriter Sans, are available at 100 dpi, and in fact are scalable under OpenWindows. The glyph fonts are bitmaps, and don't scale very well. -- END OF PART V -- FAQ for comp.fonts: Part VI: NeXT-specific Info Version 1.0.0, Release 02OCT92 This section is divided into the following topics: 0. Please help! 1. Font availability ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Please help! If you have any suggestions for this section, please forward your suggestions to norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu>. 1. Font availability Public Domain fonts for the NeXT are available via anonymous FTP from sonata.purdue.edu, in the directory next/graphics/fonts. The README for this file states that the directory is currently being restructured by the archive moderator, although fonts are still available in that directory. -- END OF PART VI -- FAQ for comp.fonts: Part VII: X-specific Info Version 1.0.0, Release 02OCT92 This section is divided into the following topics: 0. Please help! 1. X fonts and font utilities ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Please help! This section needs a lot of work. At the time of this release, I'm not in a position to write it so I'm leaving it basically blank. Even if you don't have time to write it, if you know what _should_ be in this 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, I have no experience with it. On any given platform, X requires specially 'compiled' fonts. The standard method of interchange between platforms is BDF format. The BDF format is defined by Adobe. A document describing the format is available from Adobe (send "help" to <ps-file-server@adobe.com>). It is also available in the standard X distribution. Look under ../X11R4(5)/mit/hardcopy/BDF. This document is also reproduced in any text describing the X standard.