Subject: 4 Fonts This section answers questions about fonts as they pertain to PostScript. See the comp.fonts FAQ for more information about fonts. Subject: 4.1 What are .PFB and .PFA files? ``PFB'' stands for Printer Font Binary, and is a binary format in which Adobe Type 1 font programs are usually distributed for IBM PC and compatibles. Many application programs support fonts in this format, and refer to them as ``downloadable''. The Macintosh uses a different binary storage format than does the PC. PFB files are encrypted and have a header, and as a result, cannot be sent directly to a PostScript printer. Application programs like dvips which use fonts in this format unencrypt the font before sending it to the printer. If you would like to use a font which is in PFB format, it is necessary to unencrypt it first to make a PFA file. Adobe Systems supply a font downloader for PC's which turns the PFB format into PFA format on the fly as it's being downloaded. ``PFA'' stands for Printer Font ASCII, which is the unencrypted version of a PFB file. In PFB, the data is stored as-is. In a PFA, it's stored as ``ascii hex''--meaning each byte of data is turned into two ascii characters representing the hex value. Once you have the PFA file, just send it to the printer ahead of your file, and use the font like any other. There are several programs which can do the conversion from PFB to PFA for you. Try t1utils. Subject: 4.2 How can I convert a PostScript font to TeX's PK format? Use ps2pk or try out the GNU font utilities in fontutils. Subject: 4.3 Why are Adobe fonts hidden? In PostScript level 1, Adobe's fonts were hidden because they didn't want people pirating copies instead of paying for them. That's why you can't do a pathforall on a charpath. PostScript Level Two has removed the restriction, in the words of the new Red Book, ``for most fonts''. There will still be some vendors who will want to restrict access. Japanese font vendors, for example, are concerned about piracy -- given the work that goes into an 8,000-character Kanji font. Subject: 4.4 How do I get bitmap representations of Adobe fonts? On the IBM PC, use the Font Foundry program included with the font. If you don't have it, contact Adobe for an upgrade. Subject: 4.5 What are some good ftp sites for fonts? ftp.cs.umb.edu sumex-aim.stanford.edu archive.umich.edu ftp.cica.indiana.edu /pub/pc/win3/fonts colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk /pub/postscript/fonts For the NeXT platform, fonts are available on the NeXT-FTP-archives, sonata.cc.purdue.edu :/pub/next/graphics/fonts fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de :/pub/next/fonts For Macintosh, look in sumex-aim.stanford.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, and ftp.cs.umb.edu (192.12.26.23), in pub/tex/ps-screenfonts.tar.Z. Color PostScript samples and many other PostScript programs are available from irisa.irisa.fr. Subject: 4.6 How can I re-encode a font? See ddev.ps for an example for code that does this. You can find it by ftp to wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript/ddev.ps. Subject: 4.7 What's the difference between a Type 1 and a Type 3 font? The Type 1 font format is a compact way of describing a font outline using a well-defined language that can be quickly interpreted. The language contains operations to provide the rasterizer with additional information about a character, known as hints. The hints are additional information which describes how to adjust the representation of the character to make it look good when the font size is small compared to the device resolution. The Type 1 font format is defined in the book ``The Adobe Type 1 Font Format'', also known as the black book, for the colors on its cover. The Type 1 font format has nothing to do with TrueType, which is another font format defined by Apple. The Type 1 font format has been around quite a while, and is used on a wide variety of platforms to obtain scalable fonts. Most clone interpreters will not have Adobe's proprietary rendering technology which interprets font hints to improve the appearance of fonts shown at small sizes on low-resolution devices. The exceptions (PowerPage and UltraScript) have their own hint interpreters. The Type 3 font format is a way of packaging up PostScript descriptions of characters into a font, so that the PostScript interpreter can rasterize them. It is easier to create a Type 3 font program by hand than to create the corresponding Type 1 font program. Type 3 font programs have access to the entire PostScript language to do their imaging, including the 'image' operator. They can be used for bitmapped fonts, although that is certainly not a requirement. The Type 3 font format contains no provisions for 'hinting', and as such Type 3 font programs cannot be of as high a quality at low resolutions as the corresponding Type 1 font program. Both formats are scalable formats, and both can be run on any PostScript interpreter. However, because of the requirement that a Type 3 font program have a full PostScript interpreter around, Type 3 font programs cannot be understood by the Adobe Type Manager. Only Type 1 font programs can. Why bother making a font that's just made up of bitmaps? Once a character from a font has been rendered, the bitmap will be saved in a cache, and another instance of the same character at the same size and orientation can be quickly drawn without recalculation. Because of Adobe Type Manager's wide availability on a large number of platforms (PC, Mac, and Unix), the Type 1 font format makes an excellent cross-platform scalable font standard. Subject: 4.8 What vendors sell fonts for PostScript printers? PostScript font vendors are many and varied. Here is a partial list. Adobe Systems sells a variety of fonts. With the huge number of third-party Type 1 vendors, in recent years Adobe have specialized in creating their own ``Adobe Originals'' -- high-quality fonts, some of which are their renditions of classic faces (Adobe Garamond) and some of their own devising (Stone, Utopia, ...). Adobe Systems, 1585 Charleston Road, Mountain View, CA 94039. (415) 961-4400 AGFA Compugraphic, 90 Industrial Way, Wilmington, Massachusetts 01887. (508) 658-5600. Bear Rock Technologies specializes in bar code fonts. 4140 Mother Lode Drive, Suite 100, Shingle Springs California 95682. Bitstream, Athenaeum House, Cambridge, MA 02142. (617) 497-6222. Casady and Greene, 22734 Portola Drive, Salinas, CA 93908. (408) 484-9228. Ecological Linguistics, specializes in non-Roman alphabets. Ecological Linguistics, P. O. Box 15156, Washington D. C. 20003. Emigre Graphics 4475 ``D'' Street / Sacramento CA 95819 (800) 944 9021 ] Over 70 faces, all PostScript Type 1 ATM compatible, including the omnipresent Modula and infamous Template Gothic. Almost all faces are ``must haves'' for graphic designers. Call for free catalog. Image Club, # 5 1902 11th St Southeast, Calgary, Alberta T2G 2G2, Canada. (403) 262-8008. Lanston specializes in display faces. Letraset specializes in fancy kinds of script fonts, Letraset, 40 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, New Jersey 07652. (201) 845-6100 Linguists Software specializes in non-Roman alphabets (Farsi, Greek, Hangul, Kanji, etc.) Linguists Software, P. O. Box 580, Edmonds, Washington 98020-0580. (206) 775-1130. Monotype, 53 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 504, Chicago, IL 60604. Page Studio Graphics, Chandler, Arizona, specialize in symbols fonts such as Mac icons, keyboards, and others, Page Studio Graphics, 3175 North Price Road, # 1050, Chandler, Arizona 85224. (602) 839-2763. RightBrain Software, Palo Alto, CA (415 326-2974) carry the Adobe Type library for the NeXT platform. If you're working on NeXT, getting fonts in the correct form with all the ancillary information and downloaders and such is important. You can convert a Mac font to NeXT (PFA) format, but the NeXT demands an AFM file as well, and many Mac/PC font vendors omit AFM files because Mac/PC apps don't use them. For Adobe fonts for the NeXT, save yourself a lot of hassle by getting the fonts from RightBrain -- they often have sales. The Font Company TreacyFaces URW supplies high-quality fonts at low prices. They are also the creators of the top of the line font creation and editing software called Ikarus. URW, 4 Manchester Street, Nashua, New Hampshire 03060. (603) 882-7445. Y and Y Software , 106 Indian Hill, Carlisle Massachusetts 10741 USA. (508) 371-3286. Sells a Font Metric Manipulation Package for DOS with lots of interesting utilities. Many more font vendors exist. Look in magazines and other sources. Check the Usenet newsgroup comp.fonts. Look in U & lc, published by ITC, for long lists of vendors. Subject: 4.9 What are ATM fonts? There has been a rash of misunderstanding about the nature of Type 1 fonts and what people call ATM fonts. ATM fonts are Adobe Type 1 fonts. ATM stands for Adobe Type Manager -- a utility to render smooth characters on Macintosh and PC screens, from font outlines (Type 1 fonts) instead of using bitmap fonts. In one sense, there's no such thing as an ``ATM font'' -- ATM interprets Type 1 fonts, so there's no need to create a new name. A correctly constructed Type 1 font can be interpreted by ATM. Subject: 4.10 What are Multiple Master Fonts? Multiple Master Fonts are an extension to the Adobe font format. providing the ability to interpolate smoothly between several ``design axes'' from a single font. Design axes can include weight, size, and even some whacko notions like serif to sans serif. Adobes' first Multiple Master Font was Myriad -- a two-axis font with WEIGHT (light to black) on one axis, and WIDTH (condensed to expanded) along the other axis. In the case of Myriad, there are four ``polar'' designs at the ``corners'' of the design space. The four designs are light condensed, black condensed, light expanded, and black expanded. Given polar designs, you can set up a ``weight vector'' which interpolates to any point within the design space to produce a unique font for a specific purpose. So you can get a ``more or less condensed, somewhat black face''. Subject: 4.11 Do I need a Level Two printer to use Multiple Master Fonts? No -- Multiple Master Fonts can be used on any PostScript printer. Multiple Master Fonts need a new PostScript operator known as makeblendedfont. The current crop of Multiple Master Fonts supply an emulation of this operator so the printer doesn't need this operator. A short tutorial on Multiple Master Fonts and makeblendedfont appears in PostScript by Example, by Henry McGilton and Mary Campione, published by Addison-Wesley. Subject: 4.12 What are Type 4 fonts? Type 4 fonts are actually Type 3 fonts which contains a Type 1 font. They're stored on hard disk in a special way to save space when they're loaded into printer RAM by findfont. Your interpreter must have the extra PostScript operator CCrun to handle Type 4 fonts. They are usually used for Kanji (Japanese) characters. Subject: 4.13 What are Type 5 fonts? Type 5 fonts are actually Type 1 fonts, but stored in printer ROM in a special compressed format. They're also known as CROM fonts (for Compressed ROM fonts). The contents of the CharStrings entries in Type 5 will probably be different from Type 1. Subject: 4.14 Is there an editor for Type 1 Fonts? Fontographer for the Macintosh is available from Altsys Corporation, 269 West Renner Road, Richardson, Texas 75080 USA. (214) 680-2060. Ikarus-M is availble for the Macintosh from URW, Harksheider Strasse 102, 2000 Hamburg 65, GERMANY. (040) 60 60 50 Or URW Software and Type, 4 Manchester Street, Nashua, New Hampshire 03060. (800) 229-8791 in USA. (603) 882-7445 otherwise. Acknowledgments This FAQ was compiled based heavily on the contributions of and with the help of Henry McGilton, Dick Dunn, Howard Gayle, Carl Orthlieb, Ed Garay, Robert Lerche, Bruno Hall, Tom Epperly, and Chris Lewis. Also thanks to contributors Paul Balyoz, Karl Berry, Jerry Black, Charles Cashion, Jim DeLaHunt, Leonard Hamey, Chris Herborth, Steve Kinzler, Bill Lee, Timo Lehtinen, Carl Lydick, Otto Makela, Bill Pringle, Tony Valsamidis, and Jamie Zawinski. Special thanks to Ken Porter, who originally compiled and organized this FAQ. Ver Date Reason ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1.00 12-18-90 Creation by Ken Porter 1.06 5-29-91 expanded on EPS explanation, general updates 2.00 10-25-92 Brought up to date and expanded, by Jon Monsarrat 2.1 5-21-93 Revised because of new comp.sources.postscript group. This FAQ is copyright (C) 1993 by Jonathan Monsarrat. Permission is granted to freely edit and distribute as long as this copyright notice is included. This document was written with the LaTeX language and formatted by LameTeX, the PostScript hacker's LaTeX. %! Jon Monsarrat jgm@cs.brown.edu moderator, comp.sources.postscript %! 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