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Adobe black book

Adobe's Type 1 Font Format book in PDF format. Don't forget to get the Adobe Technical Note #5015, Type 1 Font Format Supplement as well, which discusses multiple master fonts and counter hints. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType (or: OTFDK)

Free in-house tools from Adobe (for Mac OSX, older Mac OS, and Windows, but not UNIX) for wrapping a PostScript type 1 font into an OpenType/CFF font. Direct download. Quoted from the site: The goal of the Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType package is to share the tools used by Adobe font developers for wrapping up PostScript fonts as OpenType/CFF font files, and adding OpenType layout features. These tools are used for in-house development of new Adobe OpenType fonts. Use them at your own risk, and with no guarantee of support! We know that they work for the fonts Adobe makes, but have tested only part of what it is possible to express with OpenType. Note! Although the FDK directory tree contains a number of Python scripts, none of them can be used by double-clicking on them; they can only be successfully called as commands from a command-line window (the "Terminal" program on Mac, the "cmd" or "DOS" program on Windows). Note also that the AFDKO is for adding OpenType data to existing fully-designed PostScript fonts, and for proofing them. It does not offer tools for designing or editing glyphs. The proofing tools work with TrueType-based source fonts, but the makeotf, checkOutlines, and autohint tools work only with PostScript source fonts or OpenType fonts with Postscript outlines. Thomas Phinney compares it with the free TTX tool, and says this: Currently, if I want a simple and accurate representation of the contents of a TrueType or OpenType font, and possibly to edit the info, I have been using the wondrous open source TTX tool, which is based on the FontTools library. This dumps the font info to an XML text file, which can be viewed/edited in any text editor or anything that can handle XML. It can also recompile the text file back into a font. (In fairness, Adobe's FDK for OpenType also has table dumping/recompiling tools, just not quite as slick as TTX. Even Adobe folks often use TTX.) Mac download file. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Adobe Technical Notes

Adobe's site with technical notes about type 1 fonts. Includes the AFM specs, the BDF specs, the type 1 specs, the PFM specs, the type 3 font specs. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Adobe Type Technology Overview

Adobe's documentation on type. [Google] [More]  ⦿

afm
[Jan Krutisch]

Jan Krutisch wrote a free package, afm. It is a simple library to read Adobe Font Metrics files (afm). Currently it simply parses the file and saves it in a few attributes. [Google] [More]  ⦿

AFM Specs

Adobe Font Metrics (AFM), Adobe Multiple Font Metrics (AMFM) and Adobe Composite Font Metrics (ACFM). [Google] [More]  ⦿

afm2pfm

Peter Soos (Hungary). [Google] [More]  ⦿

afm2pfm

Russell Lang's source code from 1994 for generating PFM files from AFM files. In 1995, updated by Christoph Lameter. I find that this updated version works best, as Lang's code had some bugs. [Google] [More]  ⦿

afm2tfm

Free C program by Thomas Rokicki and Donald Knuth for conversion from AFM to TFM. [Google] [More]  ⦿

AFM2TFM

Explains how to create a TFM file from an AFM file. [Google] [More]  ⦿

afm-pfm.bat

Shell file for PCs for generating a PFM file from an AFM file. Requires makepfm from Adobe. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alltype

Abandoned old software from Atech that allows batch conversions from type 1 to truetype. Comments gleaned from the net: " Alltype is perhaps the worst possible way to do T1 -> TTF. It mangles hinting among other things. Whenever I see 'Converted by Alltype', I erase the thing immediately. Wish everyone did." Alltype Version 2.06 is available (for the incredible price of $149) at Convertafont and Pagetech. ATC (AllType Typeface Converter) is the so-called universal type conversion program from PageTech. It seems at least to be able to convert TTF to type 1, SFS (for downloading to HP PCL5e printers) and .sft. I am not sure about the converse. It costs 250USD. Note: "AllType also gives you the ability to create new variations from an original typeface. By using AllType customization options, you can generate dozens of new condensed, expanded, hollowed, obliqued, and bolded variations from a single master typeface. " PageTech also sells TTF2PFB.EXE to convert TTF to PFB. See also here. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ananda Das on type 3

Ananda Das tells the type 3 story: Type 3 is an almost-obsolete format once very popular because it was the only way for non-Adobe folks to produce PostScript fonts in the old days. The font technology was generally considered inferior because it did not allow hinting to make the fonts reproduce well on 300-dpi laser printers, although they generally were fine on filmsetters. Adobe kept the proprietary secret of how to make Type 1 fonts to themselves, so that they could sell the best-looking fonts. This, together with Adobe's then-high royalties for PostScript itself, annoyed Apple and Microsoft, so they developed TrueType as an alternative to PostScript. Learning of this development, Adobe's John Warnock publicly released the Type 1 spec so that anyone could make such a font. Thereafter, almost no Type 3 fonts were ever made. But Type 3 fonts did have some capabilities of their own, not shared with Type 1 fonts. They allowed shading and textures, as well as "random" substitution of particular glyphs, as Alan rightly pointed out. If you want to see some Type 3 fonts, they are probably still widely available at FTP freeware/shareware sites, usually under "PostScript" headings, sometimes under "PostScript Type 3". [Google] [More]  ⦿

Andrew C. Bulhak
[Type1.py]

[More]  ⦿

Autofont
[Eddie Kohler]

A free UNIX/TeX tool by Eddie Kohler. He writes: This package provides some Perl scripts that simplify font handling for TeX. The basic idea behind Autofont is that TeX-required font information, including TFM and VF font metrics, PK bitmap fonts, and DVIPS 'psfonts.map' references, should be generated on the fly when required, based on the TeX font name. With Autofont, referring to a PostScript font is sufficient to install that font for TeX's purposes. The user writes an .fd file and that's it. This differs from fontinst, where fonts must be explicitly installed. Autofont can automatically transform fonts based on "instructions" embedded in the font name. For example, "Times-Roman--sl167" refers to an artificially slanted version of Times Roman, and "ACaslon-Regular--f" refers to a version of Adobe Caslon Regular that includes the ff, ffi, and ffl ligatures found in Adobe Caslon Expert. Again, there is no need to install anything explicitly; simply refer to the fonts by name and Autofont will take care of the required virtual font manipulations. Autofont requires a Unix TeX installation based on Web2c. [Google] [More]  ⦿

BDF fonts from type 1 fonts

Instructions to make BDF fonts from type 1 fonts, by Igor Manokhin: 1. For example: We have got "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique.pfa" file whose font name is "-adobe-helvetica-bold-o-narrow--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1". 2. Have you the X fontserver been run on your box? If haven't, you need run 'xfs'. 3. Execute "fstobdf -s name.your.box:7100 -fn \ 'adobe-helvetica-bold-o-narrow--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1' > helvNBO.bdf" 4. In any case, read manuals 'fstobdf' and 'xfs'. 5. Also you can change pixel sizes of the font through 'xfontsel'. I hope that help you. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Behdad Esfahbod
[Fonttools]

[More]  ⦿

Bezier conversions

L.S. Ng explains the mathematical aspects of truetype to type 1 Bezier conversions (quadratic to cubic). Conversions from quadratic Beziers (truetype Beziers) to cubic (type 1) Beziers. [Google] [More]  ⦿

bmap2afm

Free MS-DOS utility by Norm Walsh (at the time of publication at Small Planet Software, Sunderland, MA): it converts, on a PC, a Mac .bmap file (Mac screen font) into an AFM metrics file that can be used with type 1 fonts on any platform. Kerning information is preserved. [Google] [More]  ⦿

c2ps

Similar but more diverse than ttf2ps, this free code converts truetype fonts to postscript format. Can be used for Chinese fonts. See also here. Linux version. [Google] [More]  ⦿

cfftot1
[Eddie Kohler]

Eddie Kohler's free type utility which translates a Compact Font Format (CFF) font, or a PostScript-flavored OpenType font, into PostScript Type 1 format. It correctly handles subroutines and hints. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Charles M. Geschke

Charles Geschke is the founder, with John Warnock, of Adobe (in 1982), and the inventor of PostScript. The type 3 and type 1 font formats are an essential part of the PostScript language. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

CMap and CID Font Files Specification Version 1.0

Specs at Adobe for CMap, CID, useful for Chinese, for example. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Comparison of font renderers

Juliusz Chroboczek compares the ATM, X11R6 (IBM) and Ghostcript 5.10 rasterizers for type 1 fonts, and the ATM, Freetype xfsft, xfsft, and ghostscript rasterizers for truetype. Freetype and ATM are looking good! [Google] [More]  ⦿

Creating Mac screen fonts from Type 1 outlines

Peter DiCamillo's notes: "BitFont is a program which will create a bitmapped font from any font which can be drawn on your Macintosh. In addition to standard bitmapped fonts, it works with Adobe outline fonts when the Adobe Type Manager is installed, and works with TrueType? fonts. BitFont will also tell you how QuickDraw will draw a given font (bitmapped, ATM, or TrueType) and can create a text file describing a font and all its characters. " [Google] [More]  ⦿

Creative Bits Software

Shareware program Type-1 Tools 2.0 by Keith Cowgill: "Type-1 Tools was the first-available-anywhere program designed to convert Macintosh Type-1 PostScript Typefaces to the IBM platform. It also--downloads fonts one-at-a-time or in batches, prints ASCII files on PostScript printers, sends PostScript .PS files to the printer, and helps you control your PostScript printer." [Google] [More]  ⦿

Cyrillic font specs

Specs for Cyrillic fonts at Adobe. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Designing multiple master fonts

Explanation by Adobe about the design of multiple master fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dieter Baron
[ttftot42]

[More]  ⦿

Dump PFM

Version 1.5.3 of free Windows utility Dump PFM, for reading a PFM file. By Jeroen W. Pluimers at the University of Leiden. Jeroen is now consultant at All I'M. [Google] [More]  ⦿

DumpPfm

Free Printer Font Metrics Dumper, executable for Windows. Version 1.4. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Eddie Kohler
[Autofont]

[More]  ⦿

Eddie Kohler
[cfftot1]

[More]  ⦿

Eddie Kohler
[LCDF Type Software]

[More]  ⦿

Eddie Kohler
[t1utils (main site)]

[More]  ⦿

Eddie Kohler
[LCDF Typetools]

[More]  ⦿

em2 Solutions

Software company of Michael Jansson, located in Bromma, near Stockholm. Font software specialists, who have worked on an Adobe type 1 to truetype converter (as a built-in part of Windows NT, and a separate product called Janus), and are working with Microsoft on OpenType tools. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Extracting fonts from PDF files

Someone on alt.binaries.fonts posted his/her way of extracting fonts from PDF files using Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader). This recommendation may be slightly dated. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Father Chrisostomos
[Font-GlyphNames]

[More]  ⦿

FMP: Font Manipulation Package

Package that used to be at the Y&Y site, but seems to have disappeared. It said: Use these two dozen command line programs to alter and adjust fonts in Adobe Type 1 format without disturbing the "hinting" information. Adjust glyph sidebearings and advance widths, extract sub-fonts, merge glyph sets from two fonts, add new composite characters, convert between Macintosh and IBM PC format, convert between different metric file formats (AFM, PFM, TFM, SCR, MET), etc Includes PFAtoAFM, PFMtoAFM, PFBtoMAC (PC type 1 to Mac type 1), MACtoPFA (Mac type 1 to UNIX type 1), AFMtoSCR, SCRtoAFM, REENCODE, RENAMECH, MERGEPFA, SUBFONT, COMPOSIT, SIDEBEAR, TRANSFRM, SAFESEAC, AFMtoPFM, AFMtoTFM, TFMtoAFM, PFAtoPFB, PFBtoPFB, TFMtoMET, METtoTFM, BINtoHEX, HEXtoBIN, SERIAL, and DOWNLOAD. A commercial product from Y&Y. Some say Refont (free, DOS) and Wrefont (25USD, Windows) are better, but I disagree--FMP includes TFM related commands, for example. For hacker types, note that most of these things are freely available for UNIX platforms. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FONmaker 1.0

FONmaker is FontLab's PC program capable of automatically generating FON, FNT, SPF and BDF bitmap fonts from any TrueType or Type 1 font installed in Windows. FONmaker uses the Windows (or ATM) rasteriser to build bitmaps, so results are completely compatible with the outline originals. From Pyrus: "Use FONmaker to generate bitmap fonts from outline fonts in TrueType or Type 1 format. FONmaker can produce bitmap fonts in FON, FNT, SPF/SFL and BDF formats using standard Windows rasterizers, so resulting bitmap fonts are completely compatible with their outline originals. Other important FONmaker features include: support for multiple codepages, selectable destination resolution, batch-mode processing of many fonts at once and possibility to rename fonts." [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font conversions by ATM

Fonts may be converted from type 1 to truetype by ATM on Windows NT. Drag the type 1 font from its directory into the fonts directory, and the conversion to truetype will take place in the background. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font HOWTO for Linux

Donovan Rebbechi's how-to pages for fonts in Linux environments. Indispensable reading if you are running X windows. Alternate site. Yet another URL. Yet another URL. Yet another URL. This page, entitled "Optimal Use of Fonts on Linux" (by Avi Alkalay, Donovan Rebbechi and Hal Burgiss) has the most recent information. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font info and metrics modules

Johan Vromans' free Perl modules for working with type 1 fonts.

  • PostScript::Resources -- a module that fetches PostScript font related information from Unix PostScript Resource (.UPR) files.
  • PostScript::Font -- a module that returns info about PostScript font files (.PFB and .PFA files); TrueType fonts are handled using an external tool (see below).
    Info includes: font name, type, version, but also encoding vector and list of all glyphs.
  • PostScript::FontMetrics -- a module that analyses Adobe Font Metrics (.AFM) files;
    Info includes: font name, type, version, encoding vector and width, bounding box and kerning tables.
  • PostScript::PrinterMetrics -- a module that analyses Windows printer metrics (.PFM) files.
  • PostScript::TTFtoType42 -- a module that analyses TrueType fonts and wraps them in PostScript Type42 format.
  • PostScript::FontInfo -- a module that analyses Microsoft FontInfo (.INF) files;
  • fontsampler -- a tool to print sample pages of PostScript fonts.
  • font2pfa -- a tool to convert a font (.PFB file) to ASCII encoded format (.PFA file).
  • font2pfa -- and vice versa.
  • fontsampler makes sample pages of PostScript fonts.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Installation Guide

Philipp Lehman's Font Installation Guide discusses the most common scenarios you are likely to encounter when installing Type 1 Postscript fonts in UNIX/Linux. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font utilities

Directory with most known font utilities related to metafont and either truetype or type 1. [Google] [More]  ⦿

font2ps

Peter Kleiweg's free C source code for converting X-Windows 72dpi bitmap fonts to pleasantly readable type 3 fonts. Some precompiled fonts may be found on his page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font-AFM-1.18
[Gisle Aas]

Font::AFM Interface to Adobe font metric files in Perl, by Gisle Aas. Free. Alternate URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontForge
[George Williams]

George Williams' free Open Source UNIX-based font editor for type 1 and truetype fonts, previously called Pfaedit. Also does truetype collections (TTC) and opentype fonts. Note that FontForge can be used to do all conversions between all formats (type 1, truetype, OpenType; PC, UNIX and Mac): it's a formidable tool. The internal text format for fonts is called SFD. It is a format that is acceptable for communicating and storing fonts. Note also that there is a powerful scripting language that can automate conversions and various tedious tasks. FontForge keeps on getting updates by various contributors well into 2022.

Interview. Wikipedia page on FontForge.

FontForge documentation. FontForge history.

Footnote: the headline of this page is set in New G8 by Artifex and Michael Sharpe based on URW Garamond No.8, a project developed, like hundreds of others in the open source community, by FontForge.

Github link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font-GlyphNames
[Father Chrisostomos]

Free utility for converting between glyph names and characters, following the Adobe Glyph Naming convention. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontHopper 1.0

Mac utility to convert PC type 1 and TTF to Mac format. Reportedly faster and easier to use than FontMonger. Free software. (Click in Font Utilities.). Dead link. No longer available, but preferred by many over the commercial product TransType (such as by Don Hosek). Bought by Adober and then dumped because the product annoyed them. [Google] [More]  ⦿

fontinstall.pl

Vincent Zoonekynd's free perl script that installs truetype and type 1 fonts for use in LATEX. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontMonger 1.08

FontMonger converts from Windows to Mac and vice versa, and outputs fonts on the Mac in all formats (TTF, type 1, type 3). Free Mac software. Look for fmw108.zip on the web. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonts for Starwriter

Instructions for the use of type 1 fonts for use with Linux's Starwriter. By Jens Krinke. Contains some fonts as well. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonts for Starwriter (Linux)

Discussion of the creation of AFM files for use with Starwriter. Includes a copy of a PERL program by Thomas Bartschies (afm.pl) for automatically fixing AFM files so that Starwriter will accept them. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontScope

Type 1 font rasterizer library that is sold for a modest price ($39.95 + S/H) and comes with full ANSI C sources. It handles Multiple Master fonts as well. The company, CurveSoft, from Los Altos, CA, also has an updated and debugged version of the t1utils package. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonttools
[Behdad Esfahbod]

The fontTools project was started by Just van Rossum in 1999, and was maintained as an open source project at Sourceforge. In 2008, Paul Wise (pabs3) began helping Just with stability maintenance. In 2013 Behdad Esfahbod began a friendly fork, thoroughly reviewing the codebase and making changes at Github to add new features and support for new font formats.

fontTools is a library for manipulating fonts, written in Python. The project includes the TTX tool, that can convert TrueType and OpenType fonts to and from an XML text format, which is also called TTX. It supports TrueType, OpenType, AFM and to an extent Type 1 and some Mac-specific formats. The project has a BSD-style open-source licence. Among other things this means you can use it free of charge. Once installed you can use the ttx command to convert binary font files (.otf, .ttf, etc) to the TTX xml format, edit them, and convert them back to binary format. TTX files have a .ttx file extension. The following tables are currently supported: BASE, CBDT, CBLC, CFF, COLR, CPAL, DSIG, EBDT, EBLC, FFTM, GDEF, GMAP, GPKG, GPOS, GSUB, JSTF, LTSH, MATH, META, OS/2, SING, SVG, TSI0, TSI1, TSI2, TSI3, TSI5, TSIB, TSID, TSIJ, TSIP, TSIS, TSIV, VDMX, VORG, avar, cmap, cvt, feat, fpgm, fvar, gasp, glyf, gvar, hdmx, head, hhea, hmtx, kern, loca, ltag, maxp, meta, name, post, prep, sbix, trak, vhea and vmtx. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Freedom of choice for font formats
[Werner Lemberg]

In their presentation at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam, Werner Lemberg (the co-developer of Freetype) and David Lemon (Adobe) compare truetype and type 1 for use in small devices. Their talk sounds quite interesting, and promises a small shake-up in font rendering on small screens.

The abstract: The PostScript (CFF) font format, in which most of the world's fonts are developed, is commonly used for all the traditional forms of graphic design, such as books, magazines, newspapers, advertising, posters, logos, packaging, and movie titling. But for the most part it hasn't been used in HTML pages or on mobile devices. Those environments have often done a poor job of displaying the fonts in this format, so designers have been limited to using only TrueType. Because TrueType is harder to develop and produces larger fonts, there are advantages to being able to use CFF as well. Adobe and Google have been working with the developers of FreeType, the open-source font rendering engine used in billions of devices, to improve the font imaging solutions available to browsers and mobile devices. David Lemon and Werner Lemberg will talk about the improvements coming soon to a screen near you, what this means for designers and developers, and also discuss how companies can work together to bring value to type users via open-source offerings. [Google] [More]  ⦿

gen-pfm

James H. Cloos Jr.'s utility (in perl) for generating PFM files from type 1 fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

George Williams
[FontForge]

[More]  ⦿

George Williams
[Postscript font utilities (George Williams)]

[More]  ⦿

Getfont
[Peter Flass]

Free utility to extract fonts from PostScript files, written by Peter Flass in 1994. It assumes that fonts are located between %%BeginFont: and %%EndFont, so this does not always work. [Google] [More]  ⦿

getmetric -- getmetri.ps

Ghostscript-based programs for creating AFM files from whatever is available (pfb, pfa files). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gisle Aas
[Font-AFM-1.18]

[More]  ⦿

Github

The font subpages at the San Francisco-based computer software site GitHub. Most links are for apps and small utilities related to fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

GNU font utilities

Description of many type 1 and metafont font manipulation tools, by Karl Berry and Kathryn A. Hargreaves. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Graphics Font
[Ralf S. Engelschall]

Free software by Ralf S. Engelschall: "The gFONT program creates a GIF image for a given ASCII string by the use of an arbitrary TeX-available font (Postscript or METAFONT). The used font is converted from TeX's PK format to gFONT's own GdF format (Gd Font) and rendered into the resulting GIF image by the use of its own enhanced Gd library. The result is intended to be included into HTML pages with an IMG tag." Current version 1.0.3. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Han-Wen Nienhuys
[mftrace]

[More]  ⦿

Hinting notes (Adobe)

Notes on hinting. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Installing PostScript Fonts on Windows

Font installation guide at Castletype. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ivan Ukhov

Font software specialist. He designed parsers for SVG, truetype, opentype and PostScript fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jan Krutisch
[afm]

[More]  ⦿

Jimmy Wärting
[Online Font Converter]

[More]  ⦿

Johan Vromans
[t1sampler]

[More]  ⦿

John D. Smith

John D. Smith works at the University of Cambridge. His site offers a wide selection of roman fonts with added accents for Sanskrit and Pali. For both PCs and Macs, TrueType and PostScript type 1, and both CSX and Norman encodings. The free fonts include the csx+ family of Sanskrit fonts, and fonts implementing the character set designed by Professor K. R. Norman for Romanised text in Indian languages. Of interest also are two utilities, mkt1font and vpl2vpl, to generate accented type 1 fonts from existing type 1 fonts. A partial list of fonts: Courier_CSX+-Bold, Courier_CSX+-BoldItalic, Courier_CSX+-Italic, Courier_CSX+, Courier_CARB-Bold, Courier_CARB-BoldItalic, Courier_CARB-Italic, Courier_CARB, Helvetica_CSX+-Bold, Helvetica_CSX+-BoldItalic, Helvetica_CSX+-Italic, Helvetica_CSX+, Helvetica_CARB-Bold, Helvetica_CARB-BoldItalic, Helvetica_CARB-Italic, Helvetica_CARB, NCS_CSX+-Bold, NCS_CSX+-BoldItalic, NCS_CSX+-Italic, NCS_CSX+, NCS_CARB-Bold, NCS_CARB-BoldItalic, NCS_CARB-Italic, NCS_CARB, Palatino_CSX+-Bold, Palatino_CSX+-BoldItalic, Palatino_CSX+-Italic, Palatino_CSX+, Palatino_CARB-Bold, Palatino_CARB-BoldItalic, Palatino_CARB-Italic, Palatino_CARB, Times_CSX-Bold, Times_CSX-BoldItalic, Times_CSX-Italic, Times_CSX+-Bold, Times_CSX+-BoldItalic, Times_CSX+-Italic, Times_CSX+, Times_CSX-Roman, Times_CARB-Bold, Times_CARB-BoldItalic, Times_CARB-Italic, Times_CARB, TimesNormanBold, TimesNormanBoldItalic, TimesNormanItalic, TimesNormanRoman. [Google] [More]  ⦿

John Warnock

John Warnock (d. 2023) was the founder, with Charles Geschke, of Adobe (in 1982), and the inventor of PostScript. The type 3 and type 1 font formats are an essential part of the PostScript language. He also proposed the PDF file format. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kerning Master

Robert Schenk's Mac utility (10 USD shareware) for getting kerning pairs from AFM and FOND files. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lauri Paatero
[Type1OS2]

[More]  ⦿

LCDF Type Software
[Eddie Kohler]

Eddie Kohler's free type utilities. The LCDF Typetools package contains several command-line programs for manipulating PostScript Type 1 and PostScript-flavored OpenType fonts. It consists of:

  • Cfftot1 translates a Compact Font Format (CFF) font, or a PostScript-flavored OpenType font, into PostScript Type 1 format. It correctly handles subroutines and hints.
  • Mmafm and mmpfb create instances of multiple-master fonts: mmafm creates the AFM file (font metrics) for an instance, given the AMFM and AFM files distributed with the multiple master; mmpfb creates a normal, single-master font for an instance, given the multiple master font itself. These tools help multiple master fonts work with UNIX programs for single-master fonts, like afm2tfm, ps2pk, GhostScript ps2pdf, and the X11 Type 1 font server. Mmafm and mmpfb were previously distributed in their own package, mminstance.
  • Otfinfo reports information about OpenType fonts, such as the features they support and the contents of their 'size' optical size features.
  • Otftotfm creates TeX font metrics and encodings that correspond to a PostScript-flavored OpenType font. It will interpret glyph positionings, substitutions, and ligatures as far as it is able. You can say which OpenType features should be activated.
  • T1dotlessj creates a Type 1 font whose only character is a dotless j matching the input font's design.
  • T1lint checks a Type 1 font for correctness.
  • T1reencode replaces a font's internal encoding with one you specify.
  • T1testpage creates a PostScript proof for a Type 1 font. It is preliminary software.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

LCDF Typetools
[Eddie Kohler]

LCDF stands for Little Cambridgeport Design Factory. LCDF TypeTools is a tremendously useful free software package written and maintained by Eddie Kohler between 1997 and 2019. These programs are available at LCDF:

  • cfftot1 translates a Compact Font Format (CFF) font, or a PostScript-flavored OpenType font, into PostScript Type 1 format. It correctly handles subroutines and hints.
  • mmafm creates an AFM file (font metrics) corresponding to an instance of a Type 1 Multiple Master font. It reads the AMFM and AFM files distributed with the font.
  • mmpfb creates a normal, single-master font program which looks like an instance of a Type 1 Multiple Master font. It reads the multiple master font program in PFA or PFB format.
  • otfinfo reports information about OpenType and TrueType fonts, such as the OpenType features and Unicode code points they support, or the contents of their size optical size features.
  • otftotfm creates TeX font metrics and encodings that correspond to an OpenType or TrueType font. It interprets glyph positionings, substitutions, and ligatures as far as it is able. You can say which OpenType features should be activated.
  • t1dotlessj reads a Type 1 font, then creates a new Type 1 font whose only character is a dotless lower-case j matching the input font's design.
  • t1lint checks Type 1 fonts for correctness. It tests most of the requirements listed in Adobe Systems' Black Book (Adobe Type 1 Font Format), and some others.
  • t1rawafm creates an AFM font metrics file corresponding to a raw Type 1 font file (in PFA or PFB format).
  • t1reencode reencodes a Type 1 font, replacing its internal encoding with one you specify.
  • t1testpage creates PostScript test pages for a given Type 1 font. These pages show every character defined in the font.
  • ttftotype42 creates a Type 42 wrapper for a TrueType or TrueType-flavored OpenType font. This allows the font to be embedded in a PostScript file.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

limn--fontutils

Bitmap to PostScript or Metafont filter for X-windows and UNIX set-ups. Free, but a fair amount of programming savvy is needed. Part of the fontutils package, result of an ongoing GNU project. Help is needed. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Luminous: Fonts

Information on type 1, type 3 and other postscript fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mac FOND Resources

Specs at Adobe of FOND Resources for Macs. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mac2PC

Free Mac2PC conversion program by PublishGirl. Mac2pfb, bmap2afm, Refont 1.4. All free. Link gone. [Google] [More]  ⦿

mac2pfm
[Marek Peca]

Marek Peca's utility for converting (PostScript) font metrics from Macintosh resource forks to .PFM format, usable on Microsoft platforms and convertible to standard AFM. [Google] [More]  ⦿

makeafm

Rough shell script for generating an afm file from a pfb file. The results are of course incomplete. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Making MM fonts

Yuri Yarmola (the Fontlab developer) writes on the topic of making multiple master fonts: " It is possible to create Mac or PC MMs with Mac version of Fontlab. PC version creates only PC MM fonts. We planned to add support for MM fonts to next major release of TransType, but currently it is not clear will we do that or not. I think I'll eventually do the following: 1. Add some MM-related design-oriented functions to FL, like horizontal/vectical-only interpolation and extrapolation beyond design limits. 2. Create small program that will create single-instance T1 fonts out of MM fonts. I had this program in 1995 *before* I started to work on FL3, but it is lost somewhere. Anyway, it is easy to build using current FL3 codebase (for Mac and PC). I have no plans [yet] to *remove* MM support from FL. Personally I don't understand why MM support is removed from OT specification. Implementation in CFF was very flexible, completely based on PS code, so everything was possible: extrapolation, effects, MM-style interpolation, non-linear interpolation, intermediate designs and many more interesting things. Adobe can stop produce MM fonts, but why kill this technology? It shouldn't be too complex to support in ATM driver and it is relatively easy to develop some simple interface to applications. It looks that they were very close to perfection of this idea but instead of making small final step they moved back." [Google] [More]  ⦿

Making PFM files

Missing PFM file, when you have PFB and AFM files? Piglet wrote: "ATM will create a temporary PFM file in its PSFONTS directory, named, for example, ATM42349.TMP. The font display window will give you the exact name of this PFM file. While the font is being displayed, go to the PSFONTS directory, copy that .TMP file, rename it xxxx___.pfm (to match the other filenames of the font), and stick it in the same dir as the PFB, etc. Voila, you have the font's PFM file - which contains all kerning data, etc!" [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marek Peca
[mac2pfm]

[More]  ⦿

Marek Peca

Marek has written an AFM and PFM file generator, starting from a Mac font family resource fork. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Metafog

Richard Kinch's utility that converts overlapping Metafont shapes to Type 1 outlines. It is an option to the retail TrueTeX package. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Metapost Experimental

A group of programs written by Boguslaw Jackowski, Janusz M. Nowacki and Piotr Strzelczyk. In step 1, metapost reads the code and writes separate EPS files, one per glyph. Gawk reads these files and creates AFM files and an intermediate font file. Finally a type 1 assembler is used to make the fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

MetaType1

MetyaType1 is a free tool for creating Type 1 fonts using MetaPost. By the "JNS team" in Poland, which includes Boguslaw Jackowski. It requires a metapost description of the font to start with. Alternate URL. PDF file with a research paper on the subject. [Google] [More]  ⦿

mf2ps

Pascal program by Shimon Yanai (IBM Science and Technology Center, Technion City) and Daniel M. Berry (Computer Science, Technion, Haifa) dating from 1993 for converting a metafont into a type 1 font. [Google] [More]  ⦿

mf2pt1

Scott Pakin's free program for converting metafont files to type 1 fonts. From the author: mf2pt1 facilitates producing PostScript Type 1 fonts from a Metafont source file. It is not, as the name may imply, an automatic converter of arbitrary Metafont fonts to Type 1 format. mf2pt1 imposes a number of restrictions on the Metafont input. If these restrictions are met, mf2pt1 will produce valid Type 1 output. (Actually, it produces "disassembled" Type 1; the t1asm program from the t1utils suite will convert this to a true Type 1 font.) [Google] [More]  ⦿

mf2pt3

Apostolos Syropoulos's Perl script that generates a PostScript Type 3 font that corresponds to a METAFONT font description. In order to achieve its goal the program utilizes another program: mfplain (METAPOST with the mfplain base preloaded). The author acknowledges the help of John Hobby (the creator of METAPOST) and Yotam Medini. [Google] [More]  ⦿

mftrace
[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

mftrace is a small Python program that lets you trace a metafont into a PFA or PFB font (A PostScript Type1 Scalable Font) or TTF (TrueType) font. It is licensed under the GNU GPL. All done by Han-Wen Nienhuys. Requires autotrace and pfaedit (now FontForge). Similar to metatype, which only makes truetype though. Credit: Gf2pbm, the utility to convert a MetaFont GF file to a PBM file was based on Paul Vojta's Xdvi. Manual by Julian Gilbey. The comparison with similar programs goes like this (I quote):

  • Why use mftrace over textrace? Textrace and mftrace are functionally similar. However, mftrace is quicker, more cleanly written and can be installed using standard methods. Additionally, textrace requires perl, ghostscript and dvips.
  • How about MetaFog? MetaFog operates directly on the curves that generate the bitmap font, its outlines will probably be smaller and better. However, MetaFog is a proprietary product: its source code is not available, and it will only run on a limited number of platforms.
  • How about MetaType1? MetaType1 is an approach that puts severe constraints on what may be done in a font program. It does not work for fonts containing overlaps and shaped pens.
  • How about FontForge itself? FontForge is an interactive editor, but it can be scripted. Since it supports bitmap tracing and TeX bitmap fonts, it is possible to duplicate the functionality of mftrace. However, out of the box, FontForge does not recognize TeX encodings. [Google] [More]  ⦿

mkt1font

Perl script by John D. Smith to create accented Type 1 PostScript fonts. Free. Requires t1asm and t1disasm. [Google] [More]  ⦿

mminstance v1.16 (mmafm and mmpfb)

Two free UNIX command-line tools for working with multiple master fonts. mmafm creates an AFM by interpolating at a given point in a multiple master's design space. mmpfb (formerly named mminstance) creates a "normal", non-multiple-master PFB font by interpolating at a given point in a multiple master's design space. (You can pass the resulting PFB off to ps2pk, etc...). Both can handle fonts with intermediate masters (e.g., Adobe Jenson Pro). By Eddie Kohler. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Multiple Master

Discussion on Typographica regarding Adobe's discontinuation of MM (multiple master type 1 format). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Multiple Master Fonts

Invented by Adobe as an extension of their type 1 PostScript fonts, a Multiple Master font permits interpolation in any cube between masters. The dimension of the cube is called the number of axes. Typically, one axis is for weight (bold to light) and one for width (extended to condensed). If there are n axes, then 2 to the power n master fonts are required, so few multiple master fonts have more than two axes. Other possible axes are for optical size and style, but a priori, one can make axes for whatever property one wants to interpolate over. Something as wacky as curliness of a serif or roundness of joints in an octagonal font can be considered as well. As an example, Myriad has weight and width axes, and Adobe Jenson has axes for weight and optical size. The wiki is wrong in many respects. It states that Multiple Master fonts were superseded by OpenType, which is false: OpenType has no interpolation capabilities). It also states that there are no known freeware multiple master fonts, which is contradicted by those made by Apostrophic Laboratories. So, here is a list of multiple master fonts, still very incomplete:

  • Free, from Apostrophic Laboratories: SoMM, Chizzler MM (Graham Meade), ImpossibleMM, Tex Rounded MM (Richard D. Parker and Apostrophe), Tex Square MM (Richard D. Parker and Apostrophe). Impossible MM and Chizzler MM have three axes each.
  • Free from Gaham Meade: Chizz MM, Staid MM, Snot MM.
  • Free, from Dimitri Yupavetskii: MagCMM (Latin and Cyrillic).
  • Free, from Ray Buetens: Stub MM.
  • By Lucas Degroot: MoveMe MM, Thesis Mono, Folha MM.
  • By Dirk Wachowiak: Generation.
  • By Alphabets Inc: AI Quanta (Peter Fraterdeus), AI Veritas (Brian Sooy), AI Koch Antiqua (Randall Jones).
  • By Calvin Glenn: Steelhand.
  • By T. Olsson: Vadau, DejaVue.
  • By Chris MacGregor: Fleming.
  • By David Rakowski: Lassus.
  • By Hrant Papazian: some Armenian multiple masters.
  • By Jun Itadani: Millio NN (katakana).
  • By Luis Siquot: Siquot Antiqua.
  • By Dennis Pasternak: Littleton MM.
  • By Saikix in Japan: Syntech.
  • By HermesSoft: Universum, Grotesk MM.
  • By Adobe and affiliates: ITC Avant Garde MM, Bickham Script MM, Briem Akademi MM, Briem Script MM, Caflisch Script MM, Chaparral MM, Conga Brava MM, Cronos MM, Ex Ponto MM, ITC Garamond MM, Graphite MM, Adobe Jenson MM, Jimbo MM, Kepler MM, Kinesis MM, Mezz MM, Minion MM, ITC Motter Corpus MM, Myriad MM, Nueva MM, Ocean Sans MM, Penumbra MM, Reliq MM, Sanvito MM, Adobe Serif MM, Adobe Sans MM, Tekton MM, Verve MM, Viva MM, Waters Titling MM.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Multiple Master fonts

General non-technical information about Multiple Master fonts provided by Adobe. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Multiple Master typefaces

View the (mostly Adobe) typefaces that were produced in Adobe's type 1 multiple master format. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Multiple Masters: Designer Headache&User Benefit

[Dead link] Great essay on multiple masters by Apostrophe, the only designer who is actively making free multiple master fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Multiple Mater typefaces

Adobe's documentation on how to create MM PostScript typefaces, and some specifications. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Noah PostScript Type 1 Font Editor
[Yeah Noah]

Yeah Noah's free Windows-based PostScript Type 1 font editor has been around since 2000. This editor is based on code changing, not mouse dragging. It gives a lot of control to the user, and with a bit of a coding mindset this can be a wonderful tool. Alternate URL. Yeah's first font is Existence Light (2004, OpenType), a monoline sans. He also made the octagonal typeface Trivial (2008). Yet another URL. Fontsquirrel link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Online Font Converter
[Jimmy Wärting]

The Online Font Converter converts fonts to/from: pdf dfont eot otf pfb tfm pfm suit svg ttf pfa bin pt3 ps t42 cff afm ttc woff woff2 ufo. By Jimmy Wärting. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Optical scaling (MM versus OT)

A discussion on Typophiles regarding Adobe's discontinuation of MM (multiple master type 1 format), and its sales pitch for OpenType. In general, the type designers liked the optical scaling possibilities of MM. They are not so hot on OT in this regard. Michael Schlierbach's testimony there: "When I began using type, I started with MM. It's wonderful how you can work with optical scaling. I cannot understand why that technology has been given up. Optical scaling on OT, even the Adobe Opticals aren't nearly as fine. I would wish very much, to have a technology that makes it able to use fonts that have their own optical specifics over 6 or 8 sizes (or more) like in ancient lead-type, combined with the ease of working with a computer and for example InDesign, that does it automatically. So a good quality of type could return. With MM that was possible (a good worked font provided of course). Some (or most?) optical axes had non-linear scaling measures, and so a very fine adjusting to optical issues was possible. The few "opticals" of OT-Fonts are far away of that skill. I would wish that these possibilities would come back." James Montalbano reports: "MM as a font development tool is a big part of our work flow. I'm holding on to Illustrator 10 since the new CS does not contain any MM controls. So I hope so long as AI10 works, I'll have MMs." [Google] [More]  ⦿

ParaNoise

ParaNoise is software by ParaType, Russia's main foundry, for randomizing contours of PostScript fonts. Their ad: ParaNoise is a software tool for making special graphic effects based on PostScript fonts. ParaNoise opens source PostScript font and uses special filters to distort character's contours." A commercial product from ParaType. Demo available. Mac and PC. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Perl modules

Perl font utilities for type 1 and truetype such as Font-AFM (Gisle Aas), Font-Fret (Martin Hosken), Font-TFM (Jan Pazdziora, Font-TTF (Martin Hosken). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Peter Breitenlohner
[ps2pk]

[More]  ⦿

Peter Flass
[Getfont]

[More]  ⦿

Peter Frane
[T1subset]

[More]  ⦿

Peter Selinger
[potrace]

[More]  ⦿

pf2afm
[Staszek Wawrykiewicz]

Free program that takes a PFB font format and writes an AFM and if necessary a PFM metrics file. Free utility by Polish TeX expert Staszek Wawrykiewicz (d. 2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

pf2afm.ps

Great little piece of PostScript code requiring ghostscript to generate AFM files from the pfb/pfa files and an optional pfm file. By B.Jackowski (Gdansk, Poland), based on James Clark's printafm.ps (with alterations by d.love@dl.ac.uk and L. Peter Deutsch). To be used as "gs [-dNODISPLAY] -- pf2afm.ps disk_font_name". I found this program to be more robust than the well-known pfm2afm of Ken Borgendale. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PFAEdit

George Williams' free Open Source UNIX-based font editor for type 1 and truetype fonts. Also does truetype collections (TTC) and opentype fonts. Note that PFAedit can be used to do all conversions between all formats (type 1, truetype; PC, UNIX and Mac): it's a formidable tool. In 2004, Pfaedit was renamed FontForge. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PFB format specifications from Adobe

(in PDF format) [Google] [More]  ⦿

PFB2CFN

Type 1 to CFN font converter (CFN is the Calamus font format for Atari) by Matthew Carey from FaST Club in Nottingham. [Google] [More]  ⦿

pfb2mf

Type 1 (pfb) to metafont conversion. [Google] [More]  ⦿

pfbtops

Converts a pfb format font to its ASCII equivalent. Free, in C. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PFM file format

[More]  ⦿

PFM file specifications

At Adobe. [Google] [More]  ⦿

pfm2afm

Utility for converting windows pfm font metric files into afm metrics. [Google] [More]  ⦿

pfm2afm

Free C code for transforming a PFM file into an AFM file. Copyrighted by Ken Borgendale, 10/9/91. Later versions include modifications by Russell Lang. Alternate URL (download the afm2pfm file). [Google] [More]  ⦿

pfm2afm

Free utility for generating afm files from pfm files. [Google] [More]  ⦿

pktrace

Free GNU license open source code (in Python) for transforming a pk font (bitmap font created for use in TeX from a metafont description) or metafont font into a type 1 font. The competition: textrace, MetaFog (proprietary, not open source code), and MetaType1 (too simplistic). By Han-Wen Nienhuys aka Jan Nieuwenhuizen. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PostScript Anti-aliasing

[More]  ⦿

Postscript font utilities (George Williams)
[George Williams]

Free PostScript font utilities by George Williams: pfadecrypt (type 1 to ascii), pfa2pfb, pfb2pfa, pfa2bdf, pfa2afm, pfb2outline. Free C source code. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PostScript Type 1 Fonts

A brief FAQ by Nelson Beebe, with a good number of links. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PostScript-Font-1.09

Johan Vromans' free Perl package with a few modules to get information out of Postscript fonts and AFM files. Also included is a program to make font samples, and programs to handle the conversion of font data to PostScript binary (.pfb) and ASCII (.pfa) formats. Fontsampler makes detailed or concise sample pages of fonts. Font2pfa decodes a font file (.pfb) to .pfa format. Font2pfb encodes a font file to binary (.pfb) format. Download link. Another link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

potrace
[Peter Selinger]

Peter Selinger's free bitmap to PostScript tracing program. Potrace (TM) is a utility for tracing a bitmap, which means, transforming a bitmap into a smooth, scalable image. The input is a bitmap (PBM, PGM, PPM, or BMP format), and the default output is an encapsulated PostScript file (EPS). A typical use is to create EPS files from scanned data, such as company or university logos, handwritten notes, etc. The resulting image is not "jaggy" like a bitmap, but smooth.

See also potrace-pixelperfect by Guilherme Maeda for pixel perfect tracing in FontForge. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ps2pk
[Peter Breitenlohner]

Technical University of Eindhoven source for converting PostScript fonts to PK (bitmap) files, useful with TEX. It started out with Piet Tutelaers from 1992-1994. In 1998, Sebastian Rahtz took over the package. In 2008, Peter Breitenlohner (Germany) started managing it. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ps2ttf

Add-on to TypeDesigner 3.x that permits batch conversions from type 1 to truetype. This route is recommended by Yummy. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PSFTools

Free compiler/decompiler for type 1 fonts, by the FontLab Developers Group. Unlike other such tools, these come in .exe versions only--no source code. This software seems to have been discontinued. [Google] [More]  ⦿

PS=>TTF on Windows

If you drag postscript type 1 font files into the windows/font folder, then the font is converted for you to truetype by Windows. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Python Font Tools

At SourceForge.com, for hacker types: "FontTools is an open source library for manipulating fonts, written in Python. It supports reading and writing of TrueType fonts, PostScript Type 1 fonts as well as AFM files and some MacOS-specific formats. Goals: quality, completeness, flexibility." I dowm=nloaded it and could never get it to work. It was always missing yet another file. Software written by Just van Rossum. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ralf S. Engelschall
[Graphics Font]

[More]  ⦿

Removing hidden notices in type 1 files

Some foundries like Linotype and LetterPerfect have started placing notices in fonts at the time you run the "exe" installation executable. These notices appear in the encrypted part of the font and contain up to five computer identification numbers of computers on your network at the time of installation. I guess it is in preparation for future Microsoft software to disable the use of fonts except on computers they were originally installed on. The plan was (is?) to let you contact a company and pay some fixed amount if you wanted to use the font on another computer. Hackers on UNIX can easily remove these notices. First get the t1utils package. You will need t1asm, t1disasm and t1binary from this package. On a pfb file, run t1disasm to obtain an ascii file. Look for "eexec", and remove all lines starting with % or any number of blanks followed by % between eexec and the end of the file. Then run t1asm to get a pfa file, and t1binary to obtain a pfb file. Bingo. It is a piece of cake to write a script for this. The afm files are typically clean. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Richard Bethell's PostScript junk page

This site is devoted to the study of PostScript. [Google] [More]  ⦿

RZU

Comparison between truetype and postscript at Zentrum Informatikdienste of the University of Zürich. Essay on Bezier curves as well. [Google] [More]  ⦿

SDIMF

New font-creation system based on Knuth's metafont, but different. Creates font in a generic format from which PostScript, TrueType and screen fonts are easily derived. By Dae-In Seo, and announced in August 98 in the Metafont mailing list. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Showpfafonts

Perl script for showing type 1 fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

SmoothType v2.2.2

Greg D. Landweber's Mac code for anti-aliasing TrueType and PostScript fonts. Free. Alternate site. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Solaris: advice on type 1

Solaris uses Adobe software to rasterize the fonts. It wants additional information. To add a type 1 font you need to do the following: Put the .pfa file in /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/. Put the .afm file in /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/afm. Edit /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/fonts.dir to add the new font. Copy fonts.dir to fonts.scale. Edit /usr/openwin/lib/X11/DPS13Fonts.upr to add the new font. DPS3Fonts.upr needs three entries: in the FontAFM section to point to the .afm file for each weight; in the FontFamily section to define a font family, which is a list of the normal, bold, italic, and bold-italic font names; in the FontOutline section for the .pfa file for each weight. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Staszek Wawrykiewicz
[pf2afm]

[More]  ⦿

Stefan Hegny

German type 1 software developer (b. 1967) who is working on an assembler/disassembler not unlike the ones found in the t1utils package. [Google] [More]  ⦿

T1 -> TTF

Yummy's recommendations on abf: Keep in mind that this is not simple conversion but rather translation - from one language to another. The result is never exactly the same, and often not even adequate. In descending order of my preference:

  • Find machine with WinNT 4.0, make sure ATM is not installed, proceed with T1 installation as if it were OK for Windoze - it will convert it in TTF and place in default font dir. Resulting TTF will have restricted embedding flag. There is a small freeware patcher to correct such naughty behaviour. Good quality.
  • Discontinued Type Designer 3.1 (or crippled Demo for it, and find a patcher "crack"). Good quality conversion.
  • Fontlab 3.0 or Scanfont 3.1. Buy or find cracks. SF has demo which will work for 5 font exports only, but if you would carefully monitor what kind of stuff it writes in windows directory, you can remove these files, and reinstall, and have another 5 fonts... Good quality.
  • Fontographer. Available literally everywhere. Bad boy. Will lose hints and kerns (can import kerns from AFM if available). Autohinting is awful.
  • Alltype 2.0 or FontMonger 1.04. Both old and abandoned (but I heard someone has a nerve to offer Alltype for $200 US!). Can be found on some forgotten FTP sites, mostly in RU domain. Both do the job ~ as FOG does, give or take something. Adequate only for most basic needs.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

T1 => TTF conversion with ATM

Iain's post on how to convert a type 1 font to a truetype font when ATM is installed on your PC:

  • Create two new directories, (I call them FontIN and FontOUT).
  • Put a COPY of the .pfb and .pfm files in the FontIN directory.
  • Fire up Fontographer.
  • Click on File.
  • Open Font.
  • Navigate to the FontIN directory, then click on the .pfb file.
  • Click on File.
  • Import.
  • Metrics.
  • Navigate to the FontIN directory, then clickon the .pfm file.
  • Click on File.
  • Generate Font Files.
  • A new box will open.
  • Set Computer to PC.
  • Set Format to TTF.
  • Set Directory to FontOUT under "where to output the fonts".
  • Click on Generate.
  • When you close or exit, you will be asked whether to save the changes you made. Click on Don't Save, otherwise you will mess up the input.
  • Delete the files in the FontIN directory.
  • Your fresh .ttf file will be in FontOUT.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

T1 font correction

A PDF file posted by someone on abf, explaining how to batch correct many type 1 files so that they work with ATM. [Google] [More]  ⦿

T1 to TTF conversion

Several possibilities here for PC users. Download the ScanFont 3.13 trial version, open type 1 and save as TTF. This will dramatically alter the font (new control points, changed hinting). [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1infos

Jim Hefferon's free collection of programs for type 1 typefaces. There are C programs for computing the amount of black in a glyph, and verifying the exactness of the extremes in the outlines. Plus, a useful Postscript tool containing three algorithms for "automatic kerning", two of which are classical, and one original). [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1lib updates by Hirotsugu Kakugawa

Hiroshima University's Hirotsugu Kakugawa has some updates of Rainer Menzner's t1lib. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1lib-1.0.1

Free source code by Rainer Menzner from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum. From the web page: "t1lib is a library written in C which implements functions for generating bitmaps from Adobe Type 1 fonts. It uses most internal parts of the Type 1 rasterizer provided with X11R5 and newer but tries avoid the disadvantages known from that rasterizer. Although most people would use the rasterizer under X11, having X11 is not necessary at all. " An ftp site is available as well. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1mac

As part of the free Open Source Code t1utils package by Eddie Kohler, "T1mac translates a PostScript Type 1 font from PFA or PFB format into Macintosh Type 1 format. The result can be written in MacBinary II format (the default), AppleSingle format, AppleDouble format, or BinHex format, or as a raw resource fork." T1mac does not make font suitcases, however. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1sampler
[Johan Vromans]

Free software by Johan Vromans: "t1sampler creates a GIF image (optionally, an XPM image) of a selection of glyphs of PostScript Type1 fonts. Anti-aliasing is used to produce high quality images." Needs t1lib and the GIF library. [Google] [More]  ⦿

T1subset
[Peter Frane]

T1Subset creates a subset of a PostScript Type 1 font. It is a (free) header-only library as the complete functionalities are done in the header. Developed by Peter Frane Jr. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1tools

"t1tools is a collection of programs and batch files useful for handling type 1 fonts on MSDOS and Unix systems." By Thomas Wolff. FTP site. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1unmac

As part of the t1utils package by Eddie Kohler, t1unmac (formerly unpost) translates a Type 1 font in Mac format (MacBinary, AppleSingle format, AppleDouble format, BinHex format or a raw resource fork) into either PFB or PFA format. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1utils

The now defunct CurveSoft (Los Altos, CA) updated and debugged the t1utils package, a free package written in C, that allows various conversions between pfa, pfb and ascii versions of type 1 fonts. Extremely useful, even necessary, for anyone working with type 1 fonts. The original package was written by I. Lee Hetherington and fixed by Piet Tutelaers. We reproduce part of their "readme" file: t1disasm disassembles type-1 fonts in PFA or PFB format into a raw, human-readable text form. t1asm (re)assembles type-1 fonts in raw, human-readable form into either PFA or PFB format. t1ascii converts PFB files into PFA files. t1binary converts PFA files into PFB files. unpost extracts POST resources out of a Macintosh PostScript file (like a type-1 printer/ATM file) stored in MacBinary format or as a raw resource fork into PFA or PFB format. Note that this program does not need to run on a Macintosh. It allows Macintosh fonts to be used elsewhere. On July 30, Eric Hedman reported a bug: in t1asm.c 1.2, t1disasm.c 1.2 and t1binary.c 1.1 in t1utils 1.1a, please change static char line[LINESIZE] to static char line[LINESIZE+1] and recompile. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1utils (main site)
[Eddie Kohler]

Version 1.25, updated and debugged version by Eddie Kohler. Includes t1mac, t1unmac (was unpost). Six free UNIX/Windows command-line tools for dealing with Type 1 fonts. This is a revision of I. Lee Hetherington's beloved t1utils package. t1ascii changes PFB (binary) fonts into PFA (ASCII) format; t1binary goes the opposite direction. t1disasm translates PFBs or PFAs into a human-readable and -editable format; t1asm goes the opposite direction. Finally, t1unmac (formerly unpost) translates a Type 1 font in Mac format (either MacBinary or a raw resource fork) into either PFB or PFA format; and t1mac does the converse. [Google] [More]  ⦿

t1utils-curvesoft

James H. Cloos Jr.'s utility for type 1 fonts; an adaptation of the standard t1utils package. [Google] [More]  ⦿

T2K font engine

Font engine for TrueType and Type 1 by Type Solutions Inc. Also sells spectacular hinting tools. "T2K is a font engine developed by Sampo Kaasila, the original lead TrueType designer at Apple. His company, named Type Solutions Inc., was bought by BitStream in December 1998, and the engine has been revamped and renamed Font Fusion." [Google] [More]  ⦿

TCL font

GNU General Public License program by Curvesoft Inc., released on Feb 2 1999: TclFont is technology for creation, display and printing of scalable _stroke_ fonts defined as TCL scripts. It consists of 4 parts: (a) A sample stroke font named 'Pencil' where each glyph is defined by a small TCL procedure. Two types of strokes are currently supported: straight lines and conic curves. Pencil includes almost all the ISO-8859 glyphs with the exception of a couple of ligatures. The design is Courier-like though variable width. (b) A set of C++ files which allow stroke fonts to be arbitrarily scaled and displayed on the screen. The pen diameter can also be varied. (c) A set of TCL procedures for creating a downloadable scalable PostScript Type 3 font from a stroke font (currently this requires at least a Level 2 RIP since it uses the 'strokeadjust' operator to keep stroke widths uniform). (d) A set of TCL procedures for a large size display of single glyphs (this is useful when creating new glyphs).

Old (dead) URL.

Since the software was nowhere to be found, except in a dark corner on my hard drive, I am making it available for everyone: Download TclFont.

Link to the TCL programming language. Tcl, or Tool Command Language, is a simple-to-learn yet very powerful open-source programming language. Its syntax is described in just a dozen rules, but it has all the features needed to rapidly create useful programs in almost any field of application - on a wide variety of international platforms. Versions of Tcl have run on almost any modern OS, e.g., Unix (Linux and non-Linux), MacOS, Windows (NT-family versions and later, with 95/98 supported by older releases), PDA systems, cell phones, and many more. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TEX and Type 1

Help using type 1 fonts in (pure) TEX files. LATEX is harder, see elsewhere. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TeXtrace

"TeXtrace is a collection of scripts for UNIX that convert any TeX font into a Type1 .pfb outline font immediately suitable for use with dvips, pdftex, acroread (and any many other programs). The main advantage of using Type1 fonts with TeX is that Acroread renders TeX's bitmap fonts ugly on screen, but it renders outline fonts beautifully and fast. " Free software written by Péter Szabó. [Google] [More]  ⦿

The Multiple Master Essentials

Timo Lehtinen's commercial package from Stream Technologies Inc consists of two four-master, fully hinted, Type 1 fonts designed to be visually and metrically 100% compatible with AdobeSansMM and AdobeSerifMM as used in the Adobe Acrobat system for PDF rendering. This product is available now through an OEM licensing agreement. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TrueBlue

Mac OS X platform (free) converter from Truetype (Mac TTF) to PostScript (Mac T1), by Stone Studio of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Full license, 30 day free trial. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Truetype <=> Type 1 conversions

Beware! There is no such thing as a one-to-one reversible conversion. There are several problems:

  • The outlines are stored in different ways in both formats. In truetype, second-order Bezier curves are used, and in type 1, third-order Bezier curves are employed. One second order Bezier can be transformed into a third-order Bezier, but a third-order Bezier cannot be transformed into one, two or seventeen second-order Beziers--approximations are in order for that conversion. So, type 1 to truetype is problematic, right from the start. For truetype to type 1, there is a snake in the grass, in the form of integer grid rounding (see below).
  • Both formats require all control points to be integers (whole numbers), falling in a grid. Truetype uses a 2048x2048 grid, type 1 typically a 1000x1000 grid. For the truetype to type 1 direction, one could divide all grid values by two, but then what? Should 183.5 become 183 or 184? The type 1 to truetype direction is easier, at least from this point of view, as we could multiply each grid coordinate by two, so no rounding loss would be involved. However, in the truetype to type 1 direction, the rounding causes additional problems for the new control points needed for the perfect third-order Bezier outlines mentioned above.
  • Placing ink on paper: the formats have different rules for placing ink on paper in case of outlines that are nested or intersecting. These differences are not caught by many conversion programs. In most cases, the user should not worry about this---only rarely do we have overlapping outlines (I was forced once to have them, for other reasons).
  • Complexity of the outlines: truetype permits more complex outlines, with more control points. For example, I am sure you have all seen fonts made from scans of pictures of typefaces of people. Typically, these outlines are beyond the type 1 limit, so this restriction makes the truetype to type 1 conversion impossible for ultra complex fonts.
  • Encoding: truetype can work with a huge number of glyphs. There are truetype fonts for Chinese and Japanese, for example. In type 1, the number of active glyphs is limited to 256. Again, for most Latin fonts, this is a non-issue.
  • The remarks about grid rounding also apply to all metrics, the bounding boxes, the character widths, the character spacing, the kerning, and so forth.
  • Finally, there is the hinting. This is handled very differently in both formats, with truetype being more sophisticated this time. So, in truetype to type 1 conversions of professionally (hand-hinted) fonts, a loss will occur. Luckily, 99% of the truetype fonts do not make use of the fancy hinting possibilities of truetype, and so, one is often safe.
All this to tell people to steer away like the plague from format conversions. And a plea to the font software community to develop one final format. My recommendation: get rid of truetype, tinker with the type 1 format (well, tinker a lot). More about that ideal format elsewhere. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ttconv

TTF to PostScript type 3 font source code by Frank M. Siegert. No AFM generator is included. Freeware. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TTF 101

Intro by Peter Chung (Rutgers) to the use and installation of truetype and type 1 fonts in UNIX/Linux. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ttf2pfa

Truetype to Postscript type 3 converter written in C by Andrew Weeks (Bath Information&Data Services) of the University of Bath. An AFM generator is included as well. Freeware. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ttf2pfb

Werner Lemberg and Frederic Loyer have written a generic ttf2pfb program which creates a type 1 font (pfb) from a truetype font. A simple conversion tool to bring TrueType quality to the TeX world. Check also the font metrics file generator ttf2tfm. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ttf2ps (Chinese)

Wu Liangsheng's free Chinese True Type Font to Postscript Translator, which reads Chinese TTF file data, and outputs to stdout in Postscript format curve data. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TTF2PT1

Freeware truetype to type 1 converter by Mark Heath. From the author: "TTF2PT1 is a modification of Andrew Weeks' TTF2PFA True Type to Postscript Type 3 converter. Which will convert most True Type Fonts to an Adobe Type 1 .pfa file. The files produced are in human readable form, which further needs to be encrypted with the t1utilities, to work with most software requiring type 1 fonts. " Another link. Later versions included bug fixes and improvements by Thomas Henlich and Sergey Babkin. Current version: ttf2pt1-343. Babkin's site. Mirror. Latest news. Precompiled binaries for Windows. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ttftot42
[Dieter Baron]

Free TrueType to type 42 converter, a program to facilitate using TrueType fonts on PostScript interpreters with TrueType rasterizer. Makes AFM and type 1 font files from truetype font files. You need the FreeType library to compile and use it. By Dieter Baron. Dates from 1999. Github link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ttfutils

The Linux TrueType utilities. Mostly programs written by Brion Vibber. Includes ttf2type1 and ttf2afm: ttf2afm is a wrapper for ttf2pfa that creates an AFM file from a ttf font. And ttf2type "is a wrapper to simplify mass conversion of TrueType fonts to Adobe Type 1 fonts, necessary for some programs such as WordPerfect which support Type 1 but not TrueType fonts. ttf2type1 accepts any number of .ttf files and produces Type 1 .pfb font files and .afm font metric files. " All programs are free. The external programs ttf2pt1, ttf2pfa, and t1asm from the t1utils are needed. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type 1 and X, by Bruce Momjian

About the use of type 1 fonts in X Windows, Bruce wrote:" Let me give you some tips: Look /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1 directory as an example. Make a directory /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/expert. Copy or symbolic link all the *.pfa and *.pfb files into that directory from the CDROM. Create fonts.scale for the expert fonts. E-mail me and I will give you a proper file for that CD, or just try a few and make them match the stuff in Type1/fonts.scale, except the font family is expert, and the font name, weight(bold, medium), type(italics, roman), etc have to be set to match each *.pfa or *.pfb file. See the Type1/fonts.scale file for examples, and run xfontsel to see the options for each entry for a font. Make them match the font characteristics for each entry. Run xmkfontdir. That creates fonts.dir. fonts.dir and fonts.scale are the same, but xmkfontdir is the proper way to do it. The first entry in fonts.dir is the number of fonts, so that has to be set too. Use xset fp+ to add the fonts/expert directory to the X server's font list. Add the xset command to the X startup script so X adds it each time it starts. Run xset fp rehash to reload the font server's database. Run xfontsel, and choose the expert foundry. Your fonts should be selectable at that point. Gimp should also see the fonts, thought I know the 1.0 version could only display the last 500 or so fonts, not the whole list of them. Some kind of internal limit. Also, don't be surprised if xfontsel and Netscape now take longer to start. Some apps read the font database on startup. I fixed Netscape by briefly using xset to remove the custom font directories while Netscape starts up." [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type 1 hinting

An essay by David Lemon (Adobe). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type 1 to binary conversion specs

(in PDF format) [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type 1 to TTF conversion (PC) via NT (by Darren Mackay)

Advice from Darren Mackay: "Drag-&-Drop your T1 fonts into your fonts folder on NT, and NT will do a reasonable conversion to TT for you (some here will argue that NT's conversion of T1 to TT is poor, but the fonts that I have converted appear to be very good reproductions)." [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type 1 tools-2.0

Free tools for manipulating type 1 fonts in DOS. "Type-1 Tools is a utility designed for IBM-PC Desktop Publishers to make using Adobe Type-1 (.PFB) fonts easier to use in a DOS environment." Converts Mac to PC. Prints fonts and font samples. Manages fonts on the printer. From Creative Bits. [Google] [More]  ⦿

type1afm

Free AFM file generator from a type 1 font: part of Rainer Menzner's t1lib package. [Google] [More]  ⦿

type1.library

Amish Dave's freeware software for support for Type 1 fonts with Amiga applications. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type1OS2
[Lauri Paatero]

Free utility to extract font information from type 1 fonts, written by Lauri Paatero. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type1.py
[Andrew C. Bulhak]

Free utility by Andrew C. Bulhak (London, UK), which permits one to describe a font in PostScript-like code and then generate the remainder via a Python script. Another URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ulysses

Oleg Bondar's site. It has free font software. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Vinod Balakrishnan

Vinod Balakrishnan is a lead senior computer scientist in the Photoshop Engineering team, based in San Jose, California. He has been part of the typography team at Photoshop since 2002. He has worked on bringing variable fonts, OT-SVG fonts, the Glyphs panel, and different script support to Adobe products. Speaker at ATypI 2019 in Tokyo on the topic of the type 1 font format. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Wavefront Fonts

Free code at AHPCRC Graphics Software to convert Type 1 font outlines into Wavefront .obj files which in turn can be used with Wavefront's Advanced Visualizer. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Web2c programs

Programs that convert between files needed for TEX typesetting: GF, PK, GF, TFM, PL, VF, VPL, AFM. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Werner Lemberg
[Freedom of choice for font formats]

[More]  ⦿

Windows Vista: end of the line for Win ATM and multiple masters

Thomas Phinney in October 2006: Well, the title pretty much says it all. ATM Light and Deluxe don't appear to work properly under Vista, and we don't currently have any plans to update them (we stopped selling and supporting ATM Deluxe quite some time back). However, multiple master (MM) fonts also don't really work at the system level under Windows without ATM (Light or Deluxe). With Adobe applications that use our shared font engine, you can still put MM fonts in a shared Adobe fonts folder, whether it's "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts" or the "Fonts" folder within an individual application folder. So it will still be possible to get MMs working under Vista for, say, InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. But not for Microsoft Office, QuarkXPress, Adobe Freehand, or many others. Sorry for the bad news. But I trust it was apparent that this sort of thing was coming sooner or later. [Google] [More]  ⦿

xglyph

Free X-Windows type 1 font previewer as part of Rainer Menzner's t1lib package. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yeah Noah
[Noah PostScript Type 1 Font Editor]

[More]  ⦿