Frequently Asked Questions About Fonts
The
comp.fonts
FAQ, Version 2.1.5., August 14, 1996
Compiled by Norman Walsh
General Information
Font Houses
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Compugraphic
designOnline(tm)
Miles, Agfa Division
Quadrat Communications
What's the difference between all these font formats?
What about ``Multiple Master'' fonts?
Is there a methodology to describe and classify typefaces?
What is the ``f'' shaped ``s'' called?
What about ``Colonial'' Typefaces?
Why does colonial printing have that ``Colonial'' feel?
What fonts are good for mock-colonial uses?
What fonts could a colonial printer have had?
What is ``Point Size''?
Knuth's Assertion
Where can I get ... fonts.
Where can I get fonts for non-Roman alphabets?
What about fonts with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols?
Shareware or free (PostScript Type 1 and/or TrueType):
Shareware or free (TeX):
Commercial:
How can I convert my ... font to ... format?
Converting Between TrueType and Adobe Type 1 Formats
FontMonger by Ares Software
Alltype by Atech Software
Fontographer by Altsys Co.
Metamorphosis by Altsys Co.
Converting Between Other Scalable Formats
Why Do Converted Fonts Look So Bad?
Smoothing Bitmaps
Are fonts copyrightable?
Typeface Protection
Preamble
Who makes type designs?
The problem of plagiarism
Kinds of protection for type
Trademark
Copyright
Design Patent
Invention Patent
Trade Secret
Ethics
Further reading
Disclaimer
File Formats
File Format Extensions
Font Formats
Font Format Extensions
Ligatures
Built-in Fonts
Glossary
Bibliography
Font Encoding Standards
What is a character set?
What is an encoding vector?
Where can I get them?
PostScript
What About PostScript UNIQUEIDs?
Can a Type 1 Font Be Shaded?
TrueType
Unicode
What Is Unicode?
What is the Unicode Consortium?
Unicode Editing
Is a special keyboard required?
Is roman-to-Unicode conversion available?
Are there PostScript or TrueType fonts available?
Can I Print Checks with the MICR Font?
Rules of Thumb
Acknowledgements
A Brief Introduction to Typography
Comments by Laurence Penney:
Comments by Don Hosek:
A Brief History of Type
Foreword
Type Technology---The Four Revolutions
Gutenberg (ca. 1450-1480) & The Impact of Printing
Industrial Revolution: Steam, Line-casting & Automated Punch-cutting (start 1870-95; end 1950-65)
Photocomposition (Intertype et. al., start 1950-60, end 1975-85)
Digital (start 1973-83)
Type Forms Through the Centuries
Definitions
Early Letterforms
Blackletter
Old Style Typefaces: Centaur, Bembo, Jenson, Garamond, Caslon
Transitional Type: Baskerville, Fournier
Modern Type: Didot, Bodoni, Walbaum
Sans Serif & Slab Serif
Sans Serif (a.k.a. Gothic or Grotesque)
Slab Serif (Egyptian)
Decorative & Display Type
Fat Faces
Wood Type
Script, Brush, Italic & Freehand
Art Nouveau
Art Deco
Synthesis
Synthesis and Serif Type
Synthesis and Sans Serif Type
``Grunge'' Typography
Sources
Published Sources:
Personal Contributions:
The Role of National Orthography in Font Design
Interesting Fonts
Highway Gothic
Where can I get extravagant initial caps?
Pronounciation of Font Names
Arnold Boecklin
Benguiat
Courier
Didot
Fette Fraktur
Fenice
Garamond
Helvetica
Koch Roman
LaTeX
Mos Eisley
Novarese
Palatino
Peignot
Sabon
TeX
Veljovic
Zapf
What is it?
The ``@'' Character
The ``#'' Character
Equivalent Font Names
Digital Type Design Tools
How do the various digital type designing tools compare?
What about FontStudio?
Is FontStudio Still Being Marketed?
What About Bitmap Generation?
FontStudio is Better [than Fontographer]?
Type Design Firms
Carter & Cone Type, Inc.
Galliard
Sophia
Mantinia
What does `lorem ipsum dolor' mean?
One Example of Lorem Ipsum Dolor
Macintosh Information
Macintosh Font formats
Bitmap Fonts
PostScript Type 1
PostScript Type 3
TrueType
QuickDraw GX
What is it?
How is it related to Unicode?
What about rotation?
Is QDGX limited to TrueType fonts?
Frequently Requested Mac Fonts
Greek Fonts
Sources of Greek Fonts for the Mac
Apple
Linotype-Hell
FontShop
Monotype
Linguist's Software
Ecological Linguistics
MacCampus
Font World
SkepsiS
Magenta
Fronteiras
Freeware/Shareware
Other Fonts
Commercial Font Sources
Mac Font Installation
Mac Font Utilities
Making Outline Fonts
Problems and Possible Solutions
Creating Mac screen fonts
Creating Mac screen fonts from Type 1 outlines
MS-DOS Information
Frequently Requested MS-DOS fonts
MS-DOS Font Installation
What exactly are the encodings of the DOS code pages?
MS-DOS Font Utilities
Converting fonts under MS-DOS
Converting Mac Type 1 fonts to MS-DOS format
The tools you need
How to do it?
Other comments
Converting PC Type 1 and TrueType fonts to Mac format
Refont
Font Manipulation Package
Converting PC Type 1 fonts into TeX PK bitmap fonts
Converting TeX PK bitmaps into HP LaserJet softfonts (and vice-versa)
TrueType to HP LaserJet bitmap softfonts (HACK!)
MS-DOS Screen Fonts (EGA/VGA text-mode fonts)
OS/2 Information
David Birnbaum's Introduction
Preliminaries
Fonts under DOS
Windows
Differences between Windows and OS/2
Installation under Windows and Win-OS/2
FontSpecific PostScript Encoding
AdobeStandardEncoding
AdobeStandardEncoding under Windows (and Win-OS/2)
AdobeStandardEncoding under OS/2
Consequences for OS/2 users
Advice to the user
OS/2 2.1 and beyond
Unix Information
Unix Font Formats
Font Installation
Application
Printer using an ExitServer
Sun Information
Fonts Under Open Windows
Does OpenWindows support Type 1 PostScript fonts?
Improving font rendering time
Making bitmap fonts for faster startup
Converting between font formats (convertfont, etc.)
Xview/OLIT fonts at 100 dpi
Where can I order F3 fonts for NeWSprint and OpenWindows?
NeXT Information
Tell me about NeXTstep fonts
Basic Format
Font Folder and Font Filename Requirements
For NeXTstep 1.0 ONLY, you also need to take the following steps:
For NeXTstep 2.0 and up:
Tell me more about NeXTstep fonts
Converted Fonts After Conversion
About Conversion Utilities
NeXTstep utilities
Installation
Porting fonts to the NeXT
Porting PC/Unix Type 1 Fonts
Porting Mac Type 1 Fonts
Font availability
Why can I only install 256 fonts on my NeXT?
Amiga Information
Font Concepts
Amiga Font Formats
Frequently Requested Amiga Fonts
Commercial Font Sources
Non-Latin fonts on the Amiga
Amiga Font Installation
Amiga Font Utilities
Making Outline Fonts
Problems and Possible Solutions
Adobe Type 1 fonts for the Amiga
Atari ST/TT/Falcon Information
SpeedoGDOS
Fonts included with SpeedoGDOS 4.x
Fonts included with SpeedoGDOS 5.x
Atari File Formats
Atari Font formats
Atari Font Format Extensions
Frequently Requested Atari Fonts
X11 Information
Getting X11
Historical Notes about X11
X11 Font Formats
X11 Font Server
X11 Release 5
X11 Release 6
Fonts and utilities for X11
Utilities Information
How do I convert AFM files to PFM files
PS2PK
When do you need ps2pk?
TeX Utilities
MetaFont
About MetaFont:
What do you need in order to use the fonts:
MFPic
fig2MF
GNU Font Utilities
Font Editors
The T1 Utilities
Where to get bitmap versions of the fonts
Converting between font formats
Getting fonts by FTP and Mail
MetaFont to PostScript Conversion
How to use Metafont fonts with Troff
PKtoBDF / MFtoBDF
PKtoPS
PKtoSFP / SFPtoPK
PostScript to MetaFont
pfb2pfa
pfa2chr
chr2ps
ps2mf
Mac Bitmaps to BDF Format
Vendor Information
Type/Font Vendors
Clip Art Vendors
Excerpted from
The comp.fonts FAQ
, Copyright © 1992-96 by
Norman Walsh