FONTS
Find fonts in our subscriber section.
Mac and Windows PC Fonts
PostScript Type 1, TrueType and OpenType fonts are vector outline fonts.
They contain instructions for building outlines from scaleable lines and
curves which are filled to create the solid shapes of letters and other
glyphs. The benefit of representing shapes this way is that they can be
scaled to virtually any size and still retain smooth edges (unlike
bitmap fonts which exhibit jagged edges and other artifacts when
enlarged or shrunken).
TrueType and OpenType Fonts
The TrueType font format has been supported internally on both Mac and
Windows operating systems for some time now. No external software is
required. TrueType fonts are made up of separate structures of
information called tables. Each table contains a specific type of
information for a font. All the information (outlines, kerning, widths,
etc.) related to a TrueType font is contained in one file. It can also
contain information specific to each platform it supports (encoding
tables, names in different languages, etc.).
The TrueType collection (.ttc) is a space saving modification of the
TrueType format containing multiple TrueType/OpenType fonts that share
glyphs. It is most useful for languages with large character sets like
Chinese or Japanese that may use the same glyphs for different fonts.
The OpenType font format is an extension of the TrueType format and was
created to add advanced typography features. It also bridges the gap
between TrueType and PostScript fonts by supporting PostScript style
outlines (CFF). Legacy PostScript font outlines (cubic curves) can be
used without inexact conversions to TrueType outlines (quadratic
curves).
TrueType/OpenType under Windows:
Windows requires only one file for each font. A TrueType font file has a
".ttf" extension. An OpenType font file has a ".otf" extension if it has
PostScript CFF outlines and a ".ttf" extension if it has TrueType style
outlines. |
TrueType/OpenType on the
Mac:
Recent versions of Mac OS can use the same TrueType/OpenType font files
as Windows. Older versions of Mac OS require that font data be stored in
a resource file. Each resource file can contain many types of resources.
A Mac recource TrueType font file must have a FOND resource along with
the TrueType data resource.
PostScript Type 1 Fonts
Type1 fonts are the native font format for the PostScript page
description language. Type 1 fonts have been supported on the Mac OS
starting with OS X and in Windows since Win2000. The OpenType font
format will likely make Type 1 fonts obsolete.
Type 1 Fonts Under Windows:
Two files are required to use a Type 1 font under Windows. The PFB file
contains the actual font outline data. The PFM file contains metric data
including kerning.
Type 1 Fonts on a Mac:
Two files are required to use a Type 1 font on the Mac. Both are
resource files. The font outline data is stored in a file with type LWFN
and is analogous to the PFB file on a PC. A separate file with both a
FOND resource and bitmap font is also required.
Identifying Font Files - Mac resource forks
Files on a Mac can have two parts called forks. The data fork holds data
(text, images, etc.). The resource fork holds resources (icons, fonts,
menus, sounds, etc.). There are actually two files linked to one name in
the file system. PCs only have one file linked to each name. Macs also
have two four character fields stored with the name for each file. They
are called the type and creator. The type field tells the Mac software
what type of file it is. The creator is a unique signature identifying a
program on the Mac. This field tells the Mac OS what program to launch
if the files icon is clicked. PCs identify files with a file name
extension. This is the characters after a period at the end of the file
name. This tells Windows both what type of file it is and what program
to launch if the icon is clicked. OS X can also can use file name
extensions like Windows and Linux in addition to a file type and
creator. This makes files more portable and easier to transmit over
networks. |
