Frequently Asked Questions About Fonts

The comp.fonts FAQ, Version 2.1.5., August 14, 1996

Note: With deepest regrets, this is the last version of the FAQ that norm will produce. If you would like to take over the task of maintaining the comp.fonts FAQ, please contact norm. Serious inquiries only, please.

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• 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