Format: Fonts
These are extracts from the FORMAT NEWSLETTER.
Need help on using all those special typographic characters, from ellipses onwards, that mark the difference between typesetting and typing? There is a lot of useful info for use in print and on Web sites, and for both Mac and PC platforms at:
<http://www.typeart.com/special-characters.html>
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Here is a site that has an online calculator for characters per pica for many of the standard PS typefaces: <http://www.gtsgraphics.com/cppd/cpp.html>.
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Thomas Phinney has updated his most useful description of the differences between font formats, which is now called "TrueType, PostScript Type 1, & OpenType: What's the Difference?". It dispels many of the myths about fonts of any kind on any platform and, thanks to Mr Phinney, is now available from the Worsley Press website. It's a 389kb PDF and you can get it from our general "freestuff" page at <http://www.worsleypress.com/freestuff.html>
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Suitcase 10 font manager has been released by Extensis for the Mac for OS8.6 to 9.1 with a new version for OS X to follow later in the year (Windows version is at Suitcase 9). Details at <http://www.extensis.com/>. It includes help for identifying bad fonts and multiple master compatibility. Fonts activated by Suitcase 9 or 10 on a Mac running OS X will be available only to classic applications. There's also information on how OS X uses fonts, and why a font manager will still be useful. Fonts can reside in several locations, so, for example you may need to know that "if a font file exists in more than one of these locations, the last to be registered is used."
Extensis have issued a 10.0.1 update to the Suitcase font management software. There is now auto-activation support for Illustrator and improved auto-activation through the Suitcase XT for QuarkXPress.
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Can't embed a TrueType Bitstream font in a PDF? It probably means the font was built before September 1999. Bitstream has now rebuilt its entire library and fixed this problem (along with adding the euro currency symbol). It may also be worth checking whether you are using the TTF version of the font when there may also be a Type1 version on your original CD.
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If you can't identify a font, try <http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/>. You can upload a TIF, GIF, JPG, or BMP image file with a line of the type (from a scan of a sample), ideally about 100 pixels high) and it will try to match the font for you. A couple of reports we've seen say it works about half the time -- which, considering those users had already tried more obvious ways, seems good to us.
MORE ON OPENTYPE
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Our thanks to Thomas Phinney of Adobe for many leads to more information on OpenType.
He writes: "I think you'll find quite a bit of information at:
<http://www.adobe.com/type/opentype/main.html>
"For technical compatibility issues with OTF (PS-flavored) OpenType fonts, check the OpenType Readme. For general usage, see the OpenType User Guide. The Readme contains every significant compatibility issue we know of, no holds barred."
The OpenType User Guide is a 549kb 8-page PDF linked from that page.
In reference to our mention of a somewhat dated FAQ on the Microsoft site, we were told: "A similar but much more recent FAQ is available on the Adobe Web site at: <http://www.adobe.com/type/opentype/qna.html>"
Among comments in the readme file at <http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/OTReadMe.html> are the following:
In relation to the new version of ATMLite, which is available for free download: "It is not advisable to install ATM Light over an existing older version of ATM Deluxe. Instead, you should upgrade to the corresponding ATM Deluxe version." Cache settings in ATMLite should also be increased. The versions of ATM needed are at least 4.6 (Mac) and 4.1 (Windows).
"Windows 2000 provides native support for OpenType .otf fonts (as well as PostScript© Type 1 fonts) and does not require ATM Light or the Adobe PS printer driver."
With other operating systems you would also need to ensure you are using the latest AdobePS driver.
There's also an intriguing warning about using PDFWriter to create PDFs (which we've warned against anyway for all but the simplest of documents). The ReadMe warns: "OpenType .otf fonts work correctly in PDFWriter 3.0.2 and Acrobat 3.0.2, but don't work correctly in PDFWriter 4.0.5. You can embed western OpenType fonts in PDFWriter 3.0.2 and view in Acrobat 3.0.2, but if you open the PDF document in 4.0.5 you will either get a blank or bitmapped document."
For QuarkXPress 4.1 users on the Mac, the ReadMe warns: "Although OpenType .otf fonts generally work with QuarkXPress, trying to use Quark 4's 'text to box' function fails, with the error message 'cannot turn selected text into a box because the text has no outlines.'"
We've also seen references elsewhere that collecting of fonts through XTensions doesn't work as it should at the moment
Incidentally, several people have reported that many problems can be overcome by creating a PDF and printing from that.
The problem we had referred to previously seemed to be caused by the way OpenType has been implemented in Windows 2000, which has created problems for some users of PageMaker and QuarkXpress.
The problem shows up when printing -- where fonts do not appear as they should, often with Courier substituting for the required font.
It seems that it can be solved by replacing the problem fonts with the older TrueType versions of the fonts giving trouble. Type 1 fonts have no problems.
The trouble seems to have occurred with new system installations of Windows 2000, so we suspect that upgrades of the operating system may leave existing versions of the fonts (which include all the standard Office and Windows fonts).
HOW A POINT BECAME 72 TO AN INCH
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Several months ago, in our Format email newsletter number 17 <http://www.worsleypress.com/format/format17.htm>, I included, in an item on metric printing measurements, the possibly apocryphal story that the printing size change from a point equalling 72.27 points to an inch to being exactly 72 points to an inch had occurred because the two men who created the PostScript printer language had decided that it should be 72 points -- and nearly everyone in the world had followed.
Last week I came across the CSS Pointers Group website there is an article on typography <http://www.css.nu/articles/typograph1-en.html>, which quoted the item from Format as being a factual source. So I thought I'd better find out. So, on January 7 I sent an email to what I thought would be the email address of John Warnock, the chairman of Adobe.
I wrote:
Mr Warnock...
Quite a while ago, in our Format email newsletter, I reported the possibly apocryphal story on the setting of 72 points to an inch:
"And so the point, of one-seventysecond of an inch, stayed as the base measurement (well actually it was 1/72.27 inch but John Warnock and Charles Geschke set it at 1/72 inch in PostScript, and the rest of the world followed...well almost."
I now find that in a web site article on typography <http://www.css.nu/articles/typograph1-en.html>, we are being quoted as a source of that being fact. If it is an urban legend, I'd welcome being corrected at this stage.
On January 9, I found the following in my inbox:
"The story is essentially correct. We knew the value of the point should be 1/72.27, but for a number of computational reasons (mostly having to do with the speed of machines at the time) we decided to simplify to 1/72 for PostScript. Because fonts had to be recreated for PostScript, we believed that no great harm would be done by making the assumption.
"Hope this helps, -- John Warnock"
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END OF "TYPE ON CALL"
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"Type on Call", the CD with a huge selection of individual fonts which you could unlock individually by giving a credit card number by phone or fax, is no longer available in North America as a change has been made to the purchase and download of fonts online from the Adobe Type Library. However, there is an unfortunate byproduct of this for people who have used Type on Call in the past. As of June 4, 2001, Adobe will no longer provide unlocking codes for Type On Call fonts previously purchased in North America, so if you lose your existing unlocking codes, Adobe will not provide replacements. In a statement on their web site Adobe "recommend that you protect your unlocked Type On Call fonts by creating backup copies now." No dates have been given for the ending of the Type on Call system in other places but we could find no reference to it at all on the Pacific site.
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If your type is looking a bit grey on screen, check that you haven't got antialiasing turned on in more than one place -- we've seen reports that having it on in Adobe Type Manager, and in InDesign for example can cause problems with the appearance within InDesign. On Macs, having "smooth all fonts on screen" checked in the appearance control panel while having antialiasing switched on in ATM.
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Jean-Francois Porchez has designed a typeface with both serif AND san-serif components, and deems that they should be used TOGETHER, (i.e. on adjacent articles). France's most reputable newspaper "Le Monde" is using it, and Le Monde Journal and Le Monde Sans now herald the news daily to all of France. Porchez also designed the font used in the Paris Metro, so his influence on French life is considerable. We wonder if it will be as influential as another type designed for a newspaper, Times New Roman, created for Stanley Morison's redesign of The Times of London. In an article on the CreativePro site Porchez is mentioned as currently redesigning a group of regional newspapers.
You'll find more info at <http://www.creativepro.com/>.
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PC FONTS ON A MAC WITH INDESIGN
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InDesign has an indicator of things to come: If you are on a Mac and receive an InDesign job done on a PC, and with PC fonts, just pop the fonts into the Fonts folder in the InDesign folder (then relaunch InDesign) and lo and behold, they are available to you to use in the Mac version of InDesign! (This also saves having to load even Mac fonts into Suitcase or ATM for a single job, which - if you are constantly receiving them from all over -makes life easier). Sadly it doesn't work from Mac to PC because Mac font files are in the resource fork which converts to a PC as a zero-length file. There may be an answer, but it hasn't been found yet. Perhaps one of the several Mac-to-PC font converters holds a clue. With OpenType, the font files are the same on both platforms.
All the 91 OpenType fonts (10 packages, 6 families)can be found on Adobe's "New Releases" page. <http://www.adobe.com/type/newreleases/main.html> and can be downloaded and paid for by credit card if you can give a legitimate US address and phone number.
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Adobe have also come up with some new terminology to indicate the sizes within a font which are designed for use at certain sizes. Remember that fonts were originally designed for a particular size and that the same font would be quite different at small sizes to what it was in large sizes.
Thomas Phinney of Adobe explains: "We needed some way of designating optical size designs intended for use at different sizes. The term 'display' had already been used in existing fonts to refer to something intended for use at quite large sizes. We came up with 'subhead' and 'caption' for the intermediate sizes and very small sizes (with 'regular' or 'text' in between). These labels do NOT mean that just because something happens to be a subhead or a caption, you should use that font; you should use whichever font is the right optical design size for the task at hand."
He adds as an example that the intended design sizes for the new Warnock fonts are:
Caption: 6-8.9 point
Regular: 9-13.9 point
Subhead:14-24.9 point
Display: 25-72+point
Anyone alive who remembers when every size had its own name -- for example nonpareil for 6pt?
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Try this for information on ligatures: <http://macworld.zdnet.com/1999/11/create/createtinkel.html>
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