From: fxg@bolgolam.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Felix Gatzemeier)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: font convertors from adobe to postscript
Date: 14 Dec 92 13:00:11 GMT
Organization: Rechnerbetrieb Informatik - RWTH Aachen
NNTP-Posting-Host: bolgolam.informatik.rwth-aachen.de

zisk@adobe.com (Stephen Zisk) writes:

>In article <carol.722733984@menaik>, carol@cs.UAlberta.CA (Carol Smith)
>wrote concerning conversion of Mac "adobe" fonts to Unix "PostScript"
>fonts.

>All the formats you mentioned are variations on a single theme: Type 1
>fonts. These are neither "PostScript" nor "Adobe" fonts except by
>association. They are usable by PostScript printers, ATM, Display
>PostScript, and any other program which cares to implement a rasterizer
>based on the specification in the "Adobe Type 1 Format" book.

>Type 1 fonts for the Macintosh and PC are "compressed" using a simple
>scheme which relies on the fact that the bulk of a Type 1 font is data
>which has been encrypted and encoded. It is decrypted/decoded by
>PostScript using the eexec operator, which reads so-called "hex" data.
>This is binary data which has been expanded by representing the data as
>hexadecimal in ASCII. This results in a 2:1 expansion. On the Mac and
>PC, this data is stored as its binary equivalent, and expanded by a
>driver or font downloader for transmission to the printer.

So the only difference is representation? That's something I wanted to know for
a long time, my problem being that my NeXT doesn't eat Mac-Fonts directly.

>There is at least one public domain (or freeware, I am not sure!)
>program for the Mac which expands the font to its "native" Type 1
>format: unAdobe, created by Mitre and available on sumex-aim and
>other standard ftp sites. I am less familiar with products on the
>PC, but in any case, the format on a PC is very simple. It consists
>of a header which contains pointers to ascii sections, hex sections,
>and end-of-file. If you want the details, I am a bit fuzzy, but
>perhaps someone else in the group can reply?

And there's one for the NeXT, too. Here, it's an essential tool: without it,
practically no fonts are aveilable. They have to be distributed in 'yet
another vendor-specific format', i.e. hardly at all, and way expensive
anyways. I wonder why NeXT didn't include these utilities in the first place.
As am aside, in some desktop publishing and digital design mag (page), I read
the following opinion:

  There are converters in the public domain that convert macintosh to NeXT
  fonts. They should be avoided, because any conversion will influence the
  font esthetics. Instead, you should wait for the font suppliers to publish
  special NeXT fonts.

(quoted from months back out of memory. I think, it was a letter, too.)
Sounds interesting, Uh? "People who are willing to pay M$ for a computer should
be ready to pay more for the same fonts, too", or what?

>Share and Enjoy!

>Stephen Zisk (zisk@adobe.com)  Disclaimer: These are my personal views
>Adobe Systems Incorporated     and do not represent the position of
>Eastern Regional Office        Adobe Systems Incorporated.
>24 New England Exec. Park
>Burlington, MA 01803           They pay me but they don't muzzle me!

Reading this has made me way happy.

Felix
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript