TABLE OF CONTENTS

2 INTRODUCTION

3 USER INTERFACE
3.1 SOURCE FONTS LIST
3.2 DESTINATION FONTS LIST
3.3 POP-UP BUTTONS
3.4 COMMAND BUTTONS

4 CONVERSION PROCESS
4.1 CONVERTING A SAMPLE FONT
4.2 ADDING FONTS TO THE SOURCE LIST
4.3 PREVIEWING FONTS
4.4 SETTING CONVERSION OPTIONS
4.5 PC TO MACINTOSH CONVERSION
4.5.1 TrueType Fonts
4.5.1.1 Changing Font Format
4.5.1.2 Reencoding
4.5.1.3 Symbol Encoding
4.5.1.4 Unicode Mapping
4.5.1.5 Defining the Source Encoding
4.5.1.6 Defining the Destination Encoding
4.5.1.7 Customizing Suitcases
4.5.2 Type 1 Fonts
4.5.2.1 Reencoding
4.5.2.2 Metrics Files
4.5.2.3 Multiple Master Fonts
4.5.2.4 Suitcases
4.5.2.5 Bitmap Fonts
4.6 MACINTOSH TO PC CONVERSION
4.6.1 TrueType Fonts
4.6.2 Type 1 Fonts
4.7 TRUETYPE<->TYPE 1 CONVERSION
4.7.1 Type 1 Options
4.7.2 TrueType Options
4.8 FONTLAB (VFB) FONT CONVERSION
4.9 OTHER TYPES OF CONVERSION

5 TECHNICAL DETAILS
5.1 Type 1 Fonts
5.2 TrueType Fonts
5.3 Customizing Codepages

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY

7 SUPPORT

8 A NOTE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

9 TRADEMARK INFORMATION

10 APPENDIX A BASICS OF DIGITAL FONT ORGANIZATION
10.1 Definitions

Introduction

TransType is a TrueType and PostScript Type 1 font conversion utility. It can convert PC fonts to Macintosh, Macintosh fonts to PC, Type 1 fonts to TrueType and TrueType fonts to Type 1. Moreovefr it can do platform and format conversions at the same time. There are several important features that make TransType different from other font conversion programs:

1. TransType correctly converts fonts with Roman and non-Roman encoding and allows you to select both source and destination encoding while you convert fonts in either direction (PC->Mac, Mac->PC, TrueType->Type 1 or Type 1->TrueType). The font previewing feature helps select proper encodings.

2. TransType automatically controls the building of font suitcases when you convert families of PC fonts to Macintosh. You can move fonts from one suitcase to another, but in most cases it’s unnecessary – TransType does it for you.

3. TransType can automatically generate bitmap fonts when you convert PC Type 1 fonts to Macintosh Type 1 (ATM must be installed on your Macintosh to use this feature on pre-Mac OS X systems).

4. TransType now can convert multiple master Type 1 fonts either into single master or into multiple master

Type 1 fonts or into TrueType fonts for any platform – PC or Macintosh.

5. You can quickly and easily preview the fonts that are not installed in your System.

6. TransType can now convert from VFB (FontLab’s internal format) into TrueType or Type 1.

In this document we assume that you have a basic knowledge of computer fonts, font formats and encodings. Refer to documents from the Bibliography section for more advanced information and to Appendix A for the basics.

Note: Here and later, when speaking about font formats, we use the words PC and Windows as synonyms.

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User Interface

TransType’s Main Window consists of 3 main parts: the Source list, the Destination list and the Command buttons.

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The Source list contains font files (PC and Macintosh in TrueType or Type 1 formats) which you are going to convert. You can convert all different kinds of fonts in one step and TransType will automatically convert Macintosh fonts to PC and vice versa. TrueType will be converted to TrueType and Type 1 to Type 1 by default.

Note: If you see the text “<sfnt>” instead of the file name it means that this is a ‘sfnt’ resource located inside a Macintosh font suitcase and doesn’t have its own file name.

To the right of the font name you will see style icons, which give you the information about the font’s style. Only 4 main styles can be recognized.

The Legend panel is located below the source list. It includes a short description of the item currently selected in the source list.

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The Destination fonts list is located in the right part of the TransType Main Window.

The Destination list contains the names of fonts as they will look after conversion. If you are converting PC fonts to Macintosh it will contain Macintosh font suitcases that will be automatically generated by TransType. If you convert Macintosh fonts to PC, then you’ll see “virtual” font suitcases that will contain PC font files united into a font family for easier maintenance in TransType. Click or Option-Click on the triangle to the left to open these suitcases and see their contents.

The Destination list also has a legend panel located below which contains a brief description of the selected item.

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The items in Source and Destination lists may contain pop-up buttons located at the right of the font and suitcase names. You can press these buttons to open pop-up menus where you can set the destination format, customize font conversion options, call for a family properties dialog or manipulate individual fonts and their styles.

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Command buttons are located in the right-bottom area of the Main Window: Here is a brief description of each button (from left to right):

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Conversion Process

To convert fonts, you have to:

• Add the fonts you want to convert to the source list.
• Check and define encoding and codepage settings for all the fonts in the source list, if necessary. The values selected in the Preferences dialog will be used by default.
• If necessary, change the destination font format (if you are converting TrueType fonts to Type 1 or vice versa).
• If necessary, organize destination suitcases (if you are converting PC fonts to Macintosh) and adjust the fonts’ properties.
• Press the Convert button.

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Converting a Sample Font

In this section we will show you how to convert one of the Macintosh system fonts to PC font format. We will not provide a detailed description of all operations here (it’s provided later in the chapter) but will show you the main points as an example.

1. Open the Fonts folder in your System Folder.

2. Drag the Times font suitcase icon from the Fonts folder and drop it right on the TransType application’s icon. TransType will be launched and you will see its Main Window with the Times font in the Source list.

3. Click on the blue triangle to the left of the font suitcase icon in the Source Fonts list. The suitcase will “open” and you will see the fonts contained in the suitcase. The Times suitcase contains four separate TrueType fonts of four different styles: Plain (Roman), Bold, Italic and Bold Italic).

4. Refer to the Destination Fonts list. Press the pop-up menu button to the right of the font name and observe the menu contents.

As you can see there is an option to change the destination font format. Let’s, for example, select Type 1 Win option in the Format submenu. The Times font will be converted from Macintosh TrueType to PostScript Type 1 format for PC in this case.

5. Now you must select the encoding for the fonts you are going to generate. Press the pop-up menu button for the second time and select the MS Windows 1252 Latin 1 codepage in the Codepage submenu.

6. As the source Times font is a Unicode font, you needn’t define the encoding for it in the Source Fonts list. Click on the button at the bottom of TransType Main Window to start the conversion process.

7. If you haven’t defined the default destination folder in the Preferences dialog, TransType will ask you to choose the destination for the fonts generated.

We recommend you create a new folder for the destination fonts. This will help when more than one font consisting of more than one file are converted at a time. In any case, select the destination folder and press the Choose button.

8. After the conversion process has finished, the Source and the Destination Fonts lists remain – so that you can convert the same fonts to another format or with other settings. To finish working with TransType, press the rightmost button at the bottom of the Main Window and the program will quit.

OK, so now you know how to do a simple Mac->PC conversion. It’s time to look at TransType’s features in detail.

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To add one or more fonts to the source fonts list you can use two methods: the Add button or drag-and-drop.

To add fonts with the Add button:

1. Press the Add button or select the Add command in the File menu. You will see the standard Macintosh File Open dialog.

2. Select the fonts you want to add for processing and press the Open button. TransType will open every font selected, check it, and extract the information necessary for further processing.

To add fonts using the drag-and-drop method:

1. Open the folder with the fonts in the Finder.

2. Select the fonts you want to add and drag them to TransType’s Main Window or onto the TransType icon.

Note: You can not only drag-and-drop individual fonts but also folders containing many fonts.

After you have added fonts to the source list they will appear according to their structure. Thus Macintosh font suitcases appear as two-level items and PC font files as separate files. In the Destination list you will see the fonts as they will be when converted – PC fonts that will be converted to Macintosh formats will appear united in folders. Macintosh fonts converted to PC formats will keep their “suitcase” structure for easier navigation. Note that filenames for the PC fonts that will be created during processing are generated automatically following the 8.3 requirements – this is necessary to maintain compatibility with older versions of Windows and DOS. This option is customizable for TrueType fonts.

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Previewing Fonts

After you have added fonts to the source list you can preview the source fonts and how they will be converted in a different encoding. There is a blue triangle to the left of each suitcase icon. Click on this triangle to see the contents of the suitcase. Holding down the Option key while you click will show the contents of all the suitcases in the list.

To have a look at the particular font character set, double-click the font icon (not the suitcase icon) in the Source or Destination list. The font will open in the Preview window.

This window consists of two main parts: the font character chart and codepage options. If you opened this window from the Destination font list of the Main Window, you will see the destination font character chart preview. Switch between the source and destination preview by clicking on the corresponding bars at the top of the chart.

The character chart contains the font glyphs’ preview and their position in the currently selected encoding. Each character has a caption with its Unicode index. To see the code and the name of the particular character, press and hold down the mouse button while the mouse cursor is over the character’s cell.

To change the encoding in the preview, use the Codepage pop-up menu at the bottom of the window. Note that by changing the codepage in the source or destination character chart preview you also define the source or destination encoding for conversion (see the next section for details).

To get access to all the possible codepages in the Codepage pop-up menu, uncheck the checkbox to the right of the menu. The Codepage pop-up menu will contain not just Macintosh or Windows codepages, but all codepages from the Codepages folder in the TransType folder on your disk.

With the help of the TransType font preview feature you can easily define the appropriate conversion encodings for each font in the source list.

Note: You cannot set different encodings for different fonts in the same suitcase. When you set the encoding for one font in a suitcase you set it for all the fonts in the suitcase.

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Setting Conversion Options

After you have added fonts to the Source list (and the resulting font names have appeared in the Destination list) TransType usually is ready to begin conversion using the default settings. But sometimes you may need to change the conversion options, particularly the destination font format, the methods that TransType uses to reencode fonts and, if you are converting PC fonts to Macintosh, the styles of the generated fonts and their placement in suitcases.

Conversion of fonts between two main font formats – PostScript Type 1 and TrueType – is the feature that makes TransType an outstanding product. This conversion is not trivial and demands many options to be set. Sometimes it is not possible to convert a font from one format to another without loss of font quality. That is why we will describe format conversion separately.

Reencoding of fonts is a very important feature of TransType too. This is necessary because Windows and Macintosh use different encodings to map codes in the 0-255 range to characters located in the font. Usually the first 128 characters are encoded the same way, but other characters, located in the 128-255 code range are not. Moreover, encoding of fonts is highly dependent on the language for which the font was designed and in no language is the Macintosh encoding the same as the one used in Windows.

The method which the two systems use to identify font styles is also very different. On the Macintosh fonts that comprise a font family are grouped into a font suitcase. On Windows all the font files are separate and the system links them into the font family using style-identification flags set in each font.

We will give you a detailed description of each operation you can apply to customize the font conversion process. The descriptions are grouped in sections for each platform/format combination.

But we will describe the most common and simple setting for the conversion process here in this section. This is the specification of the destination for output fonts. Use the General Page of the Preferences dialog to choose the place where new fonts will be stored: Click the Ask radio button to make TransType open the standard Save File dialog for each font in the list. Click As original to make TransType save the converted fonts in the same place as the input fonts reside. To specify a particular folder, click the Use option and select your custom destination folder on the disk where you would like converted fonts to be stored.

And finally, if you check the Save families in separate folders option, then a separate folder will be created for each converted family in the folder selected as the destination folder.

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PC to Macintosh Conversion

The following key points are important when PC fonts are converted to Macintosh format:

1. PC font families can include only four font styles (Roman, Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic) and only one font of each style. If you want to create larger Macintosh font families you must do it on the Macintosh using a font editor.

2. Only Macintosh font files have a resource-based structure.

3. Fonts that belong to a font family have to be united in the Macintosh font suitcase structure.

4. Type 1 font files on the Macintosh stay separate from the font suitcase files and are linked to the Macintosh font resources using name reference methods, similarly to the implementation on the PC platform.

5. Type 1 fonts on the Macintosh need to have at least one accompanying bitmap font file (NFNT resource).

6. Encoding, even for the Latin fonts, is different on Macintosh and PC.

7. Most PC fonts are encoded using Unicode, but in some cases simulated encodings are used.

In order to simplify things we describe only TrueType to TrueType and Type 1 to Type 1 conversions in this section. The differences of conversion between TrueType and Type 1 formats are described later in the TrueType<->Type 1 Conversion section.

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TrueType Fonts

When you add TrueType fonts to the source font list TransType does the following:

1. Opens the TrueType font file and extracts information about all the available glyphs, the Unicode mapping data, the font names and the font style (plain, bold, italic or bold-italic).

2. Tries to detect which encodings this font can support.

3. If several added TrueType fonts belong to the same family (the family name is the same and the style information is different) builds a destination font suitcase.

4. Prepares for PC TrueType to Macintosh TrueType conversion.

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Changing Font Format

By default PC TrueType will be converted to Macintosh TrueType, but you can change the destination font format. Press the pop-up menu button located at the right of the suitcase name in the destination list to open the pop-up menu.

Select the platform and the type for destination font.

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Reencoding

Source TrueType fonts can have the following encodings:

1. Normal Unicode encoding. In this case all characters are assigned to their proper Unicode indexes. This makes it very easy to determine to which languages they belong and how they can be used.

2. Normal Symbol encoding. The codes in the 0-255 range are mapped to symbolic or pictorial characters.

3. Simulated Symbol encoding. Symbol encoding is used to map normal alphabet characters of a language to the 0-255 codes.

4. Simulated Unicode encoding. Unicode indexes of the Latin language are used to map characters of some other language to the 0-255 codes.

Only encodings 1 and 2 (normal Unicode and Symbol) give full information about mapping codes to characters. All other cases require you to make some additional definition(s). You must tell TransType which encoding is simulated by the Symbol or Latin Unicode indexes. When TransType gets this information from you it can assign proper Unicode indexes to characters and treat this font as a case 1 in our list. Using this method we can limit the number of potential source encoding configurations to two: Unicode and Symbol.

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Symbol Encoding

Symbol encoding is usually used to map symbolic or pictorial characters to the 0-255 code space. No reencoding is necessary when you convert such fonts to Macintosh format, so TransType will simply copy the characters and you will use the same codes you used on the PC to access the characters.

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Unicode Mapping

In the case of Unicode mapping in the source font all we need to do is to convert this encoding according to the Macintosh requirements. The problem is that on the Macintosh we can use only codes in the 0-255 range to access characters. This rule is not true in Mac OS X, but we will use the older requirements to let you build Macintosh fonts that will work on all Macintosh systems. So we need to carefully use this space.

Every language used on the Macintosh has a codepage mapping table that determines how characters are mapped to the 0-255 code space. When we know which characters are in the source font (with the help of Unicode indexing) and select a Macintosh codepage we can easily build a correctly mapped Macintosh TrueType font.

We’ll describe below all the operations that you might need to perform to make a correctly encoded Macintosh TrueType font.

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Defining the Source Encoding

When you add a PC TrueType font to the source list you can look in the legend field below it. If it says “This is a Unicode font”, that means that the font has a valid Unicode mapping table and the conversion is very simple. The Unicode table is used by default in this case, but you have the option to change the source encoding. Press a pop-up menu button at the right of the font name and the pop-up menu will appear.

Tip: Press and hold down the Option key on the keyboard before pressing the pop-up menu button to get access to all the possible codepages.

When the font doesn’t have a Unicode table or is encoded as a symbol font, the legend will not say that the font is “Unicode” and you will have to use the encoding pop-up menu. The Use Unicode item will be disabled in this case and you have to determine which encoding the source font has. The first item is Default: this means that TransType will use the codepage currently selected as default in the Preferences dialog. The other items in the dropdown list are the names of codepages. Select one of these codepages if you know that that codepage is used in the source font.

For example, if the source font formally is a symbol font but you know that actually it is a Cyrillic font, you should choose the MS Windows 1251 Cyrillic codepage in the pop-up menu and TransType will assign the correct Unicode indexes to all characters.

If you know that the source font is really a Symbol or pictorial font, select any item in this menu – it doesn’t matter.

Note: When a definition of the source codepage is necessary but none is selected (the default value is set to Unspecified and Default is selected in the pop-up menu) TransType will color the font’s name in red and will disable the Convert button until you specify the source encoding of the font.

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Defining the Destination Encoding

When you define the source encoding for a TrueType font you may also define the destination encoding. Press the pop-up menu button located at the right of the suitcase name in the destination list to open the pop-up menu.

The menu contains the following items:

Assigning the Codepage

In the Codepage submenu you can see three common commands and a list of Macintosh codepage names:

Default
Use the destination codepage selected as the default in the Preferences dialog.

Unicode
Is not usable in the case described here.

Leave as is
Do not reencode the source font – any selection in the source list’s pop-up menu is ignored.

A list of potential codepages to which the font can be reencoded follows these three commands. The number of available codepages depends on the number of characters in the font.

When TransType finally gets the information about the Unicode indexes to which the font’s characters are mapped (from the font or after you have assigned a codepage to the source font), it knows which destination codepages this font can support and shows only these codepages in the destination encodings menu.

Tip: To force TransType to include all available Macintosh codepages in this menu, press and hold down the Command key on the keyboard before pressing the pop-up menu button. To get access to all the possible codepages, press and hold down the Option key.

Assigning a Script Code

After you have selected the source and destination codepages, assign a script code to the font using the Script submenu. Note that for most Macintosh encodings when you select the destination codepage TransType will automatically select the correct script code.

Use the General Page of the Preferences dialog to select the script code that will be used by default.

To summarize the process of font reencoding:

1. TransType determines the Unicode indexes of all the characters in the source font. It does this automatically if the source font has a valid Unicode table or with your help when you select the source encoding in the source pop-up menu.

2. Depending on the selection you made in the destination list’s pop-up menu TransType maps up to 256 Unicode indexes to the 0-255 code space as is required by the Mac OS.

3. A Script code is assigned to the font.

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Customizing Suitcases

When you convert several fonts that form a font family on a PC, TransType will automatically combine these fonts into a Macintosh font family suitcase. If for some reason you don’t want TransType to do this, you have the following options:

1. Force TransType to put all fonts in separate suitcases by checking Do not combine Macintosh font family into single suitcase on the General Page of the Preferences dialog.

This is unusual and we do not recommend you switch on this option. But if you do, the Force all styles to Plain option is recommended to simplify the usage of the fonts. When this option is on, all fonts that are placed in separate suitcases will have the plain style, even if the original fonts are not plain.

2. Exclude the font from the current suitcase and move it into the new one. To do this, select the font instance (not suitcase) that you want to move in the destination list, press the pop-up menu button at the right and select the Exclude command in the pop-up menu.

In the Exclude/Move dialog select the suitcase to which you want to move the font in the Move font to pop-up menu or select New to extract the font into a new empty suitcase. Change the font name in the editing field below if necessary. Note that if some fonts in the suitcase have conflicting styles (for example, if you have two italic fonts), then the OK button is disabled. Correct the problem or press Cancel to close the dialog.

3. Change the style of the particular font in the suitcase by selecting the appropriate item in the pop-up menu located at the right of the font name in the destination list.

Font Suitcase Properties

You have the opportunity to easily edit the destination suitcase information. Select the suitcase in the destination list. Press on the pop-up button to the right and select the Properties command in the pop-up menu or just double-click the suitcase icon or name. The Properties dialog appears.

In this dialog you can:

1. Change the font menu name (the name which will appear in the font menu when this font is installed). Use the Menu name editing field to change the menu name. Note that the menu name is the name of the FOND resource on the Macintosh.

2. View the font family name, but you cannot edit it.

3. View the names and styles of the fonts in this family.

4. Change the destination platform – Mac OS or Windows – in the corresponding pop-up menu. Note that you can convert the font without changing the platform or the font format (for example, PC TrueType to PC TrueType).

5. Change the destination font type – TrueType or Type 1 – in the corresponding pop-up menu.

6. Set the option to create a single master font from a multiple master (will be described later when speaking about Type 1 fonts).

7. And finally, choose to edit Macintosh FOND resource information for the suitcase by pressing the FOND Info button. Obviously this button is available only when converting to Macintosh platform.

When you press the FOND Info button, the FOND Info dialog appears to let you change some parameters.

Usually you won’t need to change these parameters. But if you are a professional in font design, this dialog is for you.

Besides the FOND name, which is the same as the font menu name, you may edit parameters in the following groups.

Font family properties:

Font metrics:

Style mapping flags (Font Class):

To get full information about the parameters represented in the FOND Info dialog, refer to Inside Macintosh: Text:Font Manager: http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/Text/Text-181.html.

Note: If you are not a professional in font design, be very careful when changing the FOND Info options.

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Type 1 Fonts

Conversion of PC Type 1 fonts to Macintosh format is similar to the TrueType conversion process with the following differences:

1. The characters in Type 1 fonts are identified by names, not Unicode indexes.

2. The metrics and kerning information of Type 1 characters on the PC is located in separate metrics files (PFM or AFM).

3. There are no multiple master TrueType fonts.

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Reencoding

Type 1 fonts also must be reencoded when converting from PC to Macintosh. To simplify this process and make it similar to the one used when TrueType fonts are processed, TransType automatically assigns Unicode indexes to all characters in a Type 1 font using a special table containing thousands of name-Unicode pairs. This way TransType can correctly handle Type 1 fonts that have more than 256 characters.

Note that this name->Unicode method works correctly only when characters in a Type 1 font have correct PostScript names. In cases when names are assigned incorrectly (for example, characters from a non-Latin language using Latin character names) another method is used, similar to the one that we described above when talking about the conversion of symbol-encoded TrueType fonts.

When you add a PC Type 1 font to the source fonts list you’ll see the pop-up menu button at the right of the font name. Click on it and you’ll see the menu.

As you can see, there is a list of codepages (we discussed what this means in the TrueType section above) and two commands – Default and Use Names.

If you select the Default item TransType will refer to the codepage selected as the default in the General Page of the Preferences dialog: If you select Use Names (the default option for the source encoding pop-up menu) TransType will try to convert character names to Unicode indexes and later apply Unicode-based reencoding algorithms. We recommend that you always use the names-Unicode method unless you know that the source font has symbol or simulated encoding, in which case you will manually select a codepage from the codepages list. Remember that you may use the font preview feature to look at the encoding.

As in TrueType, after you define the source codepage you should select a destination codepage to completely define the reencoding process.

All the characters now have some Unicode index assigned, so you can follow the same process described in the TrueType section.

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Metrics Files

TransType uses the following sequence to create known font metrics: AFM+INF, PFM, PFB. If metrics for a particular character are not present in the PFM file, then they are extracted from the font file (PFB). After conversion the metrics information is stored in the FOND resource, as required by the Mac OS. Here is a more detailed description of the algorithm that is applied by TransType to find a metrics file:

1. It looks for the name.AFM file (name is the name of the PFB file: name.pfb) located in the same folder. If it locates the file, it extracts the metrics from it.

2. If the AFM file is not present, it looks for the name.PFM file in the same folder and, if the file is not found there, in the PFM subfolder of the current folder.

3. If the PFM file is found, it reads the kerning and metrics data from it. Then TransType opens the PFB file and partially interprets it to extract the metrics for the characters that are not covered by the PFM.

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Multiple Master Fonts

TransType now can convert multiple master fonts into virtually any format or platform. After you have added a PC multiple master Type 1 font to the source fonts list for conversion, TransType automatically prepares to convert it to a multiple master Type 1 font for Macintosh. You can see this in the destination fonts list of the Main Window.

To change the format, press the pop-up menu button to the right of the suitcase name in the destination list and use the Format submenu:

As with other fonts in the list, you can select the Properties command for greater control of output formatting.

Tip: You can just double-click the suitcase icon or name to get the Properties dialog.

You can change the font menu name and the FOND properties here in the same way as for the TrueType fonts described earlier. And one more option becomes available when a multiple master font is converted: Create single master. You may check this option if you want to create a single master Type 1 font, but you MUST check this option to convert to a TrueType font. That is why, if you change the font type to TrueType this option will be checked automatically.

After the Create single master checkbox is checked, TransType reads the multiple master font and presents the dialog with a preview.

The process of creating the single master is very simple: you just select one of the instances of the multiple master font by dragging the Weight, Width and Optical Size sliders and previewing the result. Then you can edit the single master Family Name and automatically generated Font Name and Full Name postfixes (“367_wt_585_wd_11_op” and “367 wt 585 wd 11 op” in our example) in the editable text boxes.

Press the OK button when you are finished defining the instance of the multiple master font.

As you can see it is possible to generate as many font instances as you want from one multiple master font.

Note: If you select single master Type 1 or TrueType format in the destination Format submenu and do not manually specify the instance parameters in the Create Instance dialog, then TransType will produce the font using the default weight vector stored in the multiple master font.

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Suitcases

Suitcases containing (“referring to”, if speaking more precisely) Type 1 fonts have no major differences from suitcases containing TrueType fonts (sfnt resources), so please refer to the TrueType section above for information about suitcase manipulations and font suitcase properties.

The only additional option that may be useful when converting PC Type 1 fonts is to force TransType to generate suitcases by checking and using the MSMenuName fields in the .inf files. This option, named Try to combine Macintosh suitcase with MSMenuName, is located on the General Page of the Preferences dialog.

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Bitmap Fonts

Any Type 1 font on the Macintosh must have at least one accompanying bitmap font. TransType will automatically build a bitmap font when you convert a PC Type 1 font to Macintosh format and it can do so using one of two methods:

1. If ATM is installed and you allow TransType to use it to build the bitmap fonts, it will build high-quality bitmap fonts for the sizes you set in the Type 1 page of the Preferences dialog.

Note: You can see there is a Use Apple’s ATS Type 1 scaler radio button available in the dialog. It is used under the Mac OS X operating system only.

Note: TransType doesn’t allow the creation of bitmap fonts less than 8 points in size.

2. If ATM is not present (and you are not using the Mac OS X operating system) or you switch off the Generate bitmaps option, TransType will create a default 13-point size bitmap font.

We highly recommend using ATM (on pre-Mac OS X systems) for the generation of bitmap fonts – it’s the only way to automatically make professional-quality Macintosh Type 1 fonts that will work smoothly everywhere

Note: PC bitmap fonts and font sets aren’t converted to Macintosh bitmap fonts with TransType.

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Macintosh to PC Conversion

Converting Macintosh fonts to PC is easier than vice versa for the following reasons:

1. There are no suitcases on PCs.

2. PC TrueType fonts are based on Unicode, so usually the reencoding process is simpler.

3. Bitmap fonts are not necessary for Type 1 fonts on PCs.

BUT,

4. PC font families can have only four members – one each of Roman, Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic. So if you try to convert a Mac font family with more than four members or in which the bold and italic flags are not set correctly you will run into problems. The only way to fix this is to reduce font families to four members and to go into each destination font and set the style flags correctly. See pp. 21-23.

5. When Type 1 fonts are converted from Macintosh to PC you must generate metrics files that will be used by Windows for information about characters’ widths and kerning.

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TrueType Fonts

When you add a Macintosh font suitcase containing TrueType fonts (sfnt resources) to the Source list, you must let TransType know which codepage it uses. The only case when this is not necessary is when the source Macintosh TrueType font has a Unicode table.

To select a codepage for the source TrueType font follow the rules that were described when we talked about converting PC TrueType fonts to Macintosh format.

After TransType knows for which codepage a TrueType font was encoded, it can assign Unicode indexes to the font’s characters and generate a correct Unicode-mapped font, as Windows requires.

Note that the accompanying bitmap fonts (if any) from the same Macintosh suitcase are not copied or converted to PC font format.

See also the TrueType<->Type 1 Conversion section for information on different TrueType creation options.

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Type 1 Fonts

Conversion of Type 1 fonts from Macintosh to PC is very similar to the conversion from PC to Macintosh. The only difference is the handling of the metrics. Metrics information (a character’s width(s) and kerning) is extracted from the font suitcase and converted to AFM, INF and PFM files. Of course, the reencoding information is used when the metrics files are generated so that you get a valid PC Type 1 font file.

Note that the accompanying bitmap fonts from the Macintosh suitcase are not copied or converted to PC font format as in the case with TrueType fonts.

See also the TrueType<->Type 1 Conversion section for information on different Type 1 creation options.

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TrueType<->Type 1 Conversion

By default TransType converts between platforms but not between formats (TrueType to TrueType and Type 1 to Type 1). You have the option to change the destination font type in the destination Format popup menu or in the Font Properties dialog.

Before you change the destination font type (and actually before adding fonts to the Main Window), it is a good idea to check some of the more important options for generating fonts in the destination format.

Note: If you change any of the options in the Preferences dialog, you have to re-add the fonts to the source fonts list in order to convert them according to the “new rules”.

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Type 1 Options

To check and set parameters for generating Type 1 fonts, click the Preferences button at the bottom of the Main Window and refer to the Type 1 Page of the Preferences dialog.

There are three groups of controls on this page:

Type 1 fonts building:

The Type 1 hinting options group contains one pop-up menu: Level of autohinting. Autohinting is not needed when conversion from Type 1 format is performed. All old hinting information is preserved in this case. But when conversion from TrueType is performed, the are two ways to deal with hints:

1. To not generate hinting information in a new Type 1 font: Select No Hinting in the Level of autohinting pop-up menu. The font will loose quality in this case.

2. To use special autohinting algorithms that convert TrueType instructions into Type 1 hints: Select Default Level item in the Level of autohinting pop-up menu. This option is set by default.

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TrueType Options

To check and set parameters for generating TrueType fonts, click the Preferences button at the bottom of the Main Window and refer to TrueType Page of the Preferences dialog.

There are two groups of controls in the dialog which are used to customize the TrueType font generating process:

TrueType fonts building:

The TrueType hinting options group contains two pop-up menus: Level of autohinting and Font smoothing.

When conversion of a Type 1 font into TrueType format is performed, Type 1 hints must be converted into TrueType instructions. This conversion can be done by two methods: Default and Advanced.

The Default method is commonly used and always produces good results. The Advanced method is sometimes better than the default method as it can produce delta hints. Select the method of TrueType hints creation in the Level of autohinting pop-up menu. If No hinting item is selected, there will be no hints in the destination TrueType font.

Note: TrueType hinting options will be ignored when conversion of TrueType to TrueType is performed.

Font smoothing is a special technique for improving the appearance of TrueType fonts on the screen. Font smoothing is used by the latest versions of the Windows operating system. With this technique edges of the characters are rendered using shades of gray. Font smoothing may be combined with a gridfitting method that optimizes the character’s appearance by adjusting its outline. The Font smoothing pop-up menu lets you control the usage of these methods:

1. Choose the Default option to apply smoothing and gridfitting methods in accordance with the following table:

These are the usual optimal settings for font smoothing.

2. Choose the Off menu item to not generate the smoothing table in the destination TrueType fonts.

3. Choose the Always menu item to apply both smoothing and gridfitting methods to all sizes of the font on the screen:

Note: Font smoothing table data make sense only on the Windows platform as they are ignored by the Mac OS.

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FontLab (VFB) Font Conversion

TransType can now convert fonts from the VFB format used internally in other FontLab products. They can be converted to any format for any platform. There are, however, a few caveats:

1. Converting a VFB font in TransType is the same as exporting it from a Fontlab application, only with the additional power that you can choose the encoding.

2. When you add a single master VFB font to the source list of the Main Window, TransType prepares to convert it to a Macintosh TrueType font by default. You can change the destination format using the Format submenu as with other fonts.

3. When you add a multiple master VFB font to the source list of the Main Window, TransType prepares to convert it to a Macintosh Type 1 multiple master font by default. For details please see the section on multiple master fonts conversion.

4. As with other conversions you can use the different TrueType and Type 1 creation options described in the TrueType<->Type 1 Conversion section. Please note that the option “Prefer to use TransType 1.x conversion engine” doesn’t work with VFB files.

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Other Types of Conversion

By default TransType converts between platforms in one format (PC TrueType to Mac TrueType etc.). You have the option to change the destination platform and format in the destination Format pop-up menu or in the Font Properties dialog and convert, for instance, PC TrueType to PC TrueType or Mac Type 1 to Mac Type 1.

Why would you want to do this?

1. To change a font’s encoding.

2. To decompose composites in a font.

3. To compact fonts by removing extra glyphs, etc.

Note: Not all the options from the Type 1 and TrueType pages of the Preferences dialog work when convertion within one format is performed. For example, hinting options never work in such cases.

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Technical Details

Here we’ll add some technical details for professional TransType users. With the information contained here you can customize some of TransType’s features and better understand how it works.

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Type 1 Fonts

TransType opens every Type 1 font being converted and partially interprets it to extract the names of all the characters present in the font and the information about the characters’ widths. Note that information about the characters’ bounding boxes is not extracted, so when Macintosh fonts are converted to PC and an AFM file is generated, the font bounding box is used instead of character bounding boxes.

Information about the mapping of PostScript names of characters to Unicode indexes is located in the Standard Names text file located in the Data folder of the TransType folder. This file has a very simple structure – every line contains a PostScript name and its corresponding Unicode index. You can edit this file or extend it at your own risk.

In addition to the Standard Names file TransType uses an algorithm that decodes names constructed according to Adobe’s “uniXXXX” rule.

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TrueType Fonts

When TransType opens PC TrueType fonts it looks for a (3.1) CMap table. If this table is found then the font is marked as a normal Unicode font. If not TransType tries to open the (3.0) table – if this table is present, it means that the source font is a symbol font.

The last table that is checked is the (1.0) table usually used to encode fonts on the Macintosh. This table is also used as a symbol-mapping table. If the font contains more glyphs than are covered by the (1.0) CMap table, TransType tries to open the post table, extract the glyph names and find Unicode indexes using the same method which is used when PostScript names of the Type 1 characters are mapped to Unicode.

Note that the same search sequence is used when a font is converted from Macintosh to PC.

The MacStyle field of the head table is used to detect the style of a Windows TrueType font.

Ascender and descender values are extracted from the head table. The OS/2 table is not used for these purposes.

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Customizing Codepages

Files containing definitions of the codepages that appear in the pop-up menus are in the TransType2: Codepages folder and have a simple text structure. You can edit the existing files and make your own codepages following the structure of any existing file.

Note that only a limited number of codepages appear in the lists by default. The full list of codepages appears if you hold down the Option key while opening the pop-up menu.

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Bibliography

TrueType, OpenType and TrueType Open specifications from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/tt/tt.htm

TrueType Specification by Apple:

http://fonts.apple.com/TTRefMan/index.html

Adobe Type 1 Font File Specification:

http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/devrelations/PDFS/TN/T1_SPEC.PDF

Adobe’s Glyph Naming for Type 1 Font Programs:

http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/devrelations/PDFS/TN/5089_GlyphNaming
.pdf

Unicode Consortium:

http://www.unicode.org

Inside Macintosh: Text: Font Manager

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/Text/Text-181.html

Inside Macintosh: Text: Script Manager (information related to scripts and languages):

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/Text/Text-354.html

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Support

For further information about TransType browse to the TransType home page:

http://www.fontlab.com/html/transtype.html

Use the following address to get support information, TransType updates and downloads:

http://www.fontlab.com/html/support.html

In case of any questions about TransType or any other of our products send email to:

info@fontlab.com

For TransType support use the following address:

support@fontlab.com and put the word “transtype” in the subject line of your message.

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A Note on Intellectual Property

Digital fonts are complex computer programs created with a good deal of hard work by individuals and companies. They are valuable intellectual property and are protected by trademark, copyright, and patent laws. The details and extent of this protection varies in different countries, but the basics are as follows:

Trademark: A font name (and only the name) may be trademarked. Only the trademark owner or licensees may use the name to describe a font.

Copyright: Computer programs are copyrighted. In the U.S.A. this happens automatically as soon as the program is written. Further rights may be secured by registering the copyright.

Patent: Some fonts, if they are distinctive and unusual enough, may be granted a design patent. Only the patent holder or licensees may use this font design.

If you purchase a font and then modify it for your own use you are probably within the bounds of “fair use” and the font licensing agreement. However, if you modify a purchased font and then sell or distribute it you may be in violation of copyright, patent or licensing laws. Please read your font license agreement carefully or contact the licensor to determine your rights and obligations.

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Trademark Information

All trademarks used in this manual are the property of their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.

In particular:

TransType, FontLab, AsiaFont Studio, ScanFont, VectorPaint, and TypeTool are trademarks of Fontlab, Ltd.

Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Mac, Mac OS and TrueType are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

Windows, Windows95, Windows98, Windows 2000, and OpenType are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Adobe, PostScript, Type Manager, and Type Reunion are trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc.

IBM is a trademark of the IBM Corporation.

Copyright 2001 Fontlab, Ltd.

Neither this documentation nor the accompanying software may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of FontLab, Ltd.

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Appendix A

Digital fonts consist of glyphs (drawings) of characters (letters of alphabets/scripts) organized (encoded) in a particular arrangement. Because there are many different languages and scripts each alphabet has its own arrangement (codepage) which allows a computer to know where to find a particular character, retrieve the glyph, and either print or display it for the computer user.

The most familiar “encoding” to most North Americans and Western Europeans is