[RULE] fonts & font formats

[Vadim Plessky]

On Friday 20 December 2002 04:31, Martin Stricker wrote:
|  Vadim Plessky wrote:
|  > The right way to go is PostScript Type1 fonts, with path for
|  > migration to OpenType (Adobe CFF/type2) fonts formta in the future.
|  > Believe me, I have tested different formats, and OpenType *with Adobe
|  > CFF/type 2* outlines (do not mix it with TrueType fonts bumdled with
|  > OpenType layout tables) has most compact font size (reduction can be
|  > up to 50%, comparing to TrueType outline!) and excellent hinting
|  > model (derived from PS Type 1 fonts)
|
|  While I trust your opinion on font types (I know not much about them, I
|  just use them and have rather detailed plans for my own font), I see one
|  possible concern: I would like to create a font that's both scalable (so
|  I don't have to create it for all possible sizes) and usable on a wide
|  variety of operating systems (especially Linux, Solaris, IRIX and
|  Windows, maybe MacOS). TrueType will do that, while PS Type 1 is not
|  scalable, no idea yet about OpenType. I'll have to look into it...

PS Type1 is *scalable*!  Check http://www.adobe.com
PS Type 3 font can be scalable, or it can contain embedded bitmaps as well.
(but most PS Type3 fonts are scalable, too)

OpenType fonts exist in two instances:  based on TrueType outlines and on PS 
Type1 outlines.

As about platforms: Windows 2000/XP supports both PS Type1 and OpenType fonts 
natively, as MS and Adobe agreed on this some time ago.
In Windows 98, you have to install Adobe Type Manager (which is closed-source, 
but avilable for download for free)

|
|  > As about tools: I started about 1.5 years ago with FontLab, but later
|  > migrated to PfaEdit (http://pfaedit.sourceforge.net)
|  > George Williams (PfaEdit author) was very kind to offer his support
|  > & fix many *major* bugs, and I think currnet PfaEdit is in quite
|  > usable state.
|
|  Thank you very much! I'll try it as soon as I can spare some time.

What you can try to do is to get one font (say, Arial TTF or Nimbus Sans from 
URW-fonts), load it into PfaEdit and *export* it to different formats. Than 
compare results (font size, rendering quality, etc.)
I would recommend to you FreeType 2.1.3 (at least) and XFree86 compiled with 
*external* FreeType (XF has FreeType code inside its CVS tree, too, which is 
not the lates one)
AFAIK RedHat's XFree86 from Rawhide, and Mandrake's XFree86 from Cooker  
should be ok.

To compare rendering quality, you may want to use 'ftview' from ft2demos as 
well.

|
|  Thanks a lot!
|  Martin Stricker

-- 
Best Regards,

Vadim Plessky
SVG Icons * BlueSphere Icons 0.3.0 released
http://svgicons.sourceforge.net



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