Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!chinacat!woody
From: woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: PostScript downloadable font formats
Summary: there is a difrence
Keywords: postscript font download
Message-ID: <1579@chinacat.Unicom.COM>
Date: 16 Sep 90 19:04:06 GMT
References: <64@frcs.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Organization: a guest of Unicom Systems Development, Austin
Lines: 36

In article <64@frcs.UUCP>, paul@frcs.UUCP (Paul Nash) writes:
> 
> A client is planning to purchase some soft fonts for a PostScript
> printer (Qume ScripTen). The supplier (who knows it all, of course :-)
> says that as the fonts are for a Mac, they cannot be downloaded
> 
> Is this feasable? (That the font can be downloaded from a Mac and
> not a PC). If so, is there anything that I can do for them, like

It depends.  Adobe fonts do come in 2 flavors.  A PC flavor and a MAC
flavor.  Why this was done beats me.  At anyrate, rather than being a
straight text file on the MAC, the file is broken up into blocks
of data, each of which has a header.  I suspect that this was done to
make it difficult for a MAC font to be used on anything other than a MAC,
but that is just conjecture.  At anyrate, there is a document over on the
Adobe file server, that deals with this problem.   I believe it is
something like "supporting downloaded fonts".  It details the format
of the font file for both the MAC and PC.  Now, all the PC fonts
that I've seen have been plain jane ascii fonts.  It should be fairly
easy to let the MAC do all the work, but using the font downloader (send
ps I think) and let it parse out the font.  Then perhaps use the
cmd K to get it captured to a file as a true ascii font.  For other
peoples fonts, I don't think there is a problem. At least Cassidy
and Greene, and Century Software fonts are straight ASCII files.



> As I understand it, a PostScript font is merely a PS program that
> describes the shape of the characters. Presumably there is some
> sort of encrypting process, so that  fonts don't get modified and
Actualy that has all been documented in the Type 1 Font spec book now.

Cheers
Woody

>