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From: cs421317@umbc5.umbc.edu (cs421317)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Fonts
Summary: What FONTs are about
Message-ID: <1991Apr28.002747.29569@umbc3.umbc.edu>
Date: 28 Apr 91 00:27:47 GMT
References: <1991Apr27.220114.2599@welch.jhu.edu>
Sender: cs421317@umbc5.umbc.edu (Gary Goldberg)
Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore County
Lines: 36

In article <1991Apr27.220114.2599@welch.jhu.edu> francois@welch.jhu.edu (Francois Schiettecatte) writes:
>Could someone please explain what the differences between
>FOND, FONT, NFNT, type 1 fonts and type 3 fonts are.
>
>I have looked on a number of public  domain sites and
>cannot find any documentation to explain what the 
>different types of fonts available on the mac are
>and what I can get out of each format.
>
>francois

FONT, FOND, and NFNT resources together describe the makeup of bitmapped or
screen fonts within the resource fork of an application. The FOND describes
the general nature of a font family (group of similar fonts). The FONT are the
actual bitmaps for each font size in the family. NFNTs (New FoNTs) was the way
that Apple used to get around a problem with ID's. Originally, there were too
few font ID's available (the ID should be unique for every different family);
the NFNT numbering scheme greatly increased therange of possible values. Some
older applications can't deal with the NFNTs.

Type 1 fonts are related to Adobe brand fonts and contain 'hints' for clues to
true Adobe Postscript interpreters. These usually had an advantage over Type 3
fonts (regular Postscript outline fonts sold by non-Adobe companies), although
since Adobe released Type 1 data, the problem is slowly going away. There are
applications available to convert Type 3's into Type 1's (as well as True Type
fonts, which are similar to Type 1's but released by Apple).

Whew! There are a number of good books availble that discuss the subject, one
is Encyclopedia Macintosh (Sybex), and another is The Font Book.

Hope this helps.

Gary Goldberg
(Temporarily cs421317@umbc5.umbc.edu)
Always a Mac fanatic
America Online: OgGreeb