Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!kodak!ispd-newsserver!ism.isc.com!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: PFB headers (was Re: generating afm files)
Summary: corrections on font-header stuff in .pfb
Message-ID: <1991Apr29.195913.5520@ico.isc.com>
Date: 29 Apr 91 19:59:13 GMT
References: <1991Apr25.175643.25619@milton.u.washington.edu> <15506@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 31

jlr1801@aim1.tamu.edu (Jeff Rife) writes:
> >    - "What's that silly binary code doing on the PFB files at [archive]?"
> 
> That's part of the encoding of an Adobe Type 1 font.  It's documented.

It is documented, but it's not part of the Adobe Type 1 font.  The .pfb
files are divided into chunks of data with a little header-descriptor on
each chunk.  This header is for the use of a PC-based downloader; it should
not be sent to the printer.

You can tell it's *NOT* PostScript because the first byte has value 80 hex,
which is not valid for Level 1 PostScript.  In Level 2, 0x80 it would be an
indicator of a "binary object sequence"--which is NOT what the .pfb is.

> >    - "How do I make PFB files work on a postscript printer?"
> 
> Any *real* PostScript printer should be able to use them just fine, assuming
> a new enough version of the PostScript interpreter.

You need a downloader of some sort which will get rid of the funny little
headers.  You can NOT just send a .pfb straight to a printer.  (Well, you
can, but the printer will just complain.:-)

The header consists of:
	- 0x80: flag byte
	- type byte:  1=text, 2=binary data, 3=EOF
	- length: 4-byte little-endian integer counting the number of data
	  bytes which follow
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind.