Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy!orion.cf.uci.edu!vmsa.cf.uci.edu!ggiergiel
From: ggiergiel@vmsa.cf.uci.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: NFNT editing utilities?
Message-ID: <1556@orion.cf.uci.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 89 20:53:31 GMT
Sender: news@orion.cf.uci.edu
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Lines: 27

In article <776@krafla.rhi.hi.is>, hardy@rhi.hi.is (Yngvi Hardarson) writes...

>What utilities/font editors are there available for editing NFNT font 
>resources?
First a word of advise. Do not do it. Macintosh font system is so 
complicated (or rather messy) that even ADOBE and Apple has problems
doing things right. Vide: last (3.8) FONT/DA mover from apple that is more 
than happy to add as many copies of the same NFTN as you wish to system file.
If you are not carefull enough you may end up with 10 NFNT for TIMES 72.
Good job Apple !. I certainly hope that NEXT will do things right, after all
the mess that is there in MAC domain is becoming unbearable (vide: 
stupidity of using nonstandard postscript vector, FOND width tables with 
data inconsistent with actual postscript definition, all those
ashow/show cludgy solutions,  etc etc. )
However if you insist on entering this swamp  use FONTASTIC+ 2.0.
 This software is buggy
and occasionally illogical, but will allow you to edit character images 
regardless wheter they are in FONT and NFNT. ( There is no difference
between FONT and NFNT, both are the same data structures. Let me
correct myself: there are some differences (like NFNT can have fractional
width table attached to it, a feature no commercial font I know of uses)
To change NFNT atribute bytes use RESEDIT, but remember to open NFNT as
FONT resource. For some strange reason you can not edit NFNT bitmaps in
RESEDIT. 
If the only thing you are interested in is conversion of families from
FONT to NFTN types try NFTN utility (public domain I believe). How robust
it is I have no idea. Good luck!