Mac, PC, PostScript, TrueType, OpenType – universal font converter User’s manual for windows pro TransType
TransType Pro Copyright ©1992-2005 by Fontlab, Ltd. All rights reserved. Cover illustration: Paweł Jońca, pejot.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher. Any software referred to herein is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license.
Contents Contents CONTENTS 3 INTRODUCTION 7 USER INTERFACE 9 Source Fonts List 10 Destination Fonts List 13 Pop-up Menus 14 Macro Pop-up 15 Command Buttons 16 CONVERSION PROCESS 17 Converting a Sample Font 18 Adding Fonts to the Source List 22 Adding Macintosh Fonts Associating PostScript Data Files 24 25 Removing Fonts 26 Previewing Fonts 27 Setting Conversion Options 30 General Conversion Options Destination File Options 31 33 PC to Macintosh Conversion 35 TrueType Fonts
TransType Pro Multiple Master Fonts Suitcases Bitmap Fonts 60 64 65 Macintosh to PC Conversion 66 Macintosh Font Preparation Single file MacBinary or BinHex intermediate format E-mail with attached font(s) PC formatted diskette, ZIP or MO disks MacDrive utility and Mac formatted disks or CDs Through a network from a WinNT/2000/XP workstation Through special networking utilities and some Networking Operating Systems Single Macintosh StuffIt archive TrueType Fonts Type 1 Fonts TrueType<->Type 1 Conversi
Contents TECHNICAL DETAILS 103 Type 1 Fonts TrueType Fonts Customizing Codepages 104 105 106 BIBLIOGRAPHY 107 SUPPORT 109 A NOTE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 111 APPENDIX A BASICS OF DIGITAL FONT ORGANIZATION 113 Definitions 114 5
Introduction TransType Pro is a TrueType, PostScript Type 1 and OpenType font conversion utility. It can convert PC fonts to Macintosh, Macintosh fonts to PC, Type 1 fonts to TrueType or OpenType, TrueType fonts to Type 1 or OpenType, and OpenType fonts to TrueType or Type 1. Moreover it can do platform and format conversions at the same time. There are several important features that make TransType Pro different from other font conversion programs: 1.
TransType Pro 5. You can quickly and easily preview the fonts that are not installed in your System. 6. TransType Pro can convert from VFB (FontLab’s internal format) into TrueType, OpenType or Type 1. TransType Pro can also convert from PC TrueType font collection (TTC) format. 7. TransType Pro can additionally process the converted fonts with Python macro scripts. The Python interpreter must be installed to use this feature. 8. TransType Pro can also accept fonts in .
User Interface TransType’s Main Window consists of several parts: the Source and Destination lists, the Preview field, the Legend fields, the Macro pop-up menu and the Command buttons.
TransType Pro Source Fonts List The Source list contains the names of the fonts (PC and Macintosh in TrueType, OpenType, FontLab (VFB) or Type 1 formats) that you are going to convert. You can convert all different kinds of fonts in one step and TransType will automatically convert Macintosh fonts to PC and vice versa. TrueType and OpenType PS will be converted to TrueType and Type 1 to Type 1 by default.
User Interface As you can see, the presentation of different kinds of fonts in this list depends on the font’s platform and type. The following icons are used: Macintosh font suitcase. Click on the icon (or the plus sign to the left of the icon) to see the contents of the suitcase. Click with the Ctrl key depressed to open all the suitcases.
TransType Pro To the right of the font name you will see style icons, which give you the information about the font’s style. Only 4 main styles can be recognized: Font is Italic Font is Bold Font is Bold Italic Font is Plain The Preview field is located below the font list. It contains a short text preview of the font currently selected in the source list. You can switch the preview off by clicking the triangle at the left. The Legend panel is located below the preview field.
User Interface Destination Fonts List The Destination fonts list is located in the right part of the TransType Main Window: Destination Fonts List The Destination list contains the names of fonts as they will look after conversion. If you are converting PC fonts to Macintosh it will contain Macintosh font suitcases that will be automatically generated by TransType.
TransType Pro Pop-up Menus The items in Source and Destination lists may contain pop-up buttons ( ) located at the right of the font and suitcase names. You can press these buttons to open pop-up menus where you can set the destination format, customize font conversion options, call for a family properties dialog or manipulate individual fonts and their styles. To manage several selected fonts at once, right-click on the selection instead of using the pop-up buttons.
User Interface Macro Pop-up One of the unique features of TransType Pro is an integrated macro programming language. With this feature you can program repeated tasks, define custom font transformations, and use TransType in many other powerful ways. Macro programs in TransType are written in the well-known and welldocumented Python programming language. TransType uses the standard version of the language so almost all macros written in Python will work in TransType.
TransType Pro Command Buttons Command buttons are located in the right-bottom area of the Main Window: Here is a brief description of each button (from left to right): 16 Add Use this button to add fonts to the Source Fonts list and prepare them for conversion.
Conversion Process To convert fonts, you have to: • • • • • • • • Add the fonts you want to convert to the Source list. Remember that Macintosh fonts must usually be in MacBinary or BinHex format. If you are converting Macintosh fonts to PC you may have to associate data files with the source suitcases. Usually, however, TransType does this automatically. Check and define the encoding and codepage settings for all the fonts in the Source list, if necessary.
TransType Pro Converting a Sample Font In this section we will show you how to convert one of the Windows system fonts to Macintosh font format. We will not provide a detailed description of all operations here (it’s provided later in the chapter) but will show you the main points as an example. 18 1. Open the Fonts folder in your Windows folder with the help of Explorer. (C:\\windows\fonts) 2.
Conversion Process 4. Look at the Destination Fonts list. Press the pop-up menu button to the right of the font name and observe the menu contents: Destination Format Submenu As you can see there is an option to change the destination font format. Let’s, for example, select the Mac Type 1 option in the Format submenu. The Times New Roman font will be converted from Windows TrueType to PostScript Type 1 format for Macintosh in this case. 5.
TransType Pro 6. As the source Times New Roman font is a Unicode font, you needn’t define the encoding for it in the Source Fonts list. Click on the button at the bottom of TransType Main Window to start the conversion process. 7. If you haven’t defined the default destination directory in the Preferences dialog, TransType will ask you to choose the destination for the fonts generated: Select Directory Dialog box We recommend you create a new directory for the destination fonts.
Conversion Process 8. After the conversion process has finished, the Source and the Destination Fonts lists remain – so that you can convert the same fonts to another format or with other settings if you want. To finish working with TransType Pro, press the rightmost button the Main Window and the program will quit. at the bottom of OK, so now you know how to do a simple PC->Mac conversion. It’s time to look at TransType Pro’s features in detail.
TransType Pro Adding Fonts to the Source List To add one or more fonts to the Source fonts list you can use two methods: the Add button or drag-and-drop. To add fonts with the Add button: 1. Press the Add button at the bottom of TransType’s Main Window . You will see the standard Windows Open dialog box: Open Fonts Dialog box 2. 22 Select the fonts you want to add for processing and press the Open button.
Conversion Process To add fonts using the drag-and-drop method: 1. Open the directory with the fonts. 2. Select the fonts you want to add and drag them to TransType’s Main Window. Note: You can drag-and-drop not only individual fonts but also folders containing many fonts. Subfolders are processed recursively. Note: When you add Macintosh Type 1 fonts for conversion you MUST add suitcases along with the printer font files.
TransType Pro Adding Macintosh Fonts Macintosh and PC have different file systems, so to access traditional Macintosh (pre-MacOS X) fonts on a PC you have to perform some additional steps or sometimes use third-party programs. This process is described in full detail in the Macintosh to PC Conversion chapter on page 66, and we strongly recommend you read it before trying to convert Macintosh font files with TransType.
Conversion Process Associating PostScript Data Files On the Macintosh Type 1 fonts are defined in two files: a suitcase file that contains data for the whole font family and a separate PostScript data file for each font. So if you have a family of Type 1 fonts containing 3 styles you will have 4 files: a suitcase file and a PostScript data file for each style. The Mac OS automatically associates data files and suitcases using special rules based on file name.
TransType Pro Removing Fonts If you added fonts to the Source list by mistake or you were going to convert them but then changed your mind, you can easily remove some fonts from the list. Select one or more fonts in the list by using the Shift and Ctrl keys and then press the Clear button at the bottom of the Main Window. You can remove item(s) from the Destination list as well. Of course, the corresponding item(s) will also be removed from the Source list.
Conversion Process Previewing Fonts After you have added fonts to the Source list you can preview the source fonts and how they will be converted in a different encoding. There is a plus sign to the left of each suitcase icon. Click on this sign or the icon itself to see the contents of the suitcase. Holding down the Ctrl key while you click will show the contents of all the suitcases in the list.
TransType Pro To have a look at the particular font character set, double-click the font icon (not the suitcase icon) in the Source or Destination list. The font will open in the Preview window: Font Preview Window This window consists of two main parts: the font character chart and the codepage options. If you opened this window from the Destination Fonts list of the Main Window, you will see the destination font character chart preview.
Conversion Process The character chart contains the font glyphs’ preview and their position in the currently selected encoding. Each character has a caption with its Unicode index. To see the code and the name of the particular character, just move the mouse cursor to the character’s cell: To change the encoding in the preview, use the Codepage pop-up menu at the bottom of the window.
TransType Pro Setting Conversion Options After you have added fonts to the Source list (and the resulting font names have appeared in the Destination list) TransType usually is ready to begin conversion using the default settings. But sometimes you may need to change the conversion options (particularly the destination font format), the methods that TransType uses to reencode fonts and, if you are converting PC fonts to Macintosh, the styles of the generated fonts and their placement in suitcases.
Conversion Process General Conversion Options Click the Preferences button at the bottom of the Main Window and refer to the General Conversion Options Page of the Preferences dialog: General Conversion Options Page of the Preferences Dialog 31
TransType Pro These general options are quite important. They actually switch between different conversion methods implemented in TransType Pro: 32 Perform conversion with minimal changes if possible If this option is selected, TransType will try to use our old conversion engine first introduced in TransType 1.x instead of the new FontLab conversion engine implemented in TransType Pro.
Conversion Process Destination File Options When TransType converts fonts to Macintosh format, it saves them in MacBinary (.bin) or BinHex (.hqx) files. You may choose what format to use in the General/Font Files Naming Page of the Preferences dialog: Use the General/Font Files Naming Page of the Preferences dialog to define the file naming scheme for Windows output fonts: The options described here are used for generating font files in any Windows format: Short (8.
TransType Pro Use the Defaults Page of the Preferences dialog to choose the place where new fonts will be stored: Click the Always ask for destination folder radio button to make TransType open the standard directory selection dialog for each conversion session. Click Save in the same folder as original fonts to let TransType save the converted fonts in the same place as the input fonts reside.
Conversion Process PC to Macintosh Conversion The following key points are important when PC fonts are converted to Macintosh format: 1. Only Macintosh font files have a resource-based structure. 2. Fonts that belong to a font family have to be united in a Macintosh font suitcase structure. 3. Type 1 font files on the Macintosh stay separate from the font suitcase files and are linked to the Macintosh font resources using name reference methods, similarly to the implementation on the PC platform. 4.
TransType Pro TrueType Fonts When you add OpenType TT/ TrueType fonts to the Source fonts list TransType Pro does the following: 36 1. Opens the TrueType font file and extracts information about all the available glyphs, the Unicode mapping data, the font names and the font style (plain, bold, italic or bold-italic). 2. Tries to detect which encodings this font can support. 3.
Conversion Process Changing Font Format By default PC OpenType TT/ TrueType will be converted to Macintosh TrueType, but you can change the destination font format. Press the popup menu button located at the right of the suitcase name in the Destination list to open the following pop-up menu: Destination Format Pop-up Menu Select the platform and the type for the destination font. Tip: If you have multiple selections in the Destination list, your choice will be applied to all selected fonts.
TransType Pro Reencoding Source TrueType fonts can have the following encodings: 1. Normal Unicode encoding. In this case all characters are assigned to their proper Unicode indexes. This makes it very easy to determine to which languages they belong and how they can be used. 2. Normal Symbol encoding. The codes in the 0-255 range are mapped to symbolic or pictorial characters. 3. Simulated Symbol encoding. Symbol encoding is used to map normal alphabet characters of a language to the 0-255 codes. 4.
Conversion Process Symbol Encoding Symbol encoding is usually used to map symbolic or pictorial characters to the 0-255 code space. No reencoding is necessary when you convert such fonts to Macintosh format, so TransType will simply copy the characters and you will use the same codes you used on the PC to access the characters. Unicode Mapping In the case of Unicode mapping in the source font all we need to do is to convert this encoding according to the Macintosh requirements.
TransType Pro Defining the Source Encoding When you add a PC TrueType font to the Source list you can look in the legend field below it. If it says “TransType will use Unicode table to detect encoding”, that means that the font has a valid Unicode mapping table and the conversion is very simple. The Unicode table is used by default in this case, but you have the option to change the source encoding.
Conversion Process Tip: It is possible to change the source encoding for multiple selected items in the Source list at once. But you must right-click on the selection instead of using the pop-up menu button at the right of the font name. When the font doesn’t have a Unicode table or is encoded as a symbol font, the legend will not say that the font is “Unicode” and you will have to use the encoding pop-up menu.
TransType Pro Defining the Destination Encoding When you define the source encoding for a TrueType font you may also define the destination encoding.
Conversion Process Assigning the Codepage In the Codepage submenu you can see three common commands and a list of Macintosh codepage names: Use Default Use the destination codepage selected as the default in the Preferences dialog. Unicode Is not usable in the case described here. Leave as is Do not reencode the source font – any selection in the Source list pop-up menu is ignored. A list of potential codepages to which the font can be reencoded follows these three commands.
TransType Pro Assigning a Script Code After you have selected the source and destination codepages, assign a script code to the font using the Script submenu. Note that for most Macintosh encodings when you select the destination codepage TransType will automatically select the correct script code. Tip: If you have multiple selection in the Destination list, your choice will be applied to all selected fonts.
Conversion Process Customizing Suitcases When you convert several fonts that form a font family on a PC, TransType will automatically combine these fonts into a Macintosh font family suitcase. If for some reason you don’t want TransType to do this, you have the following options: 1.
TransType Pro Select Destination Dialog box In the Select Destination dialog box select the suitcase to which you want to move the font in the Move font(s) to pop-up menu or select New Suitcase to extract the font into a new empty suitcase. Change the font name in the editing field below if necessary. Note that if any fonts in the suitcase have the same style (for example, if you have two italic fonts), then the OK button is disabled. Correct the problem or press Cancel to close the dialog. 3.
Conversion Process Font Properties You can easily edit the destination font suitcase information. Select the suitcase in the Destination list. Press on the pop-up button to the right and select the Properties command in the pop-up menu. The Properties dialog box appears: Font Properties Dialog box (compact) The compact version of the dialog allows you to: 1. View the names and styles of the fonts in this family. 2. Change the destination platform and format in the Destination Format pop-up menu.
TransType Pro For even more control of the font header information, click once on the Advanced triangle. The dialog will be expanded: Font Properties Dialog box (expanded) Normally you do not need to change anything in the font names but sometimes you may want to rename some fonts or rearrange a big font family containing more than 4 fonts. If you don’t know the significance and consequences of changing font names, be very careful when doing this.
Conversion Process In the expanded Properties dialog you can: 1. Change the font Family name. The Family name is the name of the typeface to which the font belongs. All fonts that are from the same typeface must have the same Family Name field. The Family Name is used as the root of the Full Name field so we recommend that you fill in this field first. 2. Change the font Weight. You may enter a custom value in this field or select one of the predefined weight names in the weight popup.
TransType Pro 7. Use the Tools pop-up button to quickly generate all the necessary name fields on the basis of the Family name: Using the Tools pop-up button with the Shift key pressed down affects all the fonts in the family. For example, choosing Revert names with Shift reverts all names for all fonts in the family. Note: The OT Family name and OT Style name fields are used for OpenType PS and TT fonts only. See the OpenType Fonts section for details.
Conversion Process Macintosh FOND Properties When you press the FOND Info button in the Properties dialog, the FOND Info dialog appears in which you can change some parameters: FOND Info Dialog box Usually you won’t need to change these parameters. But if you are a professional in font design, this dialog is for you.
TransType Pro Besides the FOND name, which is the same as the font menu name, you may edit parameters in the following groups. Font family properties: 52 FOND ID FOND resource identifier (or family ID number) lying in the range of the particular script. Changing the script in the pop-up menu to the right will automatically change the FOND ID and vice versa.
Conversion Process Font family metrics: Calculate values automatically If this radio button is checked, TransType will automatically calculate vertical metrics for the destination family. You cannot edit global family metrics manually in this case Use custom values If this radio button is checked, you get access to the following fields to change them.
TransType Pro Style mapping flags (Font Class): Font name needs coordinating This option is switched on if the font name needs coordinating Font family creates the outline style by changing PaintType When this option is switched on, the Outline style of the family will be created by changing PaintType, a PostScript variable, to 2 Font family doesn’t allow simulation of the outline style This option is switched on if the font family disallows simulating the Outline style by smearing the glyph and whitin
Conversion Process Type 1 Fonts Conversion of PC Type 1 fonts to the Macintosh format is similar to the TrueType conversion process with the following differences: 1. The characters in Type 1 fonts are identified by names, not Unicode indexes. 2. The metrics and kerning information of Type 1 characters on the PC is located in separate metrics files (PFM or AFM). 3. There are no multiple master TrueType fonts.
TransType Pro Reencoding Type 1 fonts also must be reencoded when converting from PC to Macintosh. To simplify this process and make it similar to the one used when TrueType fonts are processed, TransType automatically assigns Unicode indexes to all characters in a Type 1 font using a special table containing thousands of name-Unicode pairs. This way TransType can correctly handle Type 1 fonts that have more than 256 characters.
Conversion Process When you add a PC Type 1 font to the Source fonts list you’ll see the popup menu button at the right of the font name. Click on it and you’ll see the menu: Source Encoding Pop-up Menu As you can see, there is a list of codepages (we discussed what this means in the TrueType section above) and two commands – Use Default and Use Names.
TransType Pro If you select the Use Default item TransType will refer to the codepage selected as the default in the Defaults/Codepages & Scripts Page of the Preferences dialog: If you select Use Names (the default option for the source encoding popup menu) TransType will try to convert character names to Unicode indexes and later apply Unicode-based reencoding algorithms.
Conversion Process Metrics Files TransType uses the following sequence to create known font metrics: AFM+INF, PFM, PFB. If metrics for a particular character are not present in the PFM file, then they are extracted from the font file (PFB). After conversion the metrics information is stored in the FOND resource, as required by the Mac OS. Here is a more detailed description of the algorithm that is applied by TransType to find a metrics file: 1. It looks for the name.
TransType Pro Multiple Master Fonts TransType can convert multiple master fonts into virtually any format or platform. After you have added a PC multiple master Type 1 font to the Source Fonts list for conversion, TransType automatically prepares to convert it to a multiple master Type 1 font for Macintosh as set in the Defaults/Formats Page of the Preferences dialog. You can see this in the Destination fonts list of the Main Window.
Conversion Process As with other fonts in the list, you can select the Properties command for greater control of output formatting. The familiar Properties dialog box appears: Font Properties Dialog box You can change font style attributes and the FOND properties here in the same way as for the TrueType fonts described earlier. And one more option becomes available when a multiple master font is converted: Create instance.
TransType Pro After the Instance checkbox is checked, click on the Create button. TransType reads the multiple master font and presents the following dialog with preview: Generate Instance Dialog box The process of creating the single master is very simple: you just select one of the instances of the multiple master font by dragging the Weight, Width and Optical Size sliders and previewing the result.
Conversion Process As you can see it is possible to generate as many font instances as you want from one multiple master font. But this cannot be done in one step. If you are going to generate several single master fonts from one multiple master font, you must then enter a unique family name for each font you're creating in the Family Name field. In both Font Name and Full Name postfixes always enter "Regular": Press the OK button when you are finished defining the instance of the multiple master font.
TransType Pro Suitcases Suitcases containing (“referring to”, if speaking more precisely) Type 1 fonts have no major differences from suitcases containing TrueType fonts (‘sfnt’ resources), so please refer to the TrueType section above for information about suitcase manipulations and font suitcase properties. The only additional option that may be useful when converting PC Type 1 fonts is to force TransType to generate suitcases by checking and using the MSMenuName fields in the .inf files.
Conversion Process Bitmap Fonts Any Type 1 font on the Macintosh must have at least one accompanying bitmap font. TransType Pro will automatically build a bitmap font when you convert a PC Type 1 font to Macintosh format and it can do so using one of two methods: 1. FreeType rasterizer built into TransType Pro. This is the default and the only choice if you do not have ATM installed in Windows: Mac Suitcase Building Options 2.
TransType Pro Macintosh to PC Conversion Converting Macintosh fonts to PC is usually easier than vice versa for the following reasons: 1. There are no suitcases on PCs. 2. PC OpenType TT/ TrueType fonts are based on Unicode, so usually the reencoding process is simpler. 3. Bitmap fonts are not necessary for Type 1 fonts on PCs.
Conversion Process Macintosh Font Preparation Macintosh files have a significantly different structure than regular files do. In most operating systems files are a "container" for raw unstructured data. But the Mac OS uses a different approach. Generally a Mac OS file consists of two forks – data and resource. The data fork can be considered an analog of a regular file, while the resource fork contains RESOURCES. Each of these resources has a type and is supposed to be storage for some kind of data.
TransType Pro Single file MacBinary or BinHex intermediate format The simplest way to deliver a Macintosh file to a PC is to convert it into a MacBinary or BinHex file. These formats were developed for transferring Macintosh files through a heterogeneous network environment. When a Macintosh file is being converted into one of these intermediate formats all its data and resource forks are stored into a single file along with other Mac OS related information.
Conversion Process PC formatted diskette, ZIP or MO disks Another relatively easy way of getting font files to a PC is to copy them onto a PC formatted diskette, ZIP or MO disk. A PC formatted disk is a disk that was formatted for a PC and thus contains a PC disk structure. When copying files on such a disk the Mac OS stores them using a special protocol called "PC Exchange". After you have copied files to such disk, TransType is able to read them directly from the media.
TransType Pro Through special networking utilities and some Networking Operating Systems TransType supports a number of different networking protocols that can see Macintosh files through the network. The supported protocols are: • • • • • • • • • AppleDouble Netatalk AUFS CAP Helios EtherShare PC Exchange SGI DAVE AppleSingle NTFS Services for Macintosh Note: Exchange through some of these protocols may not work depending on version, configuration and other conditions.
Conversion Process TrueType Fonts When you add a Macintosh font suitcase containing TrueType fonts (‘sfnt’ resources) to the Source list, you must let TransType know which codepage it uses. The only case when this is not necessary is when the source Macintosh TrueType font has a Unicode table (usually the case). To select a codepage for the source TrueType font follow the rules that were described when we talked about converting PC TrueType fonts to Macintosh format.
TransType Pro Type 1 Fonts Conversion of Type 1 fonts from Macintosh to PC is very similar to the conversion from PC to Macintosh. The only difference is the handling of the metrics. Metrics information (a character’s width(s) and kerning) is extracted from the font suitcase and converted to AFM, INF and PFM files. Of course, the reencoding information is used when the metrics files are generated so that you get a valid PC Type 1 font file.
Conversion Process TrueType<->Type 1 Conversion By default TransType converts between platforms but not between formats (TrueType to TrueType and Type 1 to Type 1). You have the option to change the destination font type in the destination Format pop-up menu or in the font Properties dialog box. Before you change the destination font type (and actually before adding fonts to the Main Window), it is a good idea to check some of the more important options for generating fonts in the destination format.
TransType Pro Type 1 Options To check and set parameters for generating Type 1 fonts, click the Preferences button at the bottom of the Main Window and refer to the Generate Type 1 section of the Preferences dialog. General Type 1 Options Generate Type 1 Page of the Preferences Dialog There are only four controls on the Generate Type 1 page: 74 Use FontName instead of FullName If this option is checked, TransType will name the files of Type 1 fonts on the basis of FontName.
Conversion Process The Level of automatic hinting pop-up menu allows you to control Type 1 hinting. Autohinting is not needed when conversion from Type 1 format is performed. All old hinting information is preserved in this case. But when conversion from TrueType is performed, the are two ways to deal with hints: 1. To not generate hinting information in a new Type 1 font: Select No Hinting in the Level of autohinting pop-up menu. The font will loose quality in this case. 2.
TransType Pro Macintosh Suitcase Options Generate Type 1/Macintosh Suitcase Page of the Preferences Dialog The options on this page are useful when creating Type 1 fonts for Macintosh. TransType can automatically generate bitmap fonts with one of two rasterizers. Choose between the built-in FreeType rasterizer or Adobe Type Manager™ (ATM) if installed.
Conversion Process TrueType Options To check and set parameters for generating TrueType fonts, click the Preferences button at the bottom of the Main Window and refer to TrueType/OpenType section of the Preferences dialog.
TransType Pro Here is the description of controls which are used to customize the TrueType font (Win OpenType TT/TrueType and Mac TrueType) generating process: Treat single byte destination Win TrueType as Symbol If this option is checked, TransType will generate a non-Unicode Windows TrueType font as a Symbol font. All characters in this font will be mapped to the F000-F0FF range.
Conversion Process Font smoothing is a special technique for improving the appearance of TrueType fonts on the screen. Font smoothing is used by the latest versions of the Windows operating system. With this technique edges of the characters are rendered using shades of gray. Font smoothing may be combined with a gridfitting method that optimizes the character’s appearance by adjusting its outline. The Font smoothing pop-up menu lets you control the usage of these methods: 1.
TransType Pro Embedding And Identification Options Generate TrueType/OpenType/Embedding & Identification Page of the Preferences Dialog The Embedding & Identification Page contains two additional pop-up menus and two checkboxes. The Font's embedding pop-up controls how the font may be embedded into documents. Embedding is a feature of the operating system and some applications that allow programs to include fonts into documents to guarantee that they will be reproduced correctly.
Conversion Process You cannot reduce or remove the embedding restrictions that were set in the source font by the original creator of the font. You can either leave the embedding restrictions unchanged or set the restrictions higher. For example, if the original font has the embedding level Editing of the document is allowed and you change the level to Everything is allowed in the Preferences dialog, then in the output font the original embedding level will be retained rather than the one you set.
TransType Pro OpenType Fonts Among the new features of TransType Pro is the support for the OpenType font format. The OpenType font format, jointly developed by Microsoft and Adobe, allows us to combine the best features of the TrueType and Type 1 font formats. For the end user there is little difference between OpenType and TrueType fonts: both are stored in a single font file, both are Unicode-encoded and Windows and Mac OS directly support both.
Conversion Process OpenType Features OpenType fonts consist of multiple tables. Every table is identified by a tag, which is a combination of up to 4 characters. 3 tables are “responsible” for the OpenType features: GDEF Glyph definition table. Contains information about font glyphs, including their type (simple, mark or ligature), cursive-attachment points and position of the caret inside the ligature character.
TransType Pro Converting OpenType Fonts Conversion of OpenType TT and OpenType PS fonts to the traditional Type 1 and TrueType formats is of no interest because this will just strip out all additional OpenType-specific information from the font. This is possible but not a very useful operation. The more useful types of conversion are as follows: 1. Conversion of OpenType TT fonts to OpenType PS fonts and vice versa. This can be called "changing the font flavor". 2.
Conversion Process The Level of automatic hinting pop-up menu is used when an OpenType PS font is generated. Autohinting is not needed when conversion from Type 1 format is performed. All old hinting information is preserved in this case. But when conversion from TrueType is performed, there are two ways to deal with hints: 1. To not generate hinting information in a new OpenType PS font: Select No Hinting in the Level of autohinting pop-up menu. The font will be unhinted in this case. 2.
TransType Pro OpenType Layout Options OpenType Layout Page of the Preferences Dialog These options are used to customize the OpenType font features generating process: Remove all features Add standard features if possible Convert Apple morph features to OT features Write 'kern' table Write 'kern' feature 86 If this option is checked, all features of the source OpenType font will be ignored. This may be useful when one wants to convert OpenType TT font to the traditional TrueType font.
Conversion Process OpenType Properties You can edit some OpenType font properties when you convert to OpenType PS format. Press on the pop-up button at the right of the suitcase name in the destination font list and select the Properties command in the pop-up menu or just double-click the suitcase icon or name. The familiar Properties dialog appears: This dialog was described earlier when we spoke about TrueType fonts and suitcases. Here we add some information regarding OpenType fonts.
TransType Pro The OT Family name field allows you to define an additional (alternative) font family name. This name can be used to create a family containing more than 4 fonts. You must use the same OT Family name in all fonts that you want to put into a “big” family and make the OT Style name different for each of these fonts. The fonts with one OT Family name may belong to different traditional small families and have therefore different Family names.
Conversion Process The OT Family name appears in the font menu as the “font name”. Please note that this information is used only by new applications that can handle OpenType fonts. Adobe InDesign or other new Adobe programs are good examples. For more information on OpenType fonts refer to the OpenType format specification: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/default.htm The Output Panel When OpenType features are compiled the special Output panel may occur.
TransType Pro FontLab (VFB) Font Conversion TransType can convert fonts from the VFB format used internally in other FontLab products. They can be converted to any format for any platform. There are, however, a few caveats: 90 1. Converting a VFB font in TransType is the same as exporting it from a Fontlab application, only with the additional power that you can choose the encoding. 2.
Conversion Process TrueType Font Collection (TTC) Conversion TransType Pro can open fonts in the TrueType font collection (TTC) format used on PC. The TTC file is actually a set of TrueType fonts in one file. Each font in a collection usually has its own family name and can be converted to virtually any format supported by TransType Pro. When you add a TTC file to the Source fonts list in TransType Pro you get its name in the list: You can see the font collection file , which contains PC TrueType fonts.
TransType Pro Other Types of Conversion By default TransType converts between platforms in one format (PC TrueType to Mac TrueType etc.). This is set on the Defaults/Formats Page of the Preferences dialog and can be changed. You have also the option to change the destination platform and format in the destination Format pop-up menu or in the Font Properties dialog and convert, for instance, Win TrueType/OpenType TT to Win TrueType/OpenType TT or Mac Type 1 to Mac Type 1. Why would you want to do this? 1.
Python Programming One of the unique features of TransType Pro is an integrated macro programming language. With this feature you can program repeated tasks, define custom font transformations, and integrate TransType Pro into a font development system that may include other tools. Macro programs in TransType Pro are written in the well-known and welldocumented Python programming language.
TransType Pro The Python Programming Language Python is a very high level object-oriented programming language. It combines a very clear and easy-to-understand syntax with great power, flexibility and extensibility. Python works on all known platforms and is intensively maintained and updated by many professionals around the world. It is not surprising that during the last few years Python has become a defacto standard for macro programming related to fonts.
Python Programming Installing Python When you run TransType Pro for the first time it will know nothing about macro programming and Python. The Macro pop-up menu is disabled. This means that if you don’t want to use this feature you are not required to and TransType Pro will work smoothly without any Python integration. If you want to use macro programs or perhaps create some programs yourself, however, you have to install the Python interpreter.
TransType Pro Macro Pop-up Menu After you have properly installed the Python interpreter and restarted TransType Pro you will see the Macro pop-up menu is enabled below the Legend field in the Main Window: By default "Do nothing" is selected in the menu and TransType Pro doesn't load and perform any macro program during the font conversion process. You can integrate macro programs (written yourself or downloaded from the Internet) into the Macro pop-up menu in TransType Pro.
Python Programming Writing Programs If you feel ready to create your first macro program you can start by opening a text-editing application. TransType Pro doesn't have its own macro editing interface so you must use a text editor like WordPad or Notepad. First Steps Let’s write a basic program. The “Hello World!” program is a typical benchmark of the simplest useful program you can write. It is very easy to do in TransType Pro/Python: 1. Open the text-editing program and create a new document. 2.
TransType Pro 5. Convert the font as usual. The Output panel will open with the text "Hello World!" printed: All text you output with the Python print operation appears in the Output panel. OK, now you can try more complex macro programs like "Demo Macro" included with TransType Pro.
Python Programming Naming the Programs When you are saving a program and want it to be used in the Macro popup menu you need to name it. There are two ways to name a program: you can store the name in the file name (followed by the “.py” extension) or you can embed the name into the program code. The latter way is recommended – it allows you to keep the filename small but descriptive.
TransType Pro The Programs Structure The next required string following the program name is: from FL import * This string is mandatory and should be included in every macro used with TransType Pro. The remaining part of the program has the following structure: <…> def tr_init(): <…> return 0 def tr_process(font): <…> return 0 def tr_done(): <…> return 0 The tr_init procedure is called every time you press the Convert button that is once before the first font will be converted.
Python Programming TransType Pro Python Classes TransType Pro is based on the FontLab 4 Python API. The highest class in the FontLab hierarchy is a class named FontLab. You cannot create it explicitly, but the object of this class is always available and is named “fl”. The most important member of this class is “font” – the current font as a Font object. The Font class contains all the data that is related to the font in TransType Pro internal data structures.
Technical Details Here we’ll add some technical details for professional TransType users. With the information contained here you can customize some of TransType’s features and better understand how it works.
TransType Pro Type 1 Fonts TransType opens every Type 1 font being converted and partially interprets it to extract the names of all the characters present in the font and the information about the characters’ widths. Note that information about the characters’ bounding boxes is not extracted, so when Macintosh fonts are converted to PC and an AFM file is generated, the font bounding box is used instead of character bounding boxes.
Technical Details TrueType Fonts When TransType opens PC TrueType fonts it looks for a (3.1) CMap table. If this table is found then the font is marked as a normal Unicode font. If not, TransType tries to open the (3.0) table – if this table is present, it means that the source font is a symbol font. The last table that is checked is the (1.0) table usually used to encode fonts on the Macintosh. This table is also used as a symbol-mapping table. If the font contains more glyphs than are covered by the (1.
TransType Pro Customizing Codepages Files containing definitions of the codepages that appear in the pop-up menus are in the Program Files/Common Files/FontLab/Codepage directory and have a simple text structure. You can edit the existing files and make your own codepages following the structure of any existing file. You may put the edited codepages in the Program Files/Common Files/TransType Pro/Codepage/ directory or in the My Documents/FontLab/TransType Pro/Codepage directory.
Bibliography TrueType, OpenType and TrueType Open specifications from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/tt/tt.htm OpenType Specification: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/default.htm TrueType Specification by Apple: http://fonts.apple.com/TTRefMan/index.html Adobe Type 1 Font File Specification: http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/devrelations/PDFS/TN/T1_SPEC.PDF Adobe’s Glyph Naming for Type 1 Font Programs: http://www.adobe.
Support For further information about TransType Pro browse to the TransType home page: http://www.fontlab.com/Font-tools/TransType/ Use the following address to get support information, TransType updates and downloads: http://www.fontlab.com/Font-tools/FontLab-Product-Support/ In case of any questions about TransType or any other of our products use the form at: http://www.fontlab.
A Note on Intellectual Property Digital fonts are complex computer programs created with a good deal of hard work by individuals and companies. They are valuable intellectual property and are protected by trademark, copyright, and patent laws. The details and extent of this protection varies in different countries, but the basics are as follows: Trademark: A font name (and only the name) may be trademarked. Only the trademark owner or licensees may use the name to describe a font.
Appendix A Basics of Digital Font Organization Digital fonts consist of glyphs (drawings) of characters (letters of alphabets/scripts) organized (encoded) in a particular arrangement. Because there are many different languages and scripts each alphabet has its own arrangement (codepage) which allows a computer to know where to find a particular character, retrieve the glyph, and either print or display it for the computer user.
TransType Pro Definitions AAT (Apple Advanced Typography) fonts the TrueType fonts especially designed for use with ATSUI. Like OpenType fonts these fonts have special features such as swashes, contextual forms, ligatures etc. These fonts are widely presented among system fonts in Mac OS X and are supported in Cocoa applications. AFM (ASCII Font Metrics) file A text file that contains the metrics information for a PC Type 1 font.
Appendix A Codepage A 256-character portion of the Unicode encoding table (because that’s how much we can address with one byte of data). The Russian codepage, for instance, contains the characters used in writing Russian: Composite characters The characters that have no outline, but link to other font characters. Good example of composite characters are accented characters, like ‘Á’, ‘å’ or ‘ñ’. Encoding the linear arrangement (also called the encoding vector) of a script.
TransType Pro Notice that now a number (its “code”) is assigned to each character. This is how the computer identifies the character. Also notice that there are no characters 0-31. This code range is “undefined” (meaning that its behavior is unpredictable). When Unicode came along it adopted the ASCII encoding and just added to it. FOND resource Macintosh terminology for the part of a Macintosh font that contains metrics information and describes the contents of a suitcase.
Appendix A PFB (Postscript Font Binary) file A binary file that contains the glyph outline information for a PC Type 1 font. PFM (Postscript Font Metrics) file A binary file that contains the metrics information for a PC Type 1 font. POST resource Macintosh terminology for the part of a Macintosh font that contains an Adobe Type 1 font. sfnt resource Macintosh terminology for the part of a Macintosh font that contains a TrueType font.
