User`s manual

Conversion Process
67
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. Due to their complex structure Macintosh files cannot be
copied or properly accessed from a PC. So there is a need for some
intermediate format or network protocol that packs all the data into a
single file or in some other way represents a Macintosh file on the PC or
other platforms. Unfortunately there is no such standard format/protocol.
Many network protocols are limited to accessing only the data fork of
Macintosh files and that is not sufficient to read Macintosh fonts.
TransType tries many different ways to access Macintosh files through a
network but sometimes it just isn't possible. In this case or if you’re not
accessing the files over a network you will need to do a manual conversion.
There are several ways of delivering your Macintosh fonts to a PC without
any loss of data:
•
Single file MacBinary or BinHex intermediate format
•
Email attachment
•
PC formatted diskette, ZIP or MO disks
•
MacDrive utility and Mac formatted disks or CDs (HFS only)
•
Through some special networking utilities and some Networking
Operating Systems
•
Single Macintosh StuffIt archive