A Basic Course in Font Wrangling Session 23 Saturday, September 12, 2009

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1 A Basic Course in Font Wrangling Session 23 Saturday, September 12, 2009 Erich S. Lehman Premedia Facilities Coordinator School of Print Media Rochester Institute of Technology 1 Everything you wanted to know... How to recognize fonts and font types Where fonts live in Mac OS X How OS X recognizes fonts How to handle OS X based font solutions, aka resources you didn t even know you had Third-party font managers Font Licensing and Font Troubleshooting Handy resources for font issues. 2

2 All about the fonts... Fonts and the OS that loves them. 3 Let s start with the basics. Types of fonts and how to identify them in OS X Unicode Where fonts live in OS X 4

3 Types of Fonts 5 Font Types: PostScript Also known as Type 1 or Type 3 Two parts required (third is optional*) Printer font (LWFN) Screen font - (FFIL) AFM (Adobe Font Metrics) file* not always present. Work great with RIPs 6

4 Font Types: TrueType Apple and Microsoft collaboration All data in one file Added hinting Have many extra features that aren t utilized 7 Font Types: Multiple Master A flavor of PS fonts; contains multiple character outlines Can be interpolated to create variations (think Gutenberg) Can vary sizes, weight, serifs, stance, etc. Causes problems lots of problems 8

5 Font Types: dfont Datafork TrueType font Apple proprietary All font suitcases can be stored in data fork 9 Font Types: OpenType Hybrid font from Adobe and Microsoft True cross-platform One file for all info, best of both PostScript and Truetype worlds Can contain over 65,000 characters and multiple languages in one file 10

6 Font Types: ClearType Microsoft proprietary format Subpixel Rendering technology; focused on LCD screen display Technological benefits do not carry over to print output Effects only seen in Microsoft operating systems 11 Font Types: CID fonts Fonts whose glyphs have no names, just numbers. They are described in relation to other characters and glyphs in a character collection Typically for Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. Need at least two files to be complete: CMap (character map) CIDFont 12

7 Font Type Identification 13 ASCII vs. Unicode ASCII was the original standard, but Unicode trumps it ASCII is limited; Unicode extended characters into the millions Most Unicode fonts are double-byte fonts Most modern OS s fully supports Unicode 14

8 Font Encoding Issues Why older Mac & PC fonts don t play well together: With ASCII, first 128 characters were standard Second 128 (high-bit) are different on Mac and PC, hence, character substitution often occurs These encodings are called MacRoman and Win ANSI 15 Where Fonts Live 16

9 With OS X, things got crazy. There can be up to 8 different places where fonts live OS X is a multi-user environment Allows high degree of customization, but also frustration 17 Font Hierarchy Application Font Book Libraries (showed up in Tiger) User: ~/Library/Fonts Local: /Library/Fonts Network: /Network/Library/Fonts System: /System/Library/Fonts Classic: /System Folder/Fonts Third Party Font Manager (local) 18

10 Cleaning House It pays to be a neat freak. 19 Minimize What do you actually need? What is your most basic, standard set? What fonts can you eliminate? (always save them somewhere!) Get clean, uncorrupted versions of the fonts you use most 20

11 Cleanse Use a utility to validate your fonts to make sure they are not: Corrupt Duplicates Missing pieces, etc. 21 Organize How do you want to group your typefaces? Client Foundry Style 22

12 Manage Font Book or third party font manager Locally hosted or server based Who approves? Who adds? 23 Font Cleanup Links Apple Search Font Handling Design Geek: Extensis Best Practices: Ideas Training

13 Taming the Beast Tools we can use to take control of our fonts. 25 OS-X based Font Solutions 26

14 Font Book Since OS 10.3 Free font manager Font verification Powerful but limited 27 Font Panel Integrated into Cocoa apps Tied to Font Book For apps that don t have type menu like higher-end apps (aka InDesign, QuarkXPress) 28

15 Typography Palette Nested feature in Font Book and Font Panel Allows for automatic substitution and advanced typographic features Dynamically changes based on font features/character set 29 Character Palette Invaluable Only way to input many Unicode Characters Multiple views Tricky to get used to, powerful after that Accessed via the International System Preferences pane. 30

16 Keyboard Viewer Like KeyCaps on steroids Unicode enabled Reflects Input Source Accessed via the International System Preferences pane. 31 Third Party Solutions 32

17 Linotype Font Explorer Multiple versions Detailed font info Clean font caches Standalone and Server 33 Alsoft Master Juggler Solid, easy to use solution Written in Cocoa Integrated tab functions Font Guardian

18 Insider Font Agent Pro User-friendly, all in one app Built-in validation Mac and Win Stand-alone or Server Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2 Melds Suitcase and Font Reserve technologies Assign & search by attributes Font Vault & Font Sense OS X single user; no server Mac and Windows

19 Extensis Universal Type Server 2 Intel-native type solution Melding of all that came before Lite (<10) or Professional Font Vault & Font Sense A Note on Windows Management Finally there are parallel offerings between Mac and Windows! Link into servers with standardized interface Previously, had been a bit of an afterthought at Microsoft 38

20 Fonts in Production Troubleshooting fonts and font problems. 39 Font Ownership and Licensing What does the license allow? How many licenses/devices? Who owns the font? Does the service provider have to buy? Can I embed in a PDF? Flash? 40

21 Missing/Conflicts/Substitutions Probably the most common problem(s) Multiple fonts with the same name Font Substitutions Usually same name but different metrics Font is missing, you might see Courier 41 Corrupt Font Cache Files File that keeps track of your fonts Application and System level Has to be deleted to clear the problem Many utilities and font managers now address this 42

22 Random Font Issues Rogue/unlicensed fonts Finder file flags Font file ID number conflict Font file or suitcase is locked 43 More Random Font Issues Font file structure Missing bitmap fonts Missing PostScript fonts Old style FONT bitmap fonts 44

23 Font Utilities Handy software to help you get by. 45 Font Doctor X Robust repair and diagnostic tool Ships with Extensis Suitcase or available separately View and edit font suitcase files Font file converter 46

24 Insider Smasher Separate and Streamline fonts View and edit font suitcase files Clear font caches 47 Unicode Font Info Like Character Palette, but in a far more userfriendly format 48

25 dfontifier Converts dfonts into OS9 TrueType fonts and vice versa Shareware mdouma46/ 49 Font Finagler Cleans out font caches via interface Shareware mdouma46/ 50

26 Font Nuke Removes corrupt font caches Easy to use Freeware! 51 Font Apps on the iphone Useful apps appearing on the iphone Typography What the Font? Font Size FONTS! Many more each day 52

27 Font Creation, etc. Font Lab: Font Editors: FontLab, Fontographer, Type Tool Font Converters: TransType, ScanFont Font Utilities 53 Contact Information Erich Lehman Premedia Facilities Coordinator School of Print Media Rochester Institute of Technology office: