I have some old Adobe Postscript Type 1 fonts (Mathematical Pi and Times SC OF). For each I have the .pfb file and the corresponding .pfm file. How do I go about installing these in Lion?
I tried just adding the pair of files to ~/Library/Fonts, but I don't see the font in Font Book.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 3.4GHz Corei7, 16GB, SSD + 2T HD
You can't. Those are Windows versions of Type 1 PostScript fonts. You cannot make them work in OS X in any way. At least not in a way where all programs can see them.
Adobe provided a method starting in the CS2 versions of their DTP software. Place them in the /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts/ folder and you will be able to use Windows Type 1 PostScript fonts with the Adobe programs. The CS4 and CS5 programs do not create the Fonts folder mentioned. But all you have to do is go to the /Library/Application Support/Adobe/ folder and create a new folder named Fonts.
For all other apps under OS X, you need to convert the fonts to a format the Mac can read. You can convert to Mac Legacy TrueType suitcase, Mac Type 1 PostScript, or preferably, OpenType PostScript. FontLab Studio and Fontographer can do this, but they aren't cheap. The only free method I know of is FontForge, which is a free open source font editor. You must install X11 (if it isn't already) to use FontForge.
You can't. Those are Windows versions of Type 1 PostScript fonts. You cannot make them work in OS X in any way. At least not in a way where all programs can see them.
Adobe provided a method starting in the CS2 versions of their DTP software. Place them in the /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts/ folder and you will be able to use Windows Type 1 PostScript fonts with the Adobe programs. The CS4 and CS5 programs do not create the Fonts folder mentioned. But all you have to do is go to the /Library/Application Support/Adobe/ folder and create a new folder named Fonts.
For all other apps under OS X, you need to convert the fonts to a format the Mac can read. You can convert to Mac Legacy TrueType suitcase, Mac Type 1 PostScript, or preferably, OpenType PostScript. FontLab Studio and Fontographer can do this, but they aren't cheap. The only free method I know of is FontForge, which is a free open source font editor. You must install X11 (if it isn't already) to use FontForge.
Kurt Lang wrote:
...Those are Windows versions of Type 1 PostScript fonts. You cannot make them work in OS X in any way....For all [non-Adobe] apps under OS X, you need to convert the fonts to a format the Mac can read. You can convert to Mac Legacy TrueType suitcase, Mac Type 1 PostScript, or preferably, OpenType PostScript.... The only free method I know of is FontForge, which is a free open source font editor. You must install X11 (if it isn't already) to use FontForge.
OK, I installed FontForge. When I run it (with X11), open the MathematicPi-One Type 1 font file MH1_____.PFB in it (from the same folder where I also have MH1_____.PFM) and then try to do File > Generate Fonts >OpenType (Mac dfont) > Save, I get a whole list of errors such as self-intersecting, missing points at extrema, overlapped hints in the same hintmask.
Must I go through the glyphs one-by-one doing manual correction? (That way lies madness!)
Kurt Lang wrote:
You can't. Those are Windows versions of Type 1 PostScript fonts. You cannot make them work in OS X in any way. At least not in a way where all programs can see them....
For all other apps under OS X, you need to convert the fonts to a format the Mac can read. You can convert to Mac Legacy TrueType suitcase, Mac Type 1 PostScript, or preferably, OpenType PostScript. ...
Since FontForge failed to convert my .pfb, I searched more and found http://www.fontconverter.org/, where I was able to upload each .pfb, select .dfont as the target format, and immediately download the converted file.
I do wonder whether the associated .pfm files, which fontconverter.org does not ask for, are of any use; my understanding was that the .pfm gives font metrics.
I've never used FontForge myself. I usually suggest it because it's free. So I couldn't tell you why FontForge was generating so many errors.
I tried the site you linked to and it does work very well for Windows Type 1 PostScript of TrueType fonts. I then tried sending various types of Mac fonts and it returns an error message every time of Please select a file to upload before submitting. So the site is pretty obviously geared towards Windows users.
I do wonder whether the associated .pfm files, which fontconverter.org does not ask for, are of any use; my understanding was that the .pfm gives font metrics.
Yes, to perfectly translate a font to another format, your should have access to the metrics. In FontLab, I first open the binary data (the .pfb outlines). Then go to the menu and choose File > Import > Metrics and open the .pfm file. But even so, almost all fonts will translate imperceptibly close to the original without the metrics.
Kurt Lang wrote:
I've never used FontForge myself. I usually suggest it because it's free. So I couldn't tell you why FontForge was generating so many errors.
I tried the site you linked to and it does work very well for Windows Type 1 PostScript of TrueType fonts. I then tried sending various types of Mac fonts and it returns an error message every time of Please select a file to upload before submitting. So the site is pretty obviously geared towards Windows users.
I do wonder whether the associated .pfm files, which fontconverter.org does not ask for, are of any use; my understanding was that the .pfm gives font metrics.
Yes, to perfectly translate a font to another format, your should have access to the metrics. In FontLab, I first open the binary data (the .pfb outlines). Then go to the menu and choose File > Import > Metrics and open the .pfm file. But even so, almost all fonts will translate imperceptibly close to the original without the metrics.
Curious: I had no difficulty selecting a font from the fontconverter.org page in Safari.
I don't have FontLab. I note that the Import function in FontForge does not seem to allow import of a .pfm; at least none of the options offered seem to match that.
Curious: I had no difficulty selecting a font from the fontconverter.org page in Safari.
No, I had no problem selecting a Mac font, but any one I did returned the error message to select a file. It would only accept PC TrueType or PC Type 1 PS fonts.
You have PostScript Type 1 fonts for the PC. These fonts are made up of two files:
* PFB (Printer Font Binary) contains contour data for the glyphs in binary format.
* PFM (Printer Font Metrics) contains metric and kerning data (to display characters on the screen) in binary format.
You cannot install these PC fonts on Mac but, if you have both the files, you may be able to use them in specific applications.
For example, if you have Adobe CS 5.5 installed, copy these two files to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts and all Suite applications will be able to use them.
I've already mentioned all of this information above.
Creating the news Fonts directory worked beautifully for Adobe CS x!
this worked for me,
Using CC, there was already a Font folder here, just dropped them in and it it worked.
Yup, still works. 🙂 The post of mine above is rather old, now. That's why it stops at CS5, which was the latest version at the time. But you can still use the simple trick of adding a Fonts folder for any Adobe suites from CS2 through the CC apps.
This just worked for me with Illustrator CC. Thank you.
How install Type 1 font from pfb and pfm?
