How to open or install fonts from a .suit file under Lion?

Font Management in OS X

That would be the screen font suitcase of a Type 1 PostScript font. By itself, it's pretty useless. You need the matching printer font(s) that go with it.

Type 1 PostScript fonts are a set. One file is a suitcase containing all of the low res bitmap screen fonts. The rest are the outline printer fonts. As an example, here's Adobe Garamond.

Adobe Garamond

AGarBol

AGarBolIta

AGarIta

AGarReg

AGarSem

AGarSemIta

The first file which I highlighted in green is the font suitcase of bitmap screen fonts. The rest are the outline printer fonts.

1) The files for a Type 1 PostScript font must have both the screen and printer fonts for a given set in order to work. They also must be in the same folder.

2) The suitcase of bitmap fonts will work alone, but output will be terrible since the system will print the fonts using the 72 dpi screen fonts in the suitcase if the outline portions are missing.

3) Having only the outline fonts will not work. You can see the fonts, but they will not load. That's not a problem with Font Book, Suitcase or other font manager. None of them, nor the system itself will load outline fonts from a Type 1 PostScript font without the matching suitcase of screen fonts present.

Is it possible to open a font suitcase in OS X 10.7.5? We used to be able to do it in OS 9 but not since then.

Lloyd

Nope. OS X has never had the ability to open the suitcase file. Font Doctor (bundled with Suitcase Fusion or purchased separately) has a function which allows you to copy or move items from one suitcase to another.

I have Suitcase Fusion and I didn't even know FontDoctor came with it. Thanks!

Kurt Lang wrote:

That would be the screen font suitcase of a Type 1 PostScript font. By itself, it's pretty useless. You need the matching printer font(s) that go with it.

Not necessarily true. Font suitcases can also contain TrueType font resources, which are quite useful by themselves. (On Mac OS 9, I put a lot of my TrueType fonts into suitcases to get around the OS' limit on the number of font files it could open.)

Yes, but the question was about .suit files. Only the screen font suitcase for T1PS fonts ever have that extension. Older Mac TrueType suitcase fonts never have an extension. At least, I've never seen one in over 30 years in prepress.

That's a good point -- although I believe I *have* used the .suit extension when I was creating suitcase files for TrueType fonts.

although I believe I *have* used the .suit extension when I was creating suitcase files for TrueType fonts.

You can get away with that because you haven't really changed anything. It's already a suitcase file, with a Type code of FFIL (the Creator code is mostly irrelevant). Adding .suit still tells the OS it's a suitcase.

However, if you do something silly like change the Type code to LWFN (the outline portion of a PST1 set), then neither Font Book, or any other font manager knows what to do with it. It's recognizing the LWFN code, but the data structure of course doesn't match. The file is still a Mac legacy TrueType font. Suitcase Fusion 5 tosses this on the screen when I change the Type code to the wrong one:

Changing the extension to something obviously wrong, like .otf produces the same message. It's trying to parse the data according to what the extension says it is, and nothing lines up.

Trying to use .ttf or .ttc also doesn't work. A Mac legacy suitcase TrueType font is not built the same as a .ttf or .ttc font. Either is technically correct (it is a TrueType font), but that's the only similarity. What's happening in that case is Mac legacy TT fonts have all of the data in the resource fork. When you add .ttf or .ttc to the name, the OS and any font manager then tries to find the data in the data fork. Nothing there.

Kurt Lang wrote:

although I believe I *have* used the .suit extension when I was creating suitcase files for TrueType fonts.

You can get away with that because you haven't really changed anything. It's already a suitcase file, with a Type code of FFIL (the Creator code is mostly irrelevant). Adding .suit still tells the OS it's a suitcase.

Actually, this was in Mac OS 9, so the ".suit" told the OS nothing. 🙂 I might have added the extension to some files when I upgraded to OS X, in order to help the OS figure things out, but that was a long time ago, and I can't now remember.

And FWIW, I was talking about creating suitcases to hold TrueType font resources, not simply changing the extension on existing TrueType fonts.

Actually, this was in Mac OS 9, so the ".suit" told the OS nothing. 🙂

Ah. In that case, it was really nothing. You could have added pretty much any extension to the name and the font would still work normally.

And FWIW, I was talking about creating suitcases to hold TrueType font resources, not simply changing the extension on existing TrueType fonts.

Yes, I know. I was throwing out what happens when you try to play around with the file names (or Type and Creator codes) in OS X. Extensions do make a difference, and since Snow Leopard extensions are considered first as the file type designation - T & C codes second.

You were told that Mac OS X does not use .suit files ; that is not entirely true.

Font Book recognizes TrueType .suit files. If you are unsure, double click on it. Font Book will show you a demo of the font in a small dialog, with a button "Install font" if it is compatible.

Moreover, if you have older PostScript fonts with bitmap fonts, for instance

Bordi (the PostScript file)

Bordini.bmap (the bitmap)

If you double click on Bordini.bmap, Font Book will look next to it for the PostScript file, and once again, offer to install it.

If for any reason you got only the .bmap, it cannot be installed in Mac OS X by itself.

Mitch Bujard

http://FontMenu.com

Not sure why you responded to a two and half year old topic, but okay.

You were told that Mac OS X does not use .suit files ; that is not entirely true.

I'm not seeing that. No one said OS X can't use .suit files.

Font Book recognizes TrueType .suit files.

There is no such thing as a TrueType .suit file. You can deliberately misname a .ttf or .ttc font with a .suit extension, but it depends on what font manager you're using whether or not it will recognize the font that way. Font Book will still recognize it's a TrueType font and not a Type 1 PostScript suitcase file. You can also drop the misnamed font into a Fonts folder and OS X will accept it. If I drag it into Suitcase Fusion, it sees the .suit extension and tries to parse it as what it should be; a T1 PS suitcase font. It can't, and tosses out this message:

If you double click on Bordini.bmap, Font Book will look next to it for the PostScript file, and once again, offer to install it.

As it will a Type 1 PostScript suitcase with a .suit extension. Or as many T1 PS fonts do, with no extension at all. The .bmap or .suit extension on the suitcase portion of a T1 PS font is there simply for the user to pick it out from the outline portions of the font. The extension doesn't need to be there at all.

If for any reason you got only the .bmap, it cannot be installed in Mac OS X by itself.

That is true (didn't used to be). In OS 9 and earlier, and in earlier version of OS X, you could open just the suitcase part of a T1 PS font and you could use it. It would display fine since it contains the screen fonts, but would print terribly since the OS would use those same low res screen fonts for the output since the vector outlines were missing. OS X now ignores such T1 PS suitcase files (as does Suitcase) if the outlines are missing since it's pointless to use the font without the outlines.

I'm not seeing that. No one said OS X can't use .suit files.

Font Book recognizes TrueType .suit files.

There is no such thing as a TrueType .suit file.

The age of a thread is irrelevant. I found this discussion with a Google search about fonts, like other people do.

I posted because you said a .suit file cannot be installed under Mac OS X. It is not true.

And now you compound errors by affirming that there is no such thing as a TrueType .suit. I can only suppose you never used Classic and have no knowledge of the fact that indeed it is possible to have suitcases containing TrueType fonts.

Fontographer 4.7 generated such files, and I delivered thousand of them back in the late 1990's and early 2000.

Not only truetype outlines in a suitcase with extension .suit can be installed in Font Book by simple double click, but they are recognized as supported by Core Text.

Now I am not posting that to start any futile argument, but to make sure someone who has such files in his possession does not fall victim of misinformation. Internet is bad enough as it is.

I posted because you said a .suit file cannot be installed under Mac OS X. It is not true.

I said no such thing. If you can find such a statement anywhere above, please point it out.

And now you compound errors by affirming that there is no such thing as a TrueType .suit.

No, it is not an error. You are creating confusion by mixing file types. The extensions .bmap or .suit are always, and only supposed to be used to denote the screen font suitcase for a Type 1 PostScript font. To avoid confusion, even though it is a suitcase holder, legacy Mac TrueType fonts are not supposed to use an extension. They can, but don't need it. Neither did the screen font suitcase for a T1 PS font. All OS 9 and earlier cared about were the Type and Creator codes. What extension you tacked on after a font's name was meaningless to the OS.

That doesn't mean you can't put TrueType fonts into such a suitcase. Well, you had to since a suitcase was almost exclusively the only way OS 9 and earlier would even recognize a font. OS 9 and earlier let you remove and put pretty much anything you wanted in a font suitcase, which could be either a T1 PS screen font suitcase, or a legacy Mac TrueType font suitcase. People were also really good at destroying T1 PS suitcases in particular. They'd send you the fonts for a job which included the outline fonts for a Type 1 PostScript font, but had removed some of the matching screen fonts from the suitcase file. In which case, that typeface wouldn't work. But clients were constantly sending us Type 1 PostScript and legacy Mac TrueType fonts that had both T1 PS screen fonts and TrueType fonts in the same suitcase. It was a great idea, as long as your goal was to create a mess.

I can only suppose you never used Classic and have no knowledge of the fact that indeed it is possible to have suitcases containing TrueType fonts.

Uh, no. I've been using fonts in a production environment for over 30 years. I've seen and fixed them all. This information didn't come from nowhere. It's years of experience and personal notes dealing with fonts compiled into an article.

Fontographer 4.7 generated such files, and I delivered thousand of them back in the late 1990's and early 2000.

Yes, it did. And it also confused many people doing that since Mac legacy TrueType fonts were not supposed to be saved with a file extension. All it did was make prepress shops worry that they didn't have the outline fonts for a Type 1 PostScript set. But generally, you didn't use TrueType fonts for professional printing back that far. PostScript fonts produced clean, perfect letter forms on the RIP. TrueType fonts produced text that looked like a bunch of first graders had cut the letters our of construction paper.

Now I am not posting that to start any futile argument, but to make sure someone who has such files in his possession does not fall victim of misinformation. Internet is bad enough as it is.

Well, golly! I guess you told me.