Is there any way to convert a font suitcase?

I have a bunch of old fonts that I'd really like to use, some have no extensions for some reason, but the Kind says "Font Suitcase".

If they are legacy Mac TrueType fonts, then they'll work as is. There's no need to convert them. If they aren't working, then it would be because they're damaged.

The other older font type which also includes a font suitcase are Type 1 PostScript fonts. However, if all you have is the suitcase, then there are no printer outlines to read or convert. The suitcase of T1 PS fonts only contains bitmap screen fonts. The printer fonts of a T1 PS set are separate items.

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.

for instance, I need to convert a particular font to a "webfont" which is a font that can be included in a website's stylesheet.

If you don't already know this, be aware that a webfont has to be in four different flavors. A little info on that here.

So basically, any font suitcases I have, I just can't use anymore, because I can't do anything with them.

Why wouldn't you be able to continue to use the same fonts? You send copies of the fonts with your project to the printer and you still have your own copies to use.

Unfortunately, most commercial printers cannot use Font Suitcases so sending them a font suitcase for a project would raise a few eyebrows I think.

Hmm, having been in the professional prepress end for over 30 years, I can say without reservation that using fonts in suitcase form have been, and still are being used extensively. We use them all the time, as do our clients.

Even an OpenType font is a suitcase of sorts (as is an Apple .dfont). Like the older original TrueType font format, OpenType fonts (PostScript or TrueType) contain both the screen and printer fonts within the same file. A TrueType Collection (.ttc) contains multiple screen and printer fonts, just like an old Mac legacy TrueType font suitcase.

You cannot use a font suitcase to convert to a webfont though, so still searching.

Why not? Not trying to be difficult, I just can't see why since all fonts are a suitcase of one type or another.

TransType did the trick wonderfully! But, that's only a beta version that expired on 3/31, and they haven't released the software yet.

TransType has been available for years, though I do see what you mean. Version 4, which is the only version that supports the export of webfonts, is still in beta. In the meantime, there's sites like this, or this, where you upload your normal font, and it kicks out converted webfonts for you.

You're lucky you can find printers that can use font suitcases, that's cool.

Reading the rest of your latest post, I see what you mean now. You're referring to old Mac suitcase style fonts, like from OS 9 or earlier. MS Office (even the 2011 version) installs them. Most printers now do prefer you not send those. Or as you found, they won't take them at all.

Thanks for the links, I tried Font2Web, but it says "This file type is not supported. You can only upload .ttf and .otf files"

There would be at least two reasons for that. One, legacy Mac TrueType suitcase fonts have no font data in the data fork (nor do Mac Type 1 PostScript). Everything is in the resource fork. So as far as such sites are concerned, they see the font as empty.

The other is that such fonts, and .ttc fonts, contain or can contain multiple type faces. Up to 999 of them. So the site either doesn't know what to do with them, or they just won't attempt to figure out if you mean you want all of them converted, or only some.

.otf or .ttc fonts work because the data is in the data fork, and they will be only one typeface, so such site's have no confusion as to how to handle them.

What you can do in the meantime is purchase the pro version of TransType 3. Though I'd first check to see if you get a free upgrade to version 4 when it's ready. With version 3, you can first convert all of your suitcase fonts into individual OpenType fonts, then feed them to the web sites I linked to covert the .otf fonts to webfonts. Roundabout, but it would work.

At $99, FontXChange seems to be your best bet. Especially since it's already updated to make conversions to webfonts.

The only free software I've ever seen for creating or converting fonts is the open source FontForge. It requires that you have the X11 windowing software installed in OS X to use it. As far as I can tell, the only webfont format it creates is WOFF, so you'd be missing the pared down True Type font, the EOT file and SVG file.

I spent hours online trying to open up an old font suitcase. Finally, I found freeware that can do it!

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7412462/using-os-9-resource-fork-fonts-in-css -with-font-face/7418915#7418915

Check this out... it worked perfectly.

Pay for it even easir. http://fontgear.net/fontxchange.html