It’s not a “screen font” any more »

Funny, the other day I had just finished a first pass at reviewing and revising the Extensis document on “Best Practices for Font Management in Mac OS X,” when a non-Extensis colleague asked me something about PostScript Type 1 fonts: whether Windows .pfm and .pfb files were pretty much equivalent to Mac screen and printer font files.

What was funny to me was that only half an hour earlier, I had just been adjusting the language about “screen fonts” and “printer fonts” in the Extensis doc.

Anyway, here’s what I said:

First, on *both* Mac and Windows, the phrases “printer font” and “screen font” make no sense any more when referring to the pieces of a Type 1 font. The last time those phrases made sense was at the beginning of the 1990s, before everyone started using ATM, which scaled the outline font (then called a “printer font”) for display on screen. This function has been long since taken over by the Mac and Windows operating systems around 1999-2000.

Heck, Mac OS X isn’t even capable of using the bitmaps from the font suitcase for screen display at all, so it really isn’t a screen font any more.

So, the “screen font” isn’t used on screen, and the “printer font” is used both on screen and on printers.

Which is why I prefer to use the terms “font suitcase” and “outline font.”

The font suitcase for a Type 1 font contains kerning information, which is useful, and bitmaps, which are required, but not actually used anywhere any more… it’s just that you need at least one bitmap size per font. BTW, one font suitcase can contain bitmaps for multiple outline fonts.

The outline font is what it sounds like, the actual scalable outlines of all the glyphs in the font, as well as some platform-independent info such as the PostScript FontName, FullName, yadda yadda.

Oddly, both the suitcase and the outline font contain advance widths—the amount of space allotted for each glyph, including white space on either side of it.

Finally, to answer my colleague’s question? Yes, the Windows .pfm and .pfb files are pretty much equivalent to the Mac font suitcase and the outline font (exactly equivalent in the case of the outline font and the .pfb). The .pfm file doesn’t have bitmaps, but it has other platform-specific info, like the font suitcase.

Of course, font suitcases can also be containers for Mac TrueType fonts, but that’s another story….

[updated 27 Apr 2009 to clarify OS X not using bitmaps at all]

Thomas Phinney joins Extensis »

I can finally talk about this, now that it’s been announced in this press release. Last week I started my new job at Extensis as Senior Product Manager for Font Solutions.

For those who don’t know Extensis, they are the leading vendor of font management applications, whose product line includes Suitcase Fusion and the Universal Type Server, as well as the broader asset management application Portfolio. Extensis is a division of parent Japanese company, Celartem, which also owns LizardTech.

Folks who know me well professionally may recall that I have a long-standing interest in, and passion for, font management. For example:

• I blogged about how Windows font management has lagged behind its Mac OS counterparts in the fall of 2007 (that piece also explains what font management is and why one might need it).
• I have reviewed and contributed bits to Extensis’ article on best practices for font management in OS X several times over the years.
• Back when I was working on my first master’s degree at RIT I developed a font classification system and database of existing fonts that allowed Font Reserve 1.0 to auto-classify most of a user’s font collection—and I’m pleased to see this still in use today in Extensis Suitcase Fusion, the descendant of Font Reserve.
• I have saved my long-sleeved t-shirt for Symantec Suitcase 3.0 for all these years! That was 10 versions ago, before Extensis acquired the product.

On paper I started part time at Extensis on April 1st, though in fact I’ve been ramping up a little more slowly because of two things:

1. I’m in Seattle, and they’re in Portland.
2. I just had jaw surgery last Monday, the 30th, so I am still recovering from that.

The first problem will be resolved by me and my family moving to Portland. We’re renting a lovely house and move in on May 1st.

The second issue will be solved by gradual healing. Although I could already talk passably well later the same day of the surgery, it’s a bit uncomfortable. Plus to talk on the phone, I have to either take off my ice pack or wedge part of the phone under it in some awkward way…. (Actually, since I wrote this a few days ago, I have gone off the ice packs as well as prescription painkillers. Tomorrow marks a week since the surgery. Things are still uncomfortable, but I’m doing okay.)

Anyway, I am very excited about this new opportunity. Portland is a great city in a great area (we already love the Pacific Northwest), the people at Extensis have been quite fabulous so far, and the work itself is fun and offers new areas to grow in.

Open for business »

I still have a few minor things to fix, like doing a graphical version of the blog title. But all the major glitches seem to be ironed out, so I hereby declare this blog open, and I will now go tell people about it.

Welcome: Not ready for prime time (OK, it is now) »

Wanna read about fonts, typography and text? A mix of geeky troubleshooting, info for font developers and thoughts for regular end users who happen to be curious about typography… this is your place.

* * * * *

Or will be as soon as it’s ready. As of today, January 20th, 2008 (Obama’s inauguration day for Americans), I haven’t much publicized this blog because I’m still getting it into shape. Current ETA is uncertain, but probably just a couple of days before it’s in decent shape, maybe a week before I have a second “real” blog post up. [Update: I launched the blog officially on January 26th - T]

I was experimenting with having a blog hosted by wordpress.com, but I didn’t like a couple of things:

1. I could make thomasphinney.com redirect to that site, but I couldn’t have it just show up as if it were at thomasphinney.com.
2. They would only let me upload files of certain formats, which did not include some things I wanted to post. I could use a file-sharing service, but that seemed pretty lame.

So, I was thankful I never publicized that location much, and today I started setting up a WordPress blog on my own domain and my own hosted server. My hosting service has already turned off the redirect, though, so I realized I needed to put some sort of explanation up.

You can still read the little bit of content that I have up here, but expect some structural elements of the site to be not correctly linked or organized. Or you can read the interim blog on WordPress.com (not to mention the blog I used to write on Adobe.com). Once this blog is properly running, I’ll shut down most of tphinney.wordpress.com and leave in a few redirects to this blog, just in case.

Yes, I weirdly have an older post than this one: I wanted to have a couple of posts up before letting people know about the blog, and my first post from the other blog I migrated here, and kept the original date.

I am experimenting with accepting ads from Google. So far I am not impressed by their choices made from analyzing my site. But I’ll give it a good chance before I get rid of it.

See you back again soon!