How do I convert a truetype font to postscript?

[ElvishHolic]

Hello friends,

I need a free software that can convert Windows fonts (true-type) to be used on Macintosh (postscript fonts.) Any software?

Best regards
Elvish Holic

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Hello friends,

I need a free software that can convert Windows fonts (true-type) to be used on Macintosh (postscript fonts.) Any software?

Best regards
Elvish Holic

Why would you want to do that?

TrueType is natively supported on MacOS. I don't know that PostScript is, but if it is, it surely wouldn't be as well-supported as TrueType.

 

[zuben el genub]

Are you printing a document that needs postscript? We used to have to use PS since TT never kerned right on laser printers. Postscript is a machine language. Easier to deal with vector fonts. You can stretch a vector font (based on coordinates to any size and you don't see jagged edges. TT is a bitmap. They were horrible when enlarged until publishing programs caught up.)

You shouldn't have to do that today. If you do need one, you might just have to find a substitute in a program like Adobe Illustrator which uses both.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Postscript is a machine language. Easier to deal with vector fonts. You can stretch a vector font (based on coordinates to any size and you don't see jagged edges. TT is a bitmap.

This is incorrect. TrueType is outline-based, and generally renders as well as or better than PostScript fonts.

As a font-handling technology, PostScript is pretty much obsolete these days. I don't know that it's even supported on the Macintosh any more.

 

[Speed Daemon]

Postscript is a machine language.

Nope, it's plain text. Technically it's a programing language.

The mistake that's being made here is confusing the PostScript language with the various glyphs and fonts that PS can use. Does anybody remember the days of Adobe Type Manager? PS is the description language, not a font.

ElvishHolic, TrueType was developed at Apple, for Apple, as a replacement for Adobe fonts. There's no need to convert TrueType for use with a Mac. Because OSX uses PDF to render, and PDF is more advanced than PS, you're going backwards by using PS. But if you must, make sure you convert to Type 1 or Type 3. You can use this online font converter.

 

[zuben el genub]

I used Adobe Type Manager. You couldn't blow up a bitmapped font years ago - you got the jaggies. I had to rent a laser printer to proof something for a class. Some sections of a project were not printing right using the old TT fonts and at that time inkjets didn't deal with PS unless you ripped the font.

Since that time and advances in desktop publishing, things have improved greatly.

You do have to convert some fonts to outlines if digitizing embroidery. Embroidery machines use coordinates to move the needle. Most digitizing programs have software included to do this for you automatically.

 

[Speed Daemon]

I have a vague memory from when I was working my way up the IT ranks as a field technician, and was introduced to a 2nd generation HP LaserJet, the kind that took font cartridges. The client had an app that relied on this one proprietary cartridge. This was back when there were a lot of DOS programs still in use, and each program had its own way to print formatted documents. I pulled out a lot of hair finding a solution for that client, and even more trying to teach them to use the new way.

The old PPA InkJet printers were never meant to do much more than be inexpensive to purchase. They didn't support PCL or any other printing protocols, and didn't support things like downloadable fonts. The only way they could handle complex formatted documents was to have the computer rasterize the entire document and send it as graphics to the printer.

Now that most office printers accept PCL, and support downloading fonts, a lot of the old problems seem to have disappeared. But the old trick of using the computer to do all the typesetting and sending it to the printer as graphics is still a good one to remember.