Hi,
As far as I know, getting same fonts in RISC OS as in Windows hasn’t been as
easy as it is now.
Current Windows comes mainly with TrueType and OpenType (extension .otf) fonts.
In these fonts TrueType technology for rendering on screen and PostScript
conventions for PostScript printing -when this kind of printing is preferred.
Besides that, many fonts -be it TrueType or OpenType - come with Unicode
support. Fonts can contain more than one Encoding of 256 chars (0 - 255).
Examples of such an 8-bit Encoding: Windows Western or Windows ANSI. Can be
compared with Latin 1 Encoding in RISC OS - except the fi ligature. And ... in
general a restriction for the use of PS Type 1 ...
Till now. Till I discovered the website: “Fonts2U Online converter”
<http://www.fonts2u.com/font-converter.html>
Described there as
“Our online converter converts fonts between major font formats.
Supported font formats:
- TrueType (.ttf)
- OpenType (.otf)
- PostScript Type 1 (.pfb)
- Macintosh OS X Data Fork (.dfont)
To get there on the page, just scroll down.
It is easy to use:
1) Upload/Select font file to convert. Recognised by Windows extension.
2) Choose to which format to convert.
3) Next you have to enter the “Antibot code” as displayed distorted.
4) Hit “Convert”
Conversion is done. Converted file can be downloaded (in a zip).
Conversions are done with “FontForge” as the underlying font editor.
This editor is a free, friendly editor, which can import and export Type 1 as
used in RISC OS inside RISC OS font folders.
It can be downloaded from: http://fontforge.github.io/en-US/
Using the program ITSELF for conversion is maybe a worse idea: the online
converter has very good to the best configuration possible.
The ”Fonts2U Online converter” works OK for conversion of TrueType or OpenType
to PostScript Type 1 (.pfb). As needed for the conversion to RISC OS fonts. OK,
Except, when a faulty .pfb / Type 1 is produced. Faulty here means, also
not-suitable. Among these also the fonts like Arial, Calibri, Tahoma and
Verdana.
In general, it can be seen at the size of the files pfb and afm, whether
conversion in RISC OS will be successful.
Due to the restriction of the PS Type 1 format, the font is restricted to a
8-bit Encoding – 256 characters.
You can find the installed TrueTypes or OpenTypes in “Control Panel > All
Control Panel Items > Fonts”. With “View” set to Extra Large, Large or Medium
icons you see a pile, when there is more than one font. Also this view shows
you a small impression of the look of the font.
For conversion, they have to be copied to a normal folder. Then the pile is
split into the individual fonts.
Upload –as described above- .ttf or .otf file.
Convert to pfb. Download the zip. The zip contains .pfb and .afm files. Taken
the zip to RISC OS: with !SparkFS NO extraction of the files needed.
Next step is converting with !T1ToFont - with the appropriate Encoding. Here
THE choice is “Acorn Extended Encoding” – except for symbol / not textual
fonts. Activate “Keep PostScript” ON for best possible result for PostScript
or pdf printing. Of course, the Font$path for the output has to be another than
“Resources”.
Two remarks: Since TrueType and OpenType only know ‘families’ from 1 to 4
fonts, it makes sense to convert all the members, when you convert to Type 1 /
RISC OS. The 4 members are connected to “Normal”, “Bolder than Normal”,
“Italic” and “Bolder + Italic”. This also works in RISC OS ... when there are
no more than 4 ‘members’ in a font family. RISC OS structure is different: more
than 4 members (or fonts) can be in ONE font family (folder).
“What is what” is defined inside the (TrueType / OpenType) font. Hence a “Demi
Bold” can be a “Normal”. An “Italic” can be an Oblique, Cursive or a Slant
(both a kind of Skew) or Script like drawn in a (Calligraphic) angle.
What we know as Vogue Book, Vogue Book Oblique, Vogue Demi and Vogue Demi
Oblique is known in a MENU as “Normal”, “Italic”, “Bold” and “Bold Italic”. To
know the real name, you have to go to (Windows) Fonts in Control Panel. In
conversion to .pfb > RISC OS the name inside the font is preserved.
There are (at least) 2 possible problems:
1) A TrueType or OpenType font name (inside the font and NOT the file name)
can be too long to get the same in RISC OS. Makes having same names on both
platforms not always possible.
2) Drawing a TrueType or OpenType is done with a lot of path elements.
That’s part of the design. RISC OS knows a limit of path elements allowed in a
font. When a converted font has too much path elements, the RISC OS font can’t
be rendered by the font manager.
To get an idea: an “O” in RISC OS is ideally drawn with 4 path elements for
each outline, in True Type with 20 or 12 ...
The problem of a not-suitable Type 1, based on the underlying .ttf or .otf., is
already mentioned above.
The result: look at these with !Chars or inside Ovation Pro (f11 or Misc...
Characters). Of course, the Font$Path for the output has to be changed from
“Resources”.
Summary: I value the Fonts2U Online converter”
<http://www.fonts2u.com/font-converter.html>.
For me: the first time after many, many years there is a font conversion tool
available, which does a good job and can be used easily. Although the
description above can give the opposite impression.
I hope more people than me can appreciate this tool,
Tonnie Demarteau
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
