What's Covered

• Type 1 Font Files
• TrueType Font Files
• OpenType Font Files
• Adobe Type Manager
• Font Menus and Style Links

Type 1 Font Files

Most Type 1 fonts are single master fonts, which are adjustable only in style (for example, Roman, italic, bold). A single master Type 1 font is composed of two files: a PFM file and a PFB file.

Some Type 1 fonts are also available in multiple master format. You can customize multiple master fonts along design axes such as weight, width, style, and optical size. A multiple master base font is the multiple master font itself, from which you create variations. These variations are called multiple master instances. A multiple master base font is composed of a PFM file, a PFB file, and an MMM file. A multiple master instance is composed of a PFM file and a PSS file.  Note that Multiple Master fonts have been discontinued.

PFM Files

A Printer Font Metrics (PFM) file contains font metric information for a Type 1 font.

PFB Files

A Printer Font Binary (PFB) file contains mathematical descriptions for each character designed for the typeface. Applications and printers use PFB files to print fonts, and ATM rasterizes them to display smooth text on-screen. For more information about ATM, see the "Adobe Type Manager" section, below.

MMM Files

Multiple Master Metrics (MMM) files are the multiple master equivalent of the single master font PFM files.

PSS Files

PostScript Printer Stub (PSS) files are the multiple master instance equivalent of the single master and multiple master base font PFB files. Applications and printers use PSS files to print specific multiple master instances.

AFM and INF Files

Some single master font packages come with Adobe Font Metrics (AFM) and PC Font information (INF) files instead of PFM files. When you install a font that includes an AFM and an INF file in ATM, ATM merges the AFM and INF files into a PFM file. You can then delete the AFM and INF files.

Font Filenames

Type 1 font filenames are eight characters or fewer, plus a three-character extension. Each Type 1 font filename has an eight-character prefix, followed by an extension that indicates the file's type (for example, .pfm, pfb). Font filename prefixes contain up to five characters, followed by underscore characters to make a total of eight characters. For example, "Hv______" is the complete filename prefix for the font Helvetica.

Font filename prefixes often don't resemble the font's actual name (for example, Akzidenz Grotesk filenames begin with GF, Centaur filenames begin with NR). For a complete list of filenames for Adobe fonts, refer to the following documents:

-- 311307: Adobe Font Name Reference Table (Packages 1-280)

-- 314956: Adobe Font Name Reference Table (Packages 281-908)

TrueType Font Files

Unlike a Type 1 font, a TrueType font consists of only one font file, a TrueType Font (TTF) file, used for both display and printing. TrueType files are installed in the operating system's Fonts Control Panel or Fonts folder. You can also install them using ATM Deluxe. For more information about TrueType fonts, see document328602 , "TrueType Fonts in Windows General Information."

OpenType Fonts from Adobe Files

OpenType fonts from Adobe is a cross-platform font file format developed by Adobe and Microsoft based on Unicode. OpenType fonts from Adobe is an extension of the TrueType SFNT format that supports PostScript font data and new typographic features. Filenames of OpenType fonts from Adobe containing TrueType data have a .ttf. or .ttc extension, while filenames of PostScript based OpenType fonts from Adobe have an .otf extension.

All OpenType fonts from Adobe use a single font file for all of their outline, metric, and bitmap data, making file management simpler. The file names for OpenType fonts from Adobe are clearly descriptive. For example, the font file name for Minion Pro is MinionPro-Regular.otf.

For more information a bout OpenType fonts from Adobe files, see the OpenType fonts from Adobe User Guide athttp://store.adobe.com/type/browser/pdfs/OTGuide.pdf .

Adobe Type Manager

ATM smooths the display of Type 1 fonts at any point size by rasterizing the Type 1 font's outline file. Rasterizing is the process of converting the font information into a scalable bitmap image. After creating the scalable bitmap image, ATM scales the image to the size you use, smoothes the edges of the image, and then displays the smoothed image (that is, the font) on-screen. If ATM cannot rasterize a Type 1 outline file, text may not appear correctly on-screen.

ATM rasterizes Type 1 fonts that adhere to the Adobe Type 1 font specification. ATM cannot rasterize Type 3 fonts, TrueType fonts, and Type 1 fonts that don't adhere to the Adobe Type 1 font specification.

All versions of ATM enable you to install and remove Type 1 fonts in Windows, and to determine which fonts use style links for their style variations. ATM is required to install, remove, and use Type 1 fonts in Windows NT, Me, 98, and 95. ATM functionality is built into the Windows XP and 2000, but ATM is still required to use Multiple Master fonts on those operating systems. ATM Deluxe also enable you to add and remove TrueType fonts. For more information about ATM Deluxe, see the Adobe Web site atwww.adobe.com/print/main.html .

Font Menus and Style Links

In Windows, fonts can have a maximum of four styles (for example, normal, bold, italic, underline) per family in application font menus. Because of this limitation, many fonts have styles such as Bold or Italic that don't appear in font menus. You must apply these styles separately, rather than choosing the font from an application font menu.

In ATM, each member of a style group is listed by its Windows menu name, plus the style you must apply, called the style link, following a comma (for example, "Fontname, Stylelink"). Often, a style group is represented by a single name in the font menu. For example, with its four different styles, Helvetica appears in ATM as:

-- Helvetica

-- Helvetica, Bold

-- Helvetica, BoldItalic

-- Helvetica, Italic

To use Helvetica Bold or Helvetica Italic in an application, you choose the font Helvetica from the font menu, and then apply the type style Bold or Italic.

For a more detailed explanation of style linking, see document328508 , "Font Style Linking General Information."

Products affected