A Basic Course in Font Wrangling Session 23 – Saturday, September 12, 2009 Erich S. Lehman Premedia Facilities Coordinator School of Print Media Rochester Institute of Technology Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 1 Everything you wanted to know . How to recognize fonts and font types Where fonts live in Mac OS X How OS X recognizes fonts How to handle OS X based font solutions, aka “resources you didn’t even know you had” Third-party font managers Font Licensing and Font Troubleshooting Handy resources for font issues. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 2 All about the fonts . Fonts and the OS that loves them. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 3 Let’s start with the basics. Types of fonts and how to identify them in OS X Unicode Where fonts live in OS X Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 4 Types of Fonts Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 5 Font Types: PostScript Also known as Type 1 or Type 3 Two parts required (third is optional*) Printer font (LWFN) Screen font - (FFIL) AFM (Adobe Font Metrics) file* – not always present. Work great with RIPs Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 6 Font Types: TrueType Apple and Microsoft collaboration All data in one file Added “hinting” Have many extra features that aren’t utilized Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 7 Font Types: Multiple Master A flavor of PS fonts; contains multiple character outlines Can be interpolated to create variations (think Gutenberg) Can vary sizes, weight, serifs, stance, etc. Causes problems – lots of problems Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 8 Font Types: dfont Datafork TrueType font Apple proprietary All font suitcases can be stored in data fork Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 9 Font Types: OpenType Hybrid font from Adobe and Microsoft True cross-platform One file for all info, best of both PostScript and Truetype worlds Can contain over 65,000 characters and multiple languages in one file Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 10 Font Types: ClearType Microsoft proprietary format Subpixel Rendering technology; focused on LCD screen display Technological benefits do not carry over to print output Effects only seen in Microsoft operating systems Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 11 Font Types: CID fonts Fonts whose glyphs have no names, just numbers. They are described in relation to other characters and glyphs in a character collection Typically for Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. Need at least two files to be complete: CMap (character map) CIDFont Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 12 Font Type Identification Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 13 ASCII vs. Unicode ASCII was the original standard, but Unicode trumps it ASCII is limited; Unicode extended characters into the millions Most Unicode fonts are “double-byte fonts” Most modern OS’s fully supports Unicode Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 14 Font Encoding Issues Why older Mac & PC fonts don’t play well together: With ASCII, first 128 characters were standard Second 128 (high-bit) are different on Mac and PC, hence, character substitution often occurs These encodings are called MacRoman and Win ANSI Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 15 Where Fonts Live Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 16 With OS X, things got crazy. There can be up to 8 different places where fonts live OS X is a multi-user environment Allows high degree of customization, but also frustration Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 17 Font Hierarchy Application Font Book Libraries (showed up in Tiger) User: ~/Library/Fonts Local: /Library/Fonts Network: /Network/Library/Fonts System: /System/Library/Fonts Classic: /System Folder/Fonts Third Party Font Manager (local) Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 18 Cleaning House It pays to be a neat freak. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 19 Minimize What do you actually need? What is your most basic, standard set? What fonts can you eliminate? (always save them somewhere!) Get clean, uncorrupted versions of the fonts you use most Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 20 Cleanse Use a utility to validate your fonts to make sure they are not: Corrupt Duplicates Missing pieces, etc. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 21 Organize How do you want to group your typefaces? Client Foundry Style Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 22 Manage Font Book or third party font manager Locally hosted or server based Who approves? Who adds? Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 23 Font Cleanup Links Apple http://www.apple.com/support/ Search “Font Handling” Design Geek: http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/fonts-osx.html Extensis Best Practices: http://doc.us.extensis.com/Fonts-Best-Practices-in-OSX.pdf Ideas Training http:// www.ideastraining.com/PDFs/OSX_FontManagement.pdf Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 24 Taming the Beast Tools we can use to take control of our fonts. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 25 OS-X based Font Solutions Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 26 Font Book Since OS 10.3 Free font manager Font verification Powerful but limited Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 27 Font Panel Integrated into Cocoa apps Tied to Font Book For apps that don’t have type menu like higher-end apps (aka InDesign, QuarkXPress) Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 28 Typography Palette Nested feature in Font Book and Font Panel Allows for automatic substitution and advanced typographic features Dynamically changes based on font features/character set Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 29 Character Palette Invaluable Only way to input many Unicode Characters Multiple views Tricky to get used to, powerful after that Accessed via the International System Preferences pane. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 30 Keyboard Viewer Like KeyCaps on steroids Unicode enabled Reflects Input Source Accessed via the International System Preferences pane. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 31 Third Party Solutions Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 32 Linotype Font Explorer Multiple versions Detailed font info Clean font caches Standalone and Server http://www.fontexplorerx.com Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 33 Alsoft Master Juggler Solid, easy to use solution Written in Cocoa Integrated tab functions Font Guardian http:// www.alsoft.com Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 34 Insider Font Agent Pro User-friendly, all in one app Built-in validation Mac and Win Stand-alone or Server http:// www.fontagent.com Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 35 Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2 Melds Suitcase and Font Reserve technologies Assign & search by attributes Font Vault & Font Sense OS X single user; no server Mac and Windows http:// www.extensis.com Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 36 Extensis Universal Type Server 2 Intel-native type solution Melding of all that came before Lite (<10) or Professional Font Vault & Font Sense http:// www.extensis.com Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 37 A Note on Windows Management Finally there are parallel offerings between Mac and Windows! Link into servers with standardized interface Previously, had been a bit of an afterthought at Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/typography Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 38 Fonts in Production Troubleshooting fonts and font problems. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 39 Font Ownership and Licensing What does the license allow? How many licenses/devices? Who “owns” the font? Does the service provider have to buy? Can I embed in a PDF? Flash? Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 40 Missing/Conflicts/Substitutions Probably the most common problem(s) Multiple fonts with the same name Font Substitutions Usually same name but different metrics Font is missing, you might see Courier Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 41 Corrupt Font Cache Files File that keeps track of your fonts Application and System level Has to be deleted to clear the problem Many utilities and font managers now address this Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 42 Random Font Issues Rogue/unlicensed fonts Finder file flags Font file ID number conflict Font file or suitcase is locked Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 43 More Random Font Issues Font file structure Missing bitmap fonts Missing PostScript fonts Old style FONT bitmap fonts Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 44 Font Utilities Handy software to help you get by. Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 45 Font Doctor X Robust repair and diagnostic tool Ships with Extensis Suitcase or available separately View and edit font suitcase files Font file converter http://www.extensis.com Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 46 Insider Smasher Separate and Streamline fonts View and edit font suitcase files Clear font caches http://insidersoftware.com/ Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 47 Unicode Font Info Like Character Palette, but in a far more user- friendly format http://www.versiontracker.com Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 48 dfontifier Converts dfonts into OS9 TrueType fonts and vice versa Shareware http://homepage.mac.com/ mdouma46/ Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 49 Font Finagler Cleans out font caches via interface Shareware http://homepage.mac.com/ mdouma46/ Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 50 Font Nuke Removes corrupt font caches Easy to use Freeware! http://www.jamapi.com/pr/fn/ Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 51 Font Apps on the iPhone Useful apps appearing on the iPhone Typography What the Font? Font Size FONTS! Many more each day Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 52 Font Creation, etc. Font Lab: http://www.fontlab.com/ Font Editors: FontLab, Fontographer, Type Tool Font Converters: TransType, ScanFont Font Utilities Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 53 Contact Information Erich Lehman Premedia Facilities Coordinator School of Print Media – Rochester Institute of Technology [email protected] office: 585.475.2766 http://esl6835.cias.rit.edu/FONT Presentation © 2009 Erich S. Lehman. 54.