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A meandering bibliography of font related things

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A meandering bibliography of font related things

.. _bibliography.Formats:

Font File Formats

  • PostScript Type1 <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/T1_SPEC.PDF>__

    • Supplement <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5015.Type1_Supp.pdf>__ (discussion of multiple master fonts & counter hints)
    • Format <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/T1Format.pdf>__
    • PostScript unicode character names <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html>__
    • PostScript Language Reference Manual <http://www.adobe.com/products/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf>__

  • PostScript Multiple Master

    • Type1 MM format specification (in the Type1 Supplement) <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5015.Type1_Supp.pdf>__

    • Design considerations <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5091.Design_MM_Fonts.pdf>__

    • Naming requirements <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5088.FontNames.pdf>__

    • Type2 (In March of 2000, Adobe removed multiple master support from Type2 and CFF files)

      • Type2 MM format specification <http://ftp.ktug.or.kr/obsolete/info/adobe/devtechnotes/pdffiles/5177.Type2.pdf>__ (In OBSOLETE type2 spec)
      • CFF MM format specification <http://ftp.ktug.or.kr/obsolete/info/adobe/devtechnotes/pdffiles/5176.CFF.pdf>__ (In OBSOLETE CFF spec)

  • CID keyed fonts <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5014.CMap_CIDFont_Spec.pdf>__

  • PostSript Type2 <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5177.Type2.pdf>__

    • Compact Font Format Specification <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5176.CFF.pdf>__ (CFF)
    • For more information see under :ref:OpenType fonts <bibliography.OpenType>

  • PostScript Type3

    • PostScript Language Reference Manual 3.0 <http://www.adobe.com/products/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf>__ (see section 5.7)

  • PostScript Type14 (Chameleon)

    • The PLRM (5.8.1) documents that this font format is undocumented.

  • PostScript Type42 <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5012.Type42_Spec.pdf>__

  • Adobe Feature File (fea) <http://www.adobe.com/devnet/opentype/afdko/topic_feature_file_syntax.html>__

    • (:doc:FontForge's implementation </techref/featurefile> of this format is a superset of what Adobe accepts, and a superset of what Adobe documents. Neither can completely describe opentype. Adobe claims they will update the feat spec in late 2007).

  • AFM <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5004.AFM_Spec.pdf>__

  • PFM

    • I can't find microsoft's docs for pfm files any more, I think the format may be obsolete having been replaced by ntf.
    • Adobe's notes on PFM files for two byte fonts <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5178.PFM.pdf>__
    • Third Party description <http://homepages.muenchen.org/bm134751/pfm_fmt_en.html>__

  • NTF <http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/graphics/hh/graphics/pscript_7twn.asp>__

    • This format is supposed to replace the pfm files above in windows >2000. I can't find any docs on it.

  • BDF <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5005.BDF_Spec.pdf>__

    • X11 Long Font Descriptor <http://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.5.0/doc/xlfd.txt>__ spec defines standard X BDF Properties
    • ABF <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5006.ABF_Spec.pdf>__ -- Binary format
    • :doc:Extensions to BDF for greymap support </techref/BDFGrey>

  • True Type Standard

    (Sadly different sources have slightly different definitions of less important parts of the standard, be warned)

    • Apple <http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/>__ (I find Apple's prose difficult, and sometimes misleading. I suggest using a different source when possible)
    • Microsoft <http://www.microsoft.com/typography/tt/tt.htm>__
    • random useful site <http://www.truetype.demon.co.uk/ttspec.htm>__
    • TTC <http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/opentype/otff.jsp>__ -- True Type Font Collection

  • Apple Advanced Typography <http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/RM06/Chap6.html>__ extensions to TrueType

  • Apple distortable font (variation tables) -- vaguely equivalent to Multiple Master fonts for TrueType

    • fvar <http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/RM06/Chap6fvar.html>__ (font variations)
    • gvar <http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/RM06/Chap6gvar.html>__ (glyph variations)
    • cvar <http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/RM06/Chap6cvar.html>__ (cvt variations)
    • avar <http://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/RM06/Chap6avar.html>__ (axis variations)

  • .. _bibliography.OpenType:

    OpenType <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_spec.html>__ (postscript embedded in a truetype wrapper, or advanced typography tables in a truetype wrapper)

    • PostScript Type2 <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5177.Type2.pdf>__

    • CFF <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5176.CFF.pdf>__

    • Adobe's version of file format <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_spec.html>__

      • SING Gaiji extension <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/gdk/topic.html>__ (more information is available in the documentation subdirectory of the Glyphlet GDK)

    • Microsoft's version <http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/default.htm>__

    • Possible source of script codes for scripts not specified by MS/Adobe: ISO 15924 <http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso15924/document/dis15924.pdf>__

    • Microsoft's full list of locale/language IDs <http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/lcd-all.mspx>__ (not all are supported, some may never be)

  • Open Font Format Specification (ISO/IEC 14496-22:2007)

    (based on OpenType 1.4 but an international standard)

  • Apple's sfnt wrapper around a PS type1 font <ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/QuickDraw_GX/Documents.sit.hqx>__

  • :doc:Various bitmap only sfnt formats </techref/bitmaponlysfnt>

  • WOFF <http://people.mozilla.com/~jkew/woff/woff-2009-09-16.html>__ -- Web Open Font Format, mozilla's compressed sfnt format

  • PostScript Type42 <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5012.Type42_Spec.pdf>__ (the opposite of opentype, it's truetype embedded in postscript)

  • SVG 1.1 fonts <http://www.w3c.org/TR/SVG11/fonts.html>__

    • SVG 1.2 font hinting proposal <http://www.w3c.org/TR/SVG12/>__

  • :doc:Macintosh font formats </techref/macformats>

  • Windows raster font formats

    • FNT -- Windows version 2 <http://www.technoir.nu/hplx/hplx-l/9708/msg00404.html>__
    • FNT -- Windows version 3 <http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q65123>__
    • Some info on FON file format <http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/publink/winresdump/winresdump/doc/resfmt.txt>__

  • X11 pcf format

    • Sadly there is no real standard for this. There's the source code used by X11 <http://ftp.x.org/pub/R6.4/xc/lib/font/bitmap/>__.
    • :doc:So I wrote my own description... </techref/pcf-format>

  • PC Screen Font (psf/psfu/psf2) <http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/font-formats-1.html>__

  • TeX font formats

    • pk packed bitmap format <http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/knuth/local/mfware/pktype.web>__

    • gf generic font (bitmap) format <http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/knuth/mfware/gftype.web>__

    • tfm metrics format <http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/knuth/texware/tftopl.web>__

    • To make these viewable you probably want to do something like:

      $ weave pktype.web

      $ pdftex pktype.tex

  • SIL Graphite Fonts <http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&cat_id=RenderingGraphite>__ (smart font extension to TrueType. Additional tables containing rules for composing, reordering, spacing, etc. glyphs)

  • Palm pilot fonts (pdb files)

    • font record format <http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/palmos/PalmOSReference/Font.html>__
    • pdb file format <http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/fileformats/Intro.html#970318>__

  • OpenDoc <http://www.bitstream.com/categories/developer/truedoc/pfrspec.html>__. Sadly Proprietary so I shan't support it.

  • Acorn RISC OS font format <http://www.pinknoise.demon.co.uk/Docs/Arc/Fonts/Formats.html>__ (these fonts are often zipped up with a non-standard zip).

  • Ikarus IK format is documented in Peter Karow's book * Digital Formats for Typefaces,* Appendices G&I. (copies may still be available from URW++ <http://www.urwpp.de/english/home.htm>__)

    Interestingly the exact format of a curve is up to the interpretation program.

  • :doc:sfd </techref/sfdformat> files (FontForge's internal spline font database format)

  • :doc:cidmap </techref/cidmapformat> files (Fontforge's format for mapping cids to unicode)

  • XML formats

    • TTX -- TrueType XML
    • UFO <http://unifiedfontobject.org/>__ & GLIF <http://unifiedfontobject.org/storageformats/glif.html>__ -- Unified font objects & Glyph Interchange Format

Other font links

  • Adobe's downloadable font spec <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/5040.Download_Fonts.pdf>__

  • Adobe's technical notes <http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/ftechnotes.jsp>__

  • Adobe's Font Policies document <http://partners.adobe.com/asn/acrobat/sdk/public/docs/FontPolicies.pdf>__

  • PostScript reference manual <http://www.adobe.com/products/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf>__

    • (old reference manual <http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/pdfs/tn/psrefman.pdf>__)

  • Microsoft's downloadable fonts <http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm>__

  • Downloadable PS CID CJK fonts <ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/adobe/samples/>__ (this site also has cmap files)others <ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/cjkv/adobe/samples/>__

  • Downloadable OTF CID CJK fonts <http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrasianfontpack.html>__ (this site also has cmap files)

  • Most recent cid2code tables that I'm aware of <ftp://ftp.oreilly.com/pub/examples/nutshell/cjkv/adobe>__

  • PANOSE

    • PANOSE Classification Metrics Guide <http://panose.com>__ by Hewlett-Packard Corporation, 1991 - 1997
    • PANOSE structure (Windows) <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd162774(v=vs.85).aspx>__
    • PANOSE: An Ideal Typeface Matching System for the Web <https://www.w3.org/Printing/stevahn.html>__ by Robert Stevahn, 1996
    • PANOSE 2.0 White Paper <https://www.w3.org/Fonts/Panose/pan2.html>__ by Hewlett-Packard Corporation, 1993
    • PANOSE <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANOSE>__ on Wikipedia
    • Classifying Arabic Fonts Based on Design Characteristics: PANOSE-APANOSE <http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/981753/>__ by Jehan Janbi, 2016
  • Gimp <http://www.gimp.org/>_
  • Gimp users group <http://gug.sunsite.dk/>_

.. _bibliography.Unicode:

Unicode

  • Unicode consortium <http://www.unicode.org/>__

    • Apple's corporate use extensions <http://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/CORPCHAR.TXT>__ (0xF850-0xF8FE)
    • Adobe's corporate use extensions <http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/type/corporateuse.txt>__ (0xF634-0F7FF) (also includes some of Apple's codes above)
    • :doc:FontForge's corporate use extensions </techref/corpchar> (0xF500-0xF580)
    • A registry of code points in the private area <http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/>__ (does not include any of Adobe's or Apple's codepoints)
    • American Mathematical Society's corporate use extensions <http://www.ams.org/STIX/bnb/stix-tbl.asc-2003-10-10>__ (0xE000-0xF7D7)
    • MicroSoft uses 0xF000-0xF0FF in their "Symbol" encoding (3,0) when they want to an uninterpreted encoding vector (ie. a mapping from byte to glyph with no meaning attached to the mapping)

  • Unicode en français <http://hapax.qc.ca/>__

  • Pictures of the characters <http://www.unicode.org/charts/>__

  • Unicode script assignments <http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/Scripts.txt>__

    • ISO 15924 script list <http://www.unicode.org/iso15924-en.html>__

  • Unicode Bloopers <http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Unicode/Bloopers.html>__

  • PostScript Unicode names <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html>__

    • Glyph names for new fonts <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/opentype/aglfn13.txt>__ (these are the names FontForge automatically assigns to glyphs)
    • Adobe Glyph Names <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/opentype/glyphlist.txt>__ provides further synonyms
    • Glyph name limitations <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph2.html>__

  • Linux issues

    • FAQ <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html>__
    • HOWTO <ftp://ftp.ilog.fr/pub/Users/haible/utf8/Unicode-HOWTO.html>__
    • Linux Unicode man page <http://bobo.fuw.edu.pl/cgi-bin/man2html/usr/share/man/man7/unicode.7.gz>__

.. _bibliography.Encodings:

Other Encodings ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  • Microsoft's Codepages <http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/wincp.asp>, and at the unicode site <http://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/>
  • Mac Encodings <http://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/>__
  • MacRoman <http://devworld.apple.com/techpubs/mac/Text/Text-516.html>__
  • IPA <http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/fullchart.html>__
  • GB 18030 <http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/unicode/library/u-china.html?dwzone=unicode>__
  • TeX latin encodings <http://www.tug.org/fontname/html/Encodings.html>__ (possibly also on your local machine in /usr/share/texmf/dvips/base)
  • TeX cyrillic encodings <http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/supported/t2/enc-maps/encfiles/>__

.. _bibliography.Books:

Books

.. _bibliography.FontForge:

FontForge ^^^^^^^^^

.. _bibliography.Typography:

Typography ^^^^^^^^^^

.. _bibliography.editor:

Font editor concepts ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Karow, Peter, 1994, Font Technology, Description and Tools

Karow, Peter, 1987, Digital Formats for Typefaces

.. _bibliography.TeX:

TeX ^^^

Hoenig, Alan TeX Unbound: LaTeX and TeX Strategies for Fonts, Graphics & More

Knuth, Donald, 1979, TeX and METAFONT, New Directions in Typesetting

Interview

I was interviewed by the Open Source Publishing people at LGM2 <http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org/>. There's an mp3 file of the interview available on their site. <http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/?p=221>