.dfont distribution question

A

abkbolt

Registered
We have some old files set up under OS 9 in Freehand 8/9, that used the Gill Sans font family. Upon upgrading to OS X and Freehand 10, there seems to be some type of corruption in the older Gill Sans suitcase printer fonts. I see that there is a Gill Sans .dfont pre-installed in the fonts folder. Can this be distributed freely? Also, what systems is it compatible with? (windows? OS 9?) I can't afford to change the font over, and then the printer can't use it....

Thanks for any info y'all can provide.

Andy
 
[I'm a rambling man]

I remember having problems with the new OS X system fonts which have been largely solved by Suitcase X1.

Don't assume there is a problem with your old font - this may well be a conflict with the system font, which is being called in preference to your previously installed version.

You might want to try Suitcase X1. Or a hands on approach: remove the GillSans.dfont from the system fonts folder it sits in - long time since I did this - probably best to quit all apps - then, as an admin user move it out to a any non system recognised font folder - activating the older version you have by moving/copying it (printer and screen fonts if a PostScript font) into, for example, /Library/Fonts. Then try Freehand again.

.dfont are Mac OS X only - basically TrueType fonts with some MacMagic (TM)... nice fonts - but unfortunately they often cause conflict. There's only a few system fonts that you really need to keep controlled by the system (Gill Sans is not one of them) - use a font manager to sort the rest. I'm not trying to sell Suitcase - by in the absence of ATM Deluxe, well - I didn't have much choice when originally moving to OS X. Two of the good things in Suitcase X1 are easy management of non-essential system fonts and the bundled FontDoctor application. Although Suitcase can verify and repair fonts - FontDoctor [a very powerful repair and organisational tool] can split up custom font suitcases submitted by clients who have used preflight apps to collect different fonts into a single suitcase (more potential conflict, innit). Try saying that in one breath.No don't.

[I did get excited by Apple's Font Book - but this seemed to leave a load of rubbish in its wake after moving on to something more capable.]

I still have occasional font issues - particularly with font previews (perhaps these are as much to do with Mac OS X as anything else) but I'm happily(ish) and still working in OS X 10.3 and classic even with a bloated database of 1,600 font families plus miscellaneous supplied fonts.

Sorry to go on (as usual) hope this helps

Gabs
 
The .dfont fonts are, in fact, the newer Opentype format fonts, which contain extra font information and font style information. They are not "basically TrueType fonts with some MacMagic (TM)", nor are they Mac specific; the case is that currently not all font managers or Operating Systems can handle them. Thankfully Suitcase 10 & 11 both handle Opentype fonts just fine, as do, I believe, a few of the other professional font managers.

Note: To avoid font conflicts between Postscript Type 1 fonts and any bundled Opentype equivalents, use Suitcase's option of overriding system fonts (this uses the Postscript version instead).

With regards to the original question about distribution, exactly the same legal rules apply as to any other commercial fonts (because that is what they are - Apple just gave you a license to use them for free with the OS).

On the technical side, however, chances are that many prepress houses won't be using Opentype fonts yet, so I recommend either converting the font to paths (if the application you are working in has this function), or producing a PDF of the final artwork so the fonts are embedded.
 
pdf all the way.

Suitcase also has a font doctor program that comes with it that may fix the problem with the "problem font." Just be aware that if it determines the font in question is "bad" you may not be able to use it from that point on in suitcase. (I have to admit that I have used Suitcase X1 for the past 4 months, but I am not very well accustomed to it yet.)
 
Title
Mac OS X: Font File Formats

Article ID:
25251

Created:
2001-02-22

Modified:
2003-09-10
Topic
Mac OS X introduces a new font format and adds support for certain font formats used by Microsoft Windows. This article discusses the formats and the implications for users.

Discussion
Data Fork Suitcase Format

One of the innovations offered by Mac OS X is that font suitcases can be completely stored in a file's data fork. All of the resource fork's data is stored in the data fork, which allows more efficient access to font data as well as the ability to copy font suitcases to and from file systems that do not recognize resource forks.

The data fork suitcase format is different from the data fork TrueType font format used by Microsoft Windows. Data fork suitcases contain all of the resources associated with a Macintosh font, including 'FOND' and 'NFNT' resources, which are used with QuickDraw Text.

Data fork suitcases must have the filename extension '.dfont'. They may optionally be given the file type 'dfon'.

Microsoft Windows Font Formats

Mac OS X also works with font formats used by Microsoft Windows. These fonts have all their data in the data fork and do not have the additional resources found in Macintosh fonts. Mac OS X works with these font formats:
TrueType fonts (with the extension .ttf)
TrueType collections (with the extension .ttc)
OpenType fonts (with the extension .otf).

Older Macintosh Fonts

Font suitcases used by Mac OS 9 and earlier continue to work with Mac OS X. No revision or conversion is necessary.
 
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