Directory fonts/utilities/TrueTypeToType42

TrueType Font to PostScript Type 42 Conversion
Using Program TrueTypeToType42.ps

TrueType fonts are widely available but cannot be used directly in
current versions of PostScript, levels 1 through 3, although, with
Adobe's introduction of Open Type fonts, that may change in the future.
To overcome this, several programs have been written which create a
PostScript Type 1 font from a TrueType font.

With level 2.013 PostScript, Adobe introduced a new font category, Type
42, which is, to use Adobe's own words, a TrueType font wrapped in some
PostScript code. Actually the complexity of the conversion is
considerably more than the word "wrapped" implies and, although the
preponderant view is that the use of Type 42 gives better printed
output than conversion to Type 1, few programs for the conversion to
Type 42 exist. 

This document describes the use of the PostScript program
TrueTypeToType42.ps to generate the equivalent PostScript Type 42 font
file from a TrueType font file. The actual work of "wrapping" is done
by the GhostScript procedure .loadttfont and this program simply
operates on the resulting file. I don't know when .loadttfont was
introduced into GhostScript but I developed this program using version
6.5 and am now using it with version 7.0.

Preliminaries

Before you can run the program, you will probably have to make two
minor changes to it to suit your system.

First, the value of the key /Path is the full path name of the folder
where the output files are stored. This is currently set to D:\Temp and
you may wish to change it. Search for /Path and change its value. Note
that this folder must exist, the program will not create it for you.

Second, the setpagedevice dictionary is set for simplex printing,
taking the paper from media position 3. To change these, search for
setpagedevice and change the value of /Duplex to true and the value of
/MediaPosition to whatever suits your printer.

Running the program

TrueTypeToType42.ps is run under GhostScript from the command prompt
with the command line:

<Full path name of GhostScript executable>
   -I<Full path to the GhostScript main folder>
      -- <Full path name of the conversion program>
         <Full path name of the TrueType font>

NB This is a single command line, it has been folded to fit the text
width. Note that the double hyphen at the start of the third line is
part of the command.

The program generates three files, all in a folder of your choice (see
preliminaries above). The files are:

   The Type 42 equivalent of the TrueType font. The root name of this
   file is the PostScript name of the font and its extension is .pfa.
   For example, the name of the font defined by the TrueType file
   times.ttf is TimesNewRomanPSMT and the name of its Type 42
   equivalent is TimesNewRomanPSMT.pfa. The length of the Type 42 file
   is about twice that of the TrueType original. As the .pfa extension
   implies, the Type 42 file can be treated as any other .pfa file. 

   A PostScript file called ShowAllGlyphs.ps which will display under
   GhostView or cause a PostScript printer to print a table of all the
   glyphs defined by the font alongside their names. This file contains
   a copy of the Type 42 font file in its prologue so that it is self
   contained and can be displayed in GhostView or printed without
   downloading the font.

   A report on the operation of the program in file
   TrueTypeToType42.out.

The folder into which these files are placed is defined in the setup
section of the program as the value of the key /Path. This must be set
to suit your system. Go to the program line %%BeginSetup. After it you
will find a few lines of comments and the the line in question. Modify
the contents of the string being careful to maintain the parentheses
enclosing it. Note that the folder must already exist, the program will
not create it for you.

Since TrueTypeToType42.ps is a PostScript file, it should run on any
platform, i.e. Unix, Linux, Macs, PCs, provided there is a recent
version of GhostScript installed. I am not sure of the precise meaning
of recent but I have run the program under GhostScript 6.5 and 7.0.

The Type 42 file has the extension pfa and can be treated as a normal
pfa file. For example:
   The font can be renamed by changing the value of the /FontName key.
   The font can be reencoded by changing its Encoding vector.
   The font file can be included in a PostScript file.
   The font file can be stored on a printer hard disk.

Running in Windows

What follows is a description of the way I run TrueTypeToType42 on my
system which is a PC under Windows 2000. I hope they will provide
pointers to its use in other systems.

A large number of TrueType fonts came with my copy of Windows 2000. They
are by default placed in folder C:\Winnt\Fonts. This folder has special
properties for working with the Windows font software and I have found
it more convenient to keep a copy of all TrueType fonts in folder
C:\TrueTypeFonts and to convert them from there.

I am currently using GhostScript 7.00.

My command line is:

C:\GS\GS7.00\bin\gswin32 -IC:\GS\GS7.00
   -- D:\Fonts\TrueType\Utilities\TrueTypeToType42.ps
      C:\TrueTypeFonts\<name of the TrueType font file>  

To get round the great length of this command, I have created a
batch file called TTF2T42WE.bat. This can be run from the Windows
command prompt but I find it more convenient to run it from within
Windows Explorer.

To run it from the Windows command prompt, first place a copy of
TTF2T42WE.bat in a folder on your path. I have it in C:\BatchFiles.
Then enter TTF2T42WE followed by the full path name of the TrueType
font to be converted. Pressing Enter will then start the program
and create the three output files. If the current folder is the one
containing the TrueType file, you can enter only the name of the
TrueType file rather than its full path name.

If you prefer to operate from Windows Explorer, as I do, place a copy
of TTF2T42WE.bat in your SendTo folder which in my case is:
  
      C:\Documents and Settings\Thomas H. Barton\SendTo

To use this batch file:

   Start Windows Explorer.

   Move to the folder containing the TrueType file.

   Right click on the TrueType file. This displays a list of
   activities.

   On this list, click on SendTo to display another list of activities
   one of which is TTF2T42WE.

   Left click on TTF2T42WE. This invokes the conversion program. The three
   output files are placed in the folder specified by the /Path key
   in TrueTypeToType42.ps.

Thomas H. Barton,  April 2002
thbarton@shaw.ca