[XeTeX] Type1 and TTF to OTF converter

[Alexey Kryukov]

On Tuesday 06 January 2009, Alan Jones wrote:
> Hi:
>
> Is there script or software to convert Type 1 PS and WIndows TrueType
> fonts to OpenType OTF fonts for Debian Linux. I find XeTeX best works
> with otf fonts

It is generally a bad idea to convert TrueType fonts into OpenType (with
PostScript contours): almost certainly you will get contours of lower
quality. Also, TrueType hinting information can't be automatically
converted to PS format, which means you have to regenerate PS hints
from scratch. The most part of this work can be done automatically
(e. g. with fontforge), but still it is not trivial and requires
some level of understanding what exactly you are doing.

Particularly I don't see any reasons to convert TTF to OTF just in order
to use them with XeTeX, because XeTeX in my experience deals quite
well with both formats. Of course converting Type 1 to OTF is a
completely different case, as this operation is safe and really can
be recommended in case of problems.

-- 
Regards,
Alexej Kryukov <anagnost at yandex dot ru>

Moscow State University
Historical Faculty