[OS X TeX] OT: Using FontForge to create .otf.dfont files from .pfb files

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 7 avr. 05, à 17:10, Bruno Voisin a écrit :

> To those experienced in using FontForge to create Mac fonts:
>
> I have been using FontForge to open, then edit (modifying glyphs 
> manually) and finally save in Mac format a free .pfb font (the font 
> was originally in Classic LWFN PostScript format, converted to .pfb 
> using t1unmac). In order to preserve the PostScript quality, I chose 
> the Mac OpenType format .otf.dfont, as for the Latin Modern fonts 
> installed by the TeX i-Package.
>
> The font is then used in Illustrator 10, for incorporation in a logo. 
> Alas, in Illustrator every single key I type seems to be shifted one 
> character: when typing A I get B, when typing B I get C, etc. This 
> does not happen if I choose the Mac TrueType format .dfont, but in 
> that case there is a conversion from PostScript to TrueType which, I 
> imagine, inevitably means some slight loss in quality. [...]

In case some people looked at this:

The problem was solved by saving the modified font in Classic 
PostScript font format, namely a FFIL TrueType screen font suitcase 
(corresponding to FontForge's "True Type (Resource)" format) and a LWFN 
PostScript printer font file (corresponding to FontForge's "PS Type 1 
(Binary)" PFB format, converted to LWFN by t1mac), and then putting the 
result in the Classic font folder, namely /System Folder/Fonts/.

That doesn't explain the behaviour observed with the .otf.dfont format, 
namely a font behaving properly in Cocoa applications (Font Book, 
TextEdit, etc.) but behaving erroneously in Illustrator 10 (a space on 
the keyboard yielding "!" on screen and print, A yielding B, 1 yielding 
2, etc., all characters being seemingly shifted by one code point 
between keyboard input and Illustrator output). I tried altering every 
possible option in the FontForge settings or in the "Generate Fonts..." 
dialog, with no luck: only abandoning the .otf.dfont format solved the 
problem. I believe this to imply a bug in either Illustrator 10 or 
FontForge (or OS X), but I won't have time to investigate the issue 
further.

Bruno Voisin
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