old Mac System 9 font

[Wally]

I am a font rookie and I want to convert an old Macintosh System 9 font suitcase into a modern True Type font that will work on Mac and Windows.  The old font has a resource and data fork(I think.)

The old font has characters that I need for some computer programs I made for High School chemistry students.

Please help!!

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

If the font has only bitmaps you cannot convert it with TransType. You can mail me the font packed with StuffIt or Zipped and I'll look ...

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

As I suspected the font was a Mac font suitcase with bitmaps inside. It has custom characters encoded with MacOS Roman encoding. Theoretically you can export the font as Windows bitmap font (.fon) or create a TTF from it with the help of BitFonter 3 (http://www.fontlab.com/photofont/bitfonter/) but you would not solve the encoding problem. You will not be able to use custom chemical characters on both platforms.

[Wally]

Thank you for the help.

So what are my options? 

Can I build my own cross platform font(if I have to) with a program that's not to expensive. There are only maybe 35 "special" characters- subscripts(type with shift and option and the number key),superscripts, equation double arrows, degrees Celcius etc.

Are font experts available to hire for a job such as this?

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

Surely you can. You can try TypeTool or Fontographer but you will have to draw outline characters manually.

[Wally]

Ok, I've decided to try the demo version of Type Tool because it supposedly can use pasted or imported material right from Adobe Illustrator(AI.)  No drawing outlines manually! I have the Macintosh CS2 AI and have set it and Type Tool up to work together.  I followed the how to in the Type Tool docs and it works!!

Secondly, as I said earlier, I am a font rookie so please forgive the following question.  How (where) do I place my custom glyphs so that I can dictate which keystrokes produce which characters.  For example, If I make a subscript number glyph(say a 2,) how easy or hard is it to set up so the user types it with the shift, option and the 2 keys depressed. Can you point me to where I can learn this? 

If this is easy to do and I can easily create a cross platform font(Mac and Windows,) I will probably buy TypeTool.

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

What character appears depends on the keyboard layout. Keyboard layouts are different on different platforms and even on different localizations of one platform. So if you want your font work both on MacOS and Windows US you must use character positions presented both in MacOS and Windows US keyboards. Or you may create your custom keyboard layouts for use especially with your font.

[Wally]

Where can I find which characters are common to Mac and Windows and what keystrokes produce them?

[Der FontMeister (FontLab)]

Hmmm... not sure where you wanted the help to start but you are talking about a cross-platform font...

SOoooo... if you think about it something like Arial works on Mac and PC (except for things like the Windows or Mac logo and a few other characters)...

Soooo... you open Arial -paste your characters in place of Arial's -rename it -and regenerate it for Mac and for PC and tell me what happens...

Jimmy G.

[Tags:]

Jump to: Please select a destination: ----------------------------- News and announcements ----------------------------- => Announcements from the forum’s moderators => News from the font industry ----------------------------- Type design and font technology ----------------------------- => Principles of type design => OpenType Layout feature development => Hinting => Font Formats and OpenType => Web font embedding => Font licensing ===> Electronic EULA Abstract (EEULAA) ----------------------------- Education and collaboration ----------------------------- => Work: Offers => Work: Looking for => Education: Offers => Education: Looking for => Typographic Events and Conferences ----------------------------- FontLab products ----------------------------- => News from FontLab => FontLab Studio ===> FontLab Studio Problems ===> FontLab Studio Tips and Tricks ===> FontLab Studio Wish List ===> FontLab Studio Public Preview => Fontographer ===> Fontographer Problems ===> Fontographer Wish List => TypeTool => AsiaFont Studio => TransType => ScanFont => SigMaker => Other Products ----------------------------- Photofont products ----------------------------- => BitFonter => Photofont WebReady => Photofont Start => Photofont ID => Photofont QX => The Photofont technology ----------------------------- Adobe Type products ----------------------------- => Adobe FDK for OpenType (AFDKO) ----------------------------- Apple Font products ----------------------------- => Apple Font Tools ----------------------------- Microsoft Typography products ----------------------------- => Microsoft Font Validator => Microsoft Visual OpenType Layout Tool (VOLT) => Microsoft Web Embedding Fonts Tool (WEFT) => Microsoft Visual TrueType (VTT) ----------------------------- Other products and Python scripting ----------------------------- => Python scripting => FontTools/TTX => Other font-related tools ----------------------------- Special interest groups ----------------------------- => SBL Fonts ===> SBL Hebrew ===> SBL Greek ===> SBL BibLit ----------------------------- FAQ and TechNotes ----------------------------- => OpenType Layout feature development FAQ and TechNotes => Hinting FAQ and TechNotes => Font Formats and OpenType FAQ and TechNotes => Web font embedding FAQ and TechNotes => Font licensing FAQ and TechNotes => FontLab Studio FAQ and TechNotes => Fontographer FAQ and TechNotes => TypeTool FAQ and TechNotes => AsiaFont Studio FAQ and TechNotes => TransType FAQ and TechNotes => ScanFont FAQ and TechNotes => SigMaker FAQ and TechNotes => BitFonter FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont WebReady FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont Start FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont ID FAQ and TechNotes => Photofont QX FAQ and TechNotes ----------------------------- Archive (MSN Groups) ----------------------------- => Archive: Old FontLab forum ===> Archive: FontLab Tips and Tricks ===> Archive: FontLab Bugs and Problems ===> Archive: FontLab Wish List ===> Archive: FontLab Announcements => Archive: Old Microsoft Font Validator group => Archive: Old Microsoft VOLT group => Archive: Old Microsoft VTT group ===> Archive: VTT Downloads ===> Archive: VTT Support ===> Archive: VTT Suggestions => Archive: Old Microsoft WEFT group ===> Archive: WEFT III ===> Archive: EOT for Email => Archive: Old SBL Fonts group ===> Archive: SBL Hebrew ===> Archive: SBL Greek ----------------------------- Various ----------------------------- => fontlab.com — the FontLab website => forum.fontlab.com — this forum => Other Topics