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Archive-name: postscript/faq/part1-4
Last-modified: 1993/05/21
Version: 2.1

                              -- PostScript -- 

                            Answers to Questions 

                    (the comp.lang.postscript FAQ v2.1) 

                               Jon Monsarrat 

                              jgm@cs.brown.edu 






                     This FAQ is formatted as a digest. 

                Most news readers can skip from one question 

                     to the next by pressing control-G. 


    Changes since the last version are marked with a '|' in the table 
    of contents and in the sections in the text-only format of the FAQ. 

|   Now that there is Linux and BSD 386 UNIX IBM PC (and clone) users 
|   can run any of the X-windows and UNIX programs in the utilities 
|   section. See comp.os.linux. Also, there is now GhostScript for the 
|   Macintosh. 

|   Section 12, Utilities, will be posted in comp.sources.postscript 
|   along with the global index from now on. 

    Please help fix the FAQ! All comments should be mailed to 
    jgm@cs.brown.edu. My favorite way to receive a change suggestion is 
    when it is accompanied by a section of the FAQ that is edited and 
    mailed to me verbatim as an example. If you would like to 
    contribute, please read the section ``about the FAQ'' first. Thank 
    you! 

    Books and programs are referred to by name only. See the book
|   sections for book information, and the comp.sources.postscript FAQ
|   for a full list of all PostScript related programs. I have
|   archived a number of the small utilities in
|   wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript.  You can get the
|   comp.sources.postscript FAQ from
|   wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.sources.postscript.

    Related FAQs: comp.text, comp.text.tex, comp.fonts, comp.graphics, 
    comp.mac.sys.apps, comp.sources.postscript. 

    Table of Contents 


    This FAQ has 11 sections. It is available by anonymous ftp to 
    wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.lang.postscript/FAQ.txt in ASCII, and 
    there are also LaTeX, DVI, and PostScript formats. 

  
       1 General Questions 
          1.1 What is PostScript? 
|         1.2 How can I tell how many pages my document will have? 
          1.3 How can I print just one page or a few pages from a big 
          1.4 How can I print more than one page per sheet of paper? 
          1.5 How can I edit a PostScript picture? 
|         1.6 How can I print PostScript on a non-PostScript printer? 
          1.7 What other graphics languages are there? 
       2 Printers 
          2.1 How can I get my printer to talk back to me? 
          2.2 Should I leave my printer on? 
          2.3 How do I suppress the power-on start page? 
          2.4 How do I make a downloaded font ``persistent''? 
          2.5 How do I remove a persistent (``permanent'') downloaded font? 
          2.6 How do I reset the printer without power-cycling? 
          2.7 About saving files 
          2.8 What's the control-D business? 
          2.9 Why does the printer say ``still busy'' when my document is 
          2.10 How should I set up my spoolers? 
          2.11 What are PPD files? 
|         2.12 What's a timeout error? 
       3 Formats and Conversions 
          3.1 How can I convert PostScript to some other graphics format? 
          3.2 How can I convert DVI to PostScript? 
          3.3 How can I convert HP Laserjet language (PCL) to PostScript? 
          3.4 How can I convert TeX PK format font to PostScript? 
          3.5 How do I embed PostScript into troff? 
          3.6 How do I embed PostScript into LaTeX or TeX? 
          3.7 How can I convert an image to PostScript? 
          3.8 How can I convert ASCII text to PostScript? 
          3.9 How can I convert PostScript to ASCII? 
          3.10 How do I convert between PFB, PFA, Mac, PFM, and AFM? 
       4 Fonts 
          4.1 What are .PFB and .PFA files? 
          4.2 How can I convert a PostScript font to TeX's PK format? 
          4.3 Why are Adobe fonts hidden? 
          4.4 How do I get bitmap representations of Adobe fonts? 
          4.5 What are some good ftp sites for fonts? 
          4.6 How can I re-encode a font? 
          4.7 What's the difference between a Type 1 and a Type 3 font? 
          4.8 What vendors sell fonts for PostScript printers? 
          4.9 What are ATM fonts? 
          4.10 What are Multiple Master Fonts? 
          4.11 Do I need a Level Two printer to use Multiple Master Fonts? 
          4.12 What are Type 4 fonts? 
          4.13 What are Type 5 fonts? 
|         4.14 Is there an editor for Type 1 Fonts? 
       5 Books 
|         5.1 Books 
          5.2 Publishers 
       6 About Adobe 
          6.1 How do I get in touch with Adobe? 
          6.2 What can Adobe do for me? 
       7 Programming in PostScript 
          7.1 What is PostScript level 2? 
          7.2 Should I learn level 2 PostScript? 
          7.3 Where can I find examples of PostScript code? 
          7.4 How do I get the physical size of a page? 
          7.5 Why can't I do a pathforall after a charpath ? 
          7.6 How do I center a string of text around a point? 
          7.7 How can I concatenate two strings together? 
          7.8 What do I do when I get stack overflow/underflow? 
|         7.9 How can I print in landscape mode? 
       8 Computer-specific PostScript 
          8.1 Sun Workstations 
          8.2 IBM PC 
          8.3 Apple Macintosh 
       9 Encapsulated PostScript 
|         9.1 What is Encapsulated PostScript? 
          9.2 What are EPSI and EPSF? 
          9.3 How do I convert PostScript to EPS? 
          9.4 How do I get the bounding box of a PostScript picture? 
       10 About The Comp.Lang.PostScript FAQ (and Usenet Guide to 
          10.1 The PostScript FAQ: What is it? 
          10.2 How to get the FAQ files 
          10.3 How to write a FAQ answer 
          10.4 The FAQ can contain LaTeX and PostScript inserts 
          10.5 Revising the FAQ 
          10.6 How to submit new information 
          10.7 How to add a program description to the FAQ index 
          10.8 How to add a book description to the FAQ 
          10.9 Questions that need answers 
       11 About PostScript 2 
|         11.1 What printers support Level 2 PostScript? 
          11.2 What is PostScript Level 2? 
          11.3 [ Color Extensions ] 
          11.4 [ Composite Font Extensions ] 
          11.5 [ Display PostScript Extensions ] 
          11.6 [ Overview of Level 2 Features ] 
          11.7 Filters 
          11.8 Binary Encoding 
          11.9 Optimized graphics operators 
          11.10 Optimized text operators 
          11.11 Forms 
          11.12 Patterns 
          11.13 Images 
          11.14 Composite Fonts 
          11.15 New Color Spaces 
          11.16 New screening/halftoning technology 
          11.17 Improved printer support features 
          11.18 Interpreter parameters 
          11.19 Resources 
          11.20 Dictionaries 
          11.21 When did Level 2 products come available? 
          11.22 Are Level 1 and Level 2 implementations compatible? 


Subject: 1 General Questions 


Subject: 1.1 What is PostScript? 

    PostScript is a page description programming language. 

    It is perhaps the most versatile and loved language for printers, 
    being used in printers world-wide. It is capable of drawing to 
    computer screens and any kind of drawing device. PostScript is 
    interpreted, stack based and has latent typing. It somewhat 
    resembles the computer language FORTH. 

    A number of programmers write PostScript programs directly for a 
    variety of drawing applications. However, PostScript programs are 
    usually documents meant to be printed that have been generated by a 
    program written in some compiled language. 


Subject: 1.2 How can I tell how many pages my document will have? 

    The easiest way to count pages is view your document on-line with a 
    PostScript previewer. Some previewers like Ghostview and GSPreview 
    count the pages for you. (See Section 12, ``PostScript Interpreters 
    and Utilities''.) 

    If your document is generated by a program compliant with the 
    Document Structuring Conventions, you should be able to just count 
    the number of ``%%Page:'' comments imbedded in the document. 
    With UNIX you can type 
  
  grep -c %%Page: document.ps
  
    to do this counting. (See Section 9, ``Encapsulated PostScript''.) 

    The only completely reliable way to count pages is to ask the 
    printer after the job is printed. PostScript printers maintain a 
    page counter that can be queried before and and after the job is 
    printed, and the page count is a simple subtraction. This tends to 
    require rather sophisticated spooling systems and a communications 
    channel that is bidirectional. However, some printers allow you to 
    submit jobs on one port, and issue queries on another. 

|   Send this PostScript through a bidirectional I/O port and you'll 
|   get back the page count, nominally the total number of pages 
|   printed since manufacture: 
|
|   statusdict begin pagecount == end flush 

    Experts using a level 2 printer can use the SerialOff.PS and 
    SerialEHandlder.ps programs to communicate bidirectionally to the 
    printer. 


Subject: 1.3 How can I print just one page or a few pages from a big 
    document? How can I print pages in reverse order? 

    Try using a host-specific program, like the UNIX command psrev, 
    which is part of the TranScript suite of software from Adobe 
    Systems. Or use the more general utilities Ghostview, psutils or 
    psxlate. 

    There is no guarantee that a given PostScript document can be split 
    in such a manner. The reason is that some programs which generate 
    PostScript code don't conform to the Adobe Document Structuring 
    Conventions (DSC). (See Section 9, ``Encapsulated PostScript''.) A 
    notable example of this is Microsoft Word. 


Subject: 1.4 How can I print more than one page per sheet of paper? 

    Use psnup or pstext or enscript. 

    These programs redefine the PostScript ``showpage'' command to do 
    multiple PostScript pages per physical page. If one program doesn't 
    work with a complex document, try out other ones. 

|   Some PostScript programs can't work with these programs because 
|   they break the EPS conventions (See Section 9, ``Encapsulated 
|   PostScript''.). The reason is that some Postscript operators (such 
|   as initgraphics, the list is in the Red book) change the printer 
|   state so "violently", that software trying to do things like n-up 
|   will get confused. Theoretically, an EPS shouldn't have any of 
|   these operators, but it may not really be an EPS, or there may be a 
|   weird interaction between TeX, the EPS and the inclusion mechanism 
|   that breaks psnup. 


Subject: 1.5 How can I edit a PostScript picture? 

    If you know the PostScript programming language, just use any text 
    editor to edit the code directly. 

    If you want to do it visually, you can use Canvas on the Macintosh. 


Subject: 1.6 How can I print PostScript on a non-PostScript printer? 

    You need a tool that converts to something that your printer knows 
    how to print. Use Freedom of Press, GhostScript, pageview, TScript, 
|   or UltraScript PC. Or, use a printer cartridge if your printer 
|   manufacturer sells one. 


Subject: 1.7 What other graphics languages are there? 

    HPGL is for pen plotters. PCL is for HP Laser printers (and 
    compatibles). Both are by HP, and PCL5 is supposed to allow 
    inclusion of HPGL commands, preceded by an appropriate escape code, 
    however I have found this to give errors and abort even for simple 
    HPGL code that plots fine on a plotter. 

Subject: 2 Printers 


Subject: 2.1 How can I get my printer to talk back to me? 

    Experts using a level 2 printer can use the SerialOff.PS and 
    SerialEHandlder.ps programs to communicate bidirectionally to the 
    printer. 

    If you just need the error returns from the printer, you can spawn 
    a 
  
  cat < port >> logfile&
  
    in your system startup. Then you will get a log of everything the 
    printer says. This works on any serial-port connected printer. 


Subject: 2.2 Should I leave my printer on? 

    The consensus seems to be that most computer equipment lasts longer 
    if left on. This presents less thermal stress to the components. 


Subject: 2.3 How do I suppress the power-on start page? 

    Disabling the start page is described in your printer's PostScript 
    supplement. The most common sequence is ``serverdict begin 0 
    exitserver statusdict begin false setdostartpage end''. 


Subject: 2.4 How do I make a downloaded font ``persistent''? 

  
  %!PS-Adobe-2.0 ExitServer
  %%BeginExitServer: 0
  serverdict begin 0 exitserver
  %%EndExitServer
  % Test for existence of font, abort if present.
  % This won't work on a printer with a hard disk!
  /str 32 string def
  /Eurostile dup FontDirectory exch known
  { str cvs print ( is already loaded!\n) print flush quit }
  { (loading font ) print str cvs print (\n) print flush }
  ifelse
  %% Font follows...
  
    The part following ``%%EndExitServer'' is optional. If you use 
    it, change Eurostile to the name of the font. The default PFA 
    behavior is to use up additional VM for the new copy if another 
    copy has already been downloaded. 


Subject: 2.5 How do I remove a persistent (``permanent'') downloaded font? 

    In PostScript Level 2, you can use the undefinefont operator to 
    remove fonts selectively. 

    The only reliable method in PostScript Level 1 is to restart the 
    printer, for example with: 

  
    serverdict begin 0 exitserver
    systemdict /quit get exec
  
    Of course, the real solution is just to not download persistent 
    fonts unless you really want them to persist indefinitely. If you 
    want them only for one job, download them as part of the job. 


Subject: 2.6 How do I reset the printer without power-cycling? 

    Most printers can be reset by issuing ``serverdict begin 0 
    exitserver systemdict /quit get exec''. 


Subject: 2.7 About saving files 

    Adobe recommends that driver writers do not put EOT (control-D) 
    into files when saving to disk. Normally, the EOT is a part of the 
    protocol for parallel and serial ports and never hits the 
    PostScript interpreter. 

    Drivers that do embed EOD can create problems for devices that 
    allow other communication methods (e.g. AppleTalk, Ethernet, and 
    SCSI) where the EOT is not part of the communications protocol. It 
    is useful to redefine EOT in these instances so that the 
    interpreter does not generate an error. The recommended 
    redefinition is: 

  
                   (\004) cvn {} def
  
    This should convert any stand-alone embedded EOTs into a null 
    procedure. 


Subject: 2.8 What's the control-D business? 

    PostScript printers communicating over serial lines use control-D 
    as an end of job indicator. The host computer should then wait for 
    the printer to send a control-D back to indicate that the job has 
    finished. Managing the serial protocol between host and printer 
    should be done by some form of print service, but if you're unsure 
    whether your print service is doing it, it's an idea to send one 
    yourself. 

    PC type computers frequently do not have any kind of printer 
    manager and applications end up sending control-D characters to the 
    printer, sometimes before and after a job. PC applications 
    frequently embed a control-D as the first character in the print 
    file, presumably to flush out any other jobs, and thereby breaking 
    the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions. 

    If you want to prevent applications from doing this, you could use 
    a spooler which would look at the end of every outgoing file and 
    drop the control-D on the end if there happened to be one. 

    If you want a spooler, check out lprps. 


Subject: 2.9 Why does the printer say ``still busy'' when my document is 
    done printing? 

    Sometimes when you finish a print job, the printer ``Ready'' light 
    keeps flashing for a minute or so. Somehow, the printer has 
    received some character(s) after the control-D which was sent 
    immediately after the PostScript file. The most common is that a 
    newline has been inserted after the control-D. The printer took 
    these character(s) to be another program, and eventually timed-out 
    while waiting for the rest of it. This can happen because of the 
    host not waiting for the printer to finish. 


Subject: 2.10 How should I set up my spoolers? 

    Since PostScript usually is prefixed with ``%!'', it's easy to 
    educate your spooler to autoselect between passing raw PostScript 
    through to the printer or doing an ``ASCII-to-PostScript'' 
    conversion first. There are many packages that will do this, 
    including Transcript and psxlate. 

    Unfortunately, many PostScript applications generate PostScript 
    without a proper ``%!'' magic cookie. 

    The spooler should be responsible for transmitting the ``job 
    termination code'' (a control-D on serially-connected printers) to 
    the printer, not the application. Do yourself a favor and disable 
    (or filter out) control-Ds in your applications and generate them 
    in the spooler. This will be far more reliable in the face of 
    arbitrary input. 


Subject: 2.11 What are PPD files? 

    Adobe Postscript Printer Description (PPD) files describe how to 
    use the special features for a specific Postscript printer. They 
    are suppose to be human-readable, but they are really only readable 
    by PostScript gurus. It is the responsibility of the printer 
    manufacturer to supply PPD files. However, the Adobe mail server 
    has many of them. (see the Section 6, ``About Adobe'') 


Subject: 2.12 What's a timeout error? 

|   Paul Balyoz has this to say about timeout errors: 
|
|   A timeout error means the the printer has decided to abort the 
|   print job because one of its internal timers ran out. There are 
|   three standard timers configured in a PostScript printer. These are 
|   documented in appendix D of the Red Book*, but here's more detail: 
|
|
|
|   job timeout 
|     The maximum time a single print job is allowed to run, in 
|     seconds. If it doesn't finish in this amount of time, it is 
|     aborted, and the current page has a "timeout" error printed on 
|     it. The rest of the job is thrown away, like with most PostScript 
|     errors. 
|
|
|   manual feed timeout 
|     The amount of time the printer will wait for someone to 
|     manual-feed a sheet of paper (or envelope) before giving up and 
|     aborting the print job, in seconds. 
|
|
|   wait timeout 
|     The amount of time the printer will wait after it stops receiving 
|     a flow of PostScript from the host before aborting the print job, 
|     in seconds. The idea here is, "if the print job is still running 
|     even though we haven't seen any new data for a long time, then 
|     there may be a problem like an infinite- loop, so let's stop the 
|     job." 
|
|   We have two HP Laserjet III printers with the PostScript cards 
|   installed (Level 1 PostScript). This printer has an 8 ppm print 
|   engine with moderately slow PostScript (in my opinion). 
|
|   For a long time we have had problems with large print jobs timing 
|   out. Documents longer than about 9 pages would never come out 
|   without some kind of timeout error every time. Single page graphics 
|   such as screen snapshots would even fail from time to time! I knew 
|   it wasn't a hardware failure, because both of our printers would do 
|   it all the time. Calls to HP technical 
|
|   flow-control and tried direct-connecting the printer, no 
|   improvement. 
|
|   The actual solution was to change the timeout values to: 
|
|   0 60 0 
|
|   In other words, no job timeout, and no wait timeout. The concept of 
|   these timeouts makes no sense when you realize that a single 
|   ordinary job could take a long time to print. I have a 1-page 
|   graphic that takes >5 minutes of thinking time once it is sent to 
|   the printer! If the printer is working and there's nothing wrong 
|   with the job, why should it be aborted? 
|
|   The wait timeout makes even less sense than the job timeout. 
|   PostScript is a programming language, for goodness sake. A legal 
|   print job that takes 10 seconds to send to the printer at 9600 baud 
|   could generate 100 pages or more of full-page output, if it needed 
|   too. That's going to take some time to print, but it took very 
|   little time to transfer. Why require the computer to "keep sending 
|   stuff", just so the job can complete? 
|
|   And of course the reverse. Hugely complex drawings that compute for 
|   a long time in the printer before ejecting even the first page. An 
|   example of this would be a poster-sized drawing that's being 
|   printed on ordinary paper, so that you can cut and paste with 
|   scissors and tape to put it together. The usual way of doing this 
|   is drawing the ENTIRE poster on each page of paper, and letting the 
|   clipping algorithm remove the parts that won't fit on the page. 
|   Then just reposition the origin for each page to get a different 
|   portion of the big drawing on each page. 
|
|   Faster PostScript print systems would help here, but only up to a 
|   point. People usually want any size printout to work on their 
|   printer, even if it has to take a long time. We have one faculty 
|   person here who regularly prints things overnight, because it takes 
|   about 4-6 hours (!) to print his whole document (10 - 20 pages). 
|
|   All of these timeouts can be configured in the printer by talking 
|   to it directly. There are two ways to change parameters: just for 
|   the current print job, and as the default for all future print 
|   jobs. The default settings stay set in the printer even during 
|   power off; the printer usually has some kind of non-volatile memory 
|   (probably RAM memory with a battery for power). Please see the Red 
|   Book for details on changing these parameters (look for 
|   "setjobtimeout" and "setdefaulttimeouts"). 

Subject: 3 Formats and Conversions 

    This section describes formats that can be converted to and from 
    PostScript, and how to convert them. Encapsulated PostScript and 
    Fonts have their own sections. 


Subject: 3.1 How can I convert PostScript to some other graphics format? 

    Since PostScript is not just a picture-description language, but in 
    fact a complete programming language, you will need a complete 
    PostScript interpreter to convert or display a PostScript graphic. 
    See the comp.sources.postscript FAQ for an index of all PostScript 
    related programs. 

    Try using GhostScript. 


Subject: 3.2 How can I convert DVI to PostScript? 

    Use dvips. 


Subject: 3.3 How can I convert HP Laserjet language (PCL) to PostScript? 

    Use lj2ps for simple PCL. Alternatively, another lj2ps, from 
    psroff3.0, is a little more complete. 

    hp2pbm can convert all of PCL4 (up to and including rasters, 
    downloaded fonts and macros) into PostScript, G3 and any other 
    PBM-supposed format. 


Subject: 3.4 How can I convert TeX PK format font to PostScript? 

    Psroff3.0 contains programs that can convert TeX PK format or HP 
    SFP format fonts into PostScript bitmap fonts along with 
    rearranging encoding, etc. While bitmap bfonts scale poorly, this 
    is sometimes of use in special circumstances. 


Subject: 3.5 How do I embed PostScript into troff? 

    Most troffs can be ``coerced'' into including PostScript figures. 
    The best approach is a configuration that takes EPS PostScript and 
    can automatically scale it, or tell troff how big the picture is. 
    Groff and DWB 3 have this built in. 

    psfig is an add-on EPS inclusion handler that can add this 
    capability to other versions of troff, provided that a compatible 
    PostScript driver is used (Psroff 3.0 for ditroff or CAT troff, 
    Transcript for ditroff). See the comp.text FAQ for more detail. 


Subject: 3.6 How do I embed PostScript into LaTeX or TeX? 

    You should use an add-on program for seamless PostScript inclusion. 

    Use psfig. 

    If your LaTeX is simple, but your PostScript is fancy, try using 
    LameTeX. 

    If you need a good compromise, use pstricks. 

    See the comp.text.tex FAQ. 


Subject: 3.7 How can I convert an image to PostScript? 

    First determine what format your images are in. PBMPLUS will have 
    converters for most image formats. 

    To convert an image to PostScript in X windows, you can display the 
    image on the screen, and grab it with xv, which can save the image 
    in a PostScript file. 

    A more general alternative in X windows would be to use the PPM, 
    PGM and PBM utilities in the X11R4 and X11R5 distributions. 


Subject: 3.8 How can I convert ASCII text to PostScript? 

    Unless your printer is smart about raw ASCII, you can't just send 
    the ASCII to a PostScript printer, because the printer will attempt 
    to interpret your ASCII file as PostScript code. You need a program 
    which will wrap some PostScript code around your ASCII file. 

    Try any of the following programs: asciiprint.ps, ato2pps, cz, 
    ETSR, i2ps, lpp, lwf, POSTPRN, printer, psf, psfx80, PSR, ps2txt, 
    pstext, swtext, text2ps, TranScript, spike.ps, enscript, nenscript, 
    a2ps, asc2ps, ascii2ps, crossword.ps, double.ps, landscape.ps, 
    numbered.ps, portrait.ps, or wide.ps. 

    If you want to make something fancy, why not use a word processor? 
    Most of them can ``include'' ASCII directly from a file and produce 
    PostScript. 


Subject: 3.9 How can I convert PostScript to ASCII? 

    In general, when you say ``I want to convert PostScript to ASCII'' 
    what you really mean is ``I want to convert MacWrite (which makes 
    PostScript output) to ASCII'' or ``I want to convert somebody's TeX 
    document (which I have in PostScript) to ASCII''. 

    Unfortunately, programs like these (if they're smart) do a lot of 
    fancy stuff like kerning, which means that where they would 
    normally execute the postscript command for 

  
      ``print water fountain''
  
    instead they execute the postscript command for 

  
      ``print wat''      (move a little to get the spacing *just* right)
      ``print er''       (move a little to get the spacing *just* right)
      ``print foun''     (move a little to get the spacing *just* right)
      ``print tain''     (move a little to get the spacing *just* right)
  
    So if I write a program to look through a PostScript file for 
    strings, like ps2ascii.pl, It can't tell where the words really 
    end. Here my program would see 4 strings 

  
  ``wat'' ``er'' ``foun'' ``tain''
  
    And it doesn't see any difference between the spacing between 
    ``found'' and ``tain'' (not a word break) and the spacing between 
    ``er'' and ``foun'' (a real word break). 

    The problem is that PostScript for text formatting is usually 
    produced machine generated by a text formatter. A PostScript 
    generator like dvips might have a special command like ``boop'' 
    that differentiates between a real world break and a fake one. But 
    every text formatter that generates PostScript has their own name 
    for the ``boop'' command. 

    So you really want a ``PostScript to ASCII converter for dvips 
    output''. 

    The only general solution I can see would be to redefine the show 
    operator to print out the currentpoint for every letter being 
    printed, like gs2asc, and then make up an ASCII page based on this 
    by sticking ASCII characters where they go in a two-dimensional 
    array. That would convert PostScript to ASCII ``formatted''. 

    But even that wouldn't solve the problem, because special bitmap 
    fonts and and standard fonts like Symbol don't always print a ``P'' 
    when you say the letter ``P''. Sometimes they print the greek Pi 
    symbol or a chess piece or a ZapfDingBat. 

    Use ps2a, ps2ascii, ps2txt, ps2ascii.ps or ps2ascii.pl. 


Subject: 3.10 How do I convert between PFB, PFA, Mac, PFM, and AFM? 

    Write or call Y and Y Software, listed in the fonts section as a 
    vendor. 


Subject: 4 Fonts 

    This section answers questions about fonts as they pertain to 
    PostScript. See the comp.fonts FAQ for more information about 
    fonts. 


Subject: 4.1 What are .PFB and .PFA files? 

    ``PFB'' stands for Printer Font Binary, and is a binary format in 
    which Adobe Type 1 font programs are usually distributed for IBM PC 
    and compatibles. Many application programs support fonts in this 
    format, and refer to them as ``downloadable''. The Macintosh uses a 
    different binary storage format than does the PC. 

    PFB files are encrypted and have a header, and as a result, cannot 
    be sent directly to a PostScript printer. Application programs like 
    dvips which use fonts in this format unencrypt the font before 
    sending it to the printer. If you would like to use a font which is 
    in PFB format, it is necessary to unencrypt it first to make a PFA 
    file. Adobe Systems supply a font downloader for PC's which turns 
    the PFB format into PFA format on the fly as it's being downloaded. 

    ``PFA'' stands for Printer Font ASCII, which is the unencrypted 
    version of a PFB file. In PFB, the data is stored as-is. In a PFA, 
    it's stored as ``ascii hex''--meaning each byte of data is turned 
    into two ascii characters representing the hex value. 

    Once you have the PFA file, just send it to the printer ahead of 
    your file, and use the font like any other. There are several 
    programs which can do the conversion from PFB to PFA for you. Try 
    t1utils. 


Subject: 4.2 How can I convert a PostScript font to TeX's PK format? 

    Use ps2pk or try out the GNU font utilities in fontutils. 


Subject: 4.3 Why are Adobe fonts hidden? 

    In PostScript level 1, Adobe's fonts were hidden because they 
    didn't want people pirating copies instead of paying for them. 
    That's why you can't do a pathforall on a charpath. 

    PostScript Level Two has removed the restriction, in the words of 
    the new Red Book, ``for most fonts''. There will still be some 
    vendors who will want to restrict access. Japanese font vendors, 
    for example, are concerned about piracy -- given the work that goes 
    into an 8,000-character Kanji font. 


Subject: 4.4 How do I get bitmap representations of Adobe fonts? 

    On the IBM PC, use the Font Foundry program included with the font. 
    If you don't have it, contact Adobe for an upgrade. 


Subject: 4.5 What are some good ftp sites for fonts? 

  
  ftp.cs.umb.edu
  sumex-aim.stanford.edu
  archive.umich.edu
  ftp.cica.indiana.edu    /pub/pc/win3/fonts
  colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk   /pub/postscript/fonts
  
  
  For the NeXT platform, fonts are available on the NeXT-FTP-archives,
          sonata.cc.purdue.edu :/pub/next/graphics/fonts
          fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de :/pub/next/fonts
  
    For Macintosh, look in sumex-aim.stanford.edu, 
    mac.archive.umich.edu, and ftp.cs.umb.edu (192.12.26.23), in 
    pub/tex/ps-screenfonts.tar.Z. 

    Color PostScript samples and many other PostScript programs are 
    available from irisa.irisa.fr. 


Subject: 4.6 How can I re-encode a font? 

    See ddev.ps for an example for code that does this. You can find it 
    by ftp to wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript/ddev.ps. 


Subject: 4.7 What's the difference between a Type 1 and a Type 3 font? 

    The Type 1 font format is a compact way of describing a font 
    outline using a well-defined language that can be quickly 
    interpreted. The language contains operations to provide the 
    rasterizer with additional information about a character, known as 
    hints. The hints are additional information which describes how to 
    adjust the representation of the character to make it look good 
    when the font size is small compared to the device resolution. The 
    Type 1 font format is defined in the book ``The Adobe Type 1 Font 
    Format'', also known as the black book, for the colors on its 
    cover. 

    The Type 1 font format has nothing to do with TrueType, which is 
    another font format defined by Apple. The Type 1 font format has 
    been around quite a while, and is used on a wide variety of 
    platforms to obtain scalable fonts. 

    Most clone interpreters will not have Adobe's proprietary rendering 
    technology which interprets font hints to improve the appearance of 
    fonts shown at small sizes on low-resolution devices. The 
    exceptions (PowerPage and UltraScript) have their own hint 
    interpreters. 

    The Type 3 font format is a way of packaging up PostScript 
    descriptions of characters into a font, so that the PostScript 
    interpreter can rasterize them. 

    It is easier to create a Type 3 font program by hand than to create 
    the corresponding Type 1 font program. Type 3 font programs have 
    access to the entire PostScript language to do their imaging, 
    including the 'image' operator. They can be used for bitmapped 
    fonts, although that is certainly not a requirement. The Type 3 
    font format contains no provisions for 'hinting', and as such Type 
    3 font programs cannot be of as high a quality at low resolutions 
    as the corresponding Type 1 font program. 

    Both formats are scalable formats, and both can be run on any 
    PostScript interpreter. However, because of the requirement that a 
    Type 3 font program have a full PostScript interpreter around, Type 
    3 font programs cannot be understood by the Adobe Type Manager. 
    Only Type 1 font programs can. 

    Why bother making a font that's just made up of bitmaps? Once a 
    character from a font has been rendered, the bitmap will be saved 
    in a cache, and another instance of the same character at the same 
    size and orientation can be quickly drawn without recalculation. 

    Because of Adobe Type Manager's wide availability on a large number 
    of platforms (PC, Mac, and Unix), the Type 1 font format makes an 
    excellent cross-platform scalable font standard. 


Subject: 4.8 What vendors sell fonts for PostScript printers? 

    PostScript font vendors are many and varied. Here is a partial 
    list. 



    Adobe Systems 
      sells a variety of fonts. With the huge number of third-party 
      Type 1 vendors, in recent years Adobe have specialized in 
      creating their own ``Adobe Originals'' -- high-quality fonts, 
      some of which are their renditions of classic faces (Adobe 
      Garamond) and some of their own devising (Stone, Utopia, ...). 
      Adobe Systems, 1585 Charleston Road, Mountain View, CA 94039. 
      (415) 961-4400 


    AGFA Compugraphic, 
      90 Industrial Way, Wilmington, Massachusetts 01887. (508) 
      658-5600. 


    Bear Rock Technologies 
      specializes in bar code fonts. 4140 Mother Lode Drive, Suite 100, 
      Shingle Springs California 95682. 


    Bitstream, 
      Athenaeum House, Cambridge, MA 02142. (617) 497-6222. 


    Casady and Greene, 
      22734 Portola Drive, Salinas, CA 93908. (408) 484-9228. 


    Ecological Linguistics, 
      specializes in non-Roman alphabets. Ecological Linguistics, P. O. 
      Box 15156, Washington D. C. 20003. 


    Emigre Graphics 
      4475 ``D'' Street / Sacramento CA 95819 (800) 944 9021 ] Over 70 
      faces, all PostScript Type 1 ATM compatible, including the 
      omnipresent Modula and infamous Template Gothic. Almost all faces 
      are ``must haves'' for graphic designers. Call for free catalog. 


    Image Club, 
      # 5 1902 11th St Southeast, Calgary, Alberta T2G 2G2, Canada. 
      (403) 262-8008. 


    Lanston 
      specializes in display faces. 


    Letraset 
      specializes in fancy kinds of script fonts, Letraset, 40 
      Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, New Jersey 07652. (201) 845-6100 


    Linguists Software 
      specializes in non-Roman alphabets (Farsi, Greek, Hangul, Kanji, 
      etc.) Linguists Software, P. O. Box 580, Edmonds, Washington 
      98020-0580. (206) 775-1130. 


    Monotype, 
      53 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 504, Chicago, IL 60604. 


    Page Studio Graphics, 
      Chandler, Arizona, specialize in symbols fonts such as Mac icons, 
      keyboards, and others, Page Studio Graphics, 3175 North Price 
      Road, # 1050, Chandler, Arizona 85224. (602) 839-2763. 


    RightBrain Software, 
      Palo Alto, CA (415 326-2974) carry the Adobe Type library for the 
      NeXT platform. If you're working on NeXT, getting fonts in the 
      correct form with all the ancillary information and downloaders 
      and such is important. You can convert a Mac font to NeXT (PFA) 
      format, but the NeXT demands an AFM file as well, and many Mac/PC 
      font vendors omit AFM files because Mac/PC apps don't use them. 
      For Adobe fonts for the NeXT, save yourself a lot of hassle by 
      getting the fonts from RightBrain -- they often have sales. 


    The Font Company 


    TreacyFaces 


    URW 
      supplies high-quality fonts at low prices. They are also the 
      creators of the top of the line font creation and editing 
      software called Ikarus. URW, 4 Manchester Street, Nashua, New 
      Hampshire 03060. (603) 882-7445. 


    Y and Y Software 
      , 106 Indian Hill, Carlisle Massachusetts 10741 USA. (508) 
      371-3286. Sells a Font Metric Manipulation Package for DOS with 
      lots of interesting utilities. 

    Many more font vendors exist. Look in magazines and other sources. 
|   Check the Usenet newsgroup comp.fonts. Look in U & lc, published by 
    ITC, for long lists of vendors. 


Subject: 4.9 What are ATM fonts? 

    There has been a rash of misunderstanding about the nature of Type 
    1 fonts and what people call ATM fonts. ATM fonts are Adobe Type 1 
    fonts. ATM stands for Adobe Type Manager -- a utility to render 
    smooth characters on Macintosh and PC screens, from font outlines 
    (Type 1 fonts) instead of using bitmap fonts. In one sense, there's 
    no such thing as an ``ATM font'' -- ATM interprets Type 1 fonts, so 
    there's no need to create a new name. A correctly constructed Type 
    1 font can be interpreted by ATM. 


Subject: 4.10 What are Multiple Master Fonts? 

    Multiple Master Fonts are an extension to the Adobe font format. 
    providing the ability to interpolate smoothly between several 
    ``design axes'' from a single font. Design axes can include weight, 
    size, and even some whacko notions like serif to sans serif. 
    Adobes' first Multiple Master Font was Myriad -- a two-axis font 
    with WEIGHT (light to black) on one axis, and WIDTH (condensed to 
    expanded) along the other axis. In the case of Myriad, there are 
    four ``polar'' designs at the ``corners'' of the design space. The 
    four designs are light condensed, black condensed, light expanded, 
    and black expanded. 

    Given polar designs, you can set up a ``weight vector'' which 
    interpolates to any point within the design space to produce a 
    unique font for a specific purpose. So you can get a ``more or less 
    condensed, somewhat black face''. 


Subject: 4.11 Do I need a Level Two printer to use Multiple Master Fonts? 

    No -- Multiple Master Fonts can be used on any PostScript printer. 
    Multiple Master Fonts need a new PostScript operator known as 
    makeblendedfont. The current crop of Multiple Master Fonts supply 
    an emulation of this operator so the printer doesn't need this 
    operator. 

    A short tutorial on Multiple Master Fonts and makeblendedfont 
    appears in PostScript by Example, by Henry McGilton and Mary 
    Campione, published by Addison-Wesley. 


Subject: 4.12 What are Type 4 fonts? 

    Type 4 fonts are actually Type 3 fonts which contains a Type 1 
    font. They're stored on hard disk in a special way to save space 
    when they're loaded into printer RAM by findfont. Your interpreter 
    must have the extra PostScript operator CCrun to handle Type 4 
    fonts. They are usually used for Kanji (Japanese) characters. 


Subject: 4.13 What are Type 5 fonts? 

    Type 5 fonts are actually Type 1 fonts, but stored in printer ROM 
    in a special compressed format. They're also known as CROM fonts 
    (for Compressed ROM fonts). The contents of the CharStrings entries 
    in Type 5 will probably be different from Type 1. 


Subject: 4.14 Is there an editor for Type 1 Fonts? 

|   Fontographer for the Macintosh is available from Altsys 
|   Corporation, 269 West Renner Road, Richardson, Texas 75080 USA. 
|   (214) 680-2060. 
|
|   Ikarus-M is availble for the Macintosh from URW, Harksheider 
|   Strasse 102, 2000 Hamburg 65, GERMANY. (040) 60 60 50 Or URW 
|   Software and Type, 4 Manchester Street, Nashua, New Hampshire 
|   03060. (800) 229-8791 in USA. (603) 882-7445 otherwise. 

    Acknowledgments 


    This FAQ was compiled based heavily on the contributions of and 
    with the help of Henry McGilton, Dick Dunn, Howard Gayle, Carl 
    Orthlieb, Ed Garay, Robert Lerche, Bruno Hall, Tom Epperly, and 
    Chris Lewis. 

    Also thanks to contributors Paul Balyoz, Karl Berry, Jerry Black, 
    Charles Cashion, Jim DeLaHunt, Leonard Hamey, Chris Herborth, Steve 
    Kinzler, Bill Lee, Timo Lehtinen, Carl Lydick, Otto Makela, Bill 
    Pringle, Tony Valsamidis, and Jamie Zawinski. 

    Special thanks to Ken Porter, who originally compiled and organized 
    this FAQ. 

  
  
  Ver  Date     Reason
  ----------------------------------------------------------------
  1.00 12-18-90 Creation by Ken Porter
  1.06  5-29-91 expanded on EPS explanation, general updates
  2.00 10-25-92 Brought up to date and expanded, by Jon Monsarrat
  2.1   5-21-93 Revised because of new comp.sources.postscript group.
  
  
    This FAQ is copyright (C) 1993 by Jonathan Monsarrat. Permission is 
    granted to freely edit and distribute as long as this copyright 
    notice is included. 

    This document was written with the LaTeX language and formatted by 
    LameTeX, the PostScript hacker's LaTeX. 

  
%! Jon Monsarrat   jgm@cs.brown.edu     moderator, comp.sources.postscript %!
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