Which Font Formats Are Supported?
The following font formats are provided: PostScript Type 1, TrueType and OpenType font.
- PostScript (PS) Type 1 format. PostScript font format is a quality-certified font format for professional printing thanks to its definition of analytical geometric elements. In addition to this, professionals also use high-quality PostScript font printers dedicated to publishing.
- TrueType font format (TTF and TTC). With respect to the PostScript Type 1 font format, note that on Windows only, if a TrueType version of the font exists or has been created, the TrueType version of the font can be used to optimize visualization quality.
- OpenType font (OTF) format. OpenType font format is an extension of the TrueType font (TTF) format, adding support for PostScript fonts.
Important:
Only the following fonts are linked by default:
For any other font, the font linking mechanism must be used. |
PostScriptFonts
When using PostScript fonts on Windows operating systems, the font display may change while moving for performance and visibility reasons.
How does it work?
- When static, the bitmap representation is generated using the corresponding TrueType font.
- While moving, there are three display modes:
- PostScript: the polygon is displayed
- Stroke: the segment is displayed
- Bounding box: the box (that is, four segments) is displayed.
TrueType Fonts
Fonts in TrueType format may be used as is, that is, all fonts delivered are displayed in the font list. However, you can customize this list (for example, to keep only the fonts you use most frequently).
To do so, copy the desired fonts to your environment in:
install_root\resources\fonts\TrueType
where "install_root" is the installation folder (Windows).
For TrueType fonts, a ".ttf" file is required.
Note that TTF fonts of Version 0 do not support text spacing.
Font linking mechanism
A font linking mechanism of any TTF font with another TTF (TrueType Font) or TTC (TrueType Collection) font is supported on Windows only.
This means that if a certain glyph is missing from a font file, then the glyph is displayed using the linked or associated font. Generally, these linked or associated fonts are of type TTC.
For example, in Drafting, individual fonts present in TTC are displayed in a combo box for selection. If the required characters are not found in the selected font, they are displayed using the associated font.
This capability is especially useful for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters. In that case, you can select English fonts such as Arial or Microsoft Sans Serif even though they do not contain the definitions of these glyphs. If appropriate entries for font association exist in the Windows registry, the characters are displayed using the appropriate associated font (for example as MSGothic in MSGothic.TTC).
However, these associated fonts are mostly system fonts and you have to select the Font preferences to be able to use this functionality.
If the style of the text is changed say from regular to bold, then characters from English fonts are shown in bold if the specific version of font is available on the system, and the glyphs from associated font are also shown in bold format if specific version of associated font is available on the system. If the bold version of the associated font is not available on the system, available version of the associated font on the system is used to display the glyphs. This is applicable for other style change operations such as italic and bold-italic.
For more information about registry entry, see the Font Linking section at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688134.aspx.
Windows registry values can be accessed or modified by using the regedit command as follows: select then type regedit and click OK.
Important:
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More about the TTC font format
A TTC file is a collection of TrueType fonts. This file is made up of a TTC Header Table, one or many Offset Tables with Table Directories, and a number of OpenType Tables. The TTC Header must be located at the beginning of the TTC file.
The tables that should have a unique copy per font are those used by the system for identifying the font and its character mapping, including 'cmap', 'name', and 'OS/2'.
The tables that should be shared by fonts in the TTC are those that define glyph and instruction information or that use glyph indices to access content: 'glyf', 'loca', 'hmtx', 'hdmx', 'LTSH', 'cvt', 'fpgm', 'prep', 'EBLC', 'EBDT', 'EBSC', 'maxp', etc. In practice, any tables with identical content for two or more fonts may be shared.
The purpose of the TTC Header Table is to locate the different Offset Tables within a TTC file. The TTC Header is located at the beginning of the TTC file (offset = 0). It is made up of an identification tag, a version number, a count of the number of OpenType fonts in the file, and an array of offsets to each Offset Table.
OpenType Fonts
OpenType font files are identified by the extension ".otf", ".OTF" or ".TTF", depending on the kind of outlines in the font and on the need for compatibility on systems without native OpenType support.
OpenType fonts can be used in
Drafting
and are identified by a specific icon:
.
OpenType fonts are not delivered by default:
- On Windows, some OTF fonts are provided natively. However, you
can customize the list of fonts provided by copying your own fonts to
C:\Windows\Fonts, or by selecting then .For more information, see your Windows guide.
- On UNIX, no OTF fonts are provided natively. To be able to use
OTF fonts, you have to copy them to your environment in
installationfolder\resources\fonts\OTF.
The major benefits of OpenType fonts are:
- Cross-platform compatibility (the same font file can be used on both Macintosh and Windows computers)
- Better support for international character sets
- Support of advanced typographic control.
Besides this, OpenType fonts can include the OpenType Layout tables, which allow font creators to design better international and high-end typographic fonts. OpenType Layout tables contain information on glyph substitution, glyph positioning, justification and baseline positioning, enabling text-processing applications to improve text layout. As with TrueType fonts, OpenType fonts allow the handling of large glyph sets using Unicode encoding. Such encoding allows broad international support, as well as support for typographic glyph variants.
Among the font file Layout tables providing advanced typography that you can have in OpenType fonts, one of them concerning specifically the positioning of glyphs is supported and it is called "Kerning Table".
What is "Kerning"? Kerning is the adjustment of horizontal space between pair of letters. This means that when some pairs of letters create awkward spaces, kerning adds or removes space between letters to create a more visually appealing and readable text. A typical kerning table lists pairs of glyphs and specifies how much space a text-processing client should add or remove between the glyphs.
Kerning information is built-in to most quality fonts. Some software programs use these built-in kerning tables to apply automatic kerning to text without manual intervention. But other programs (for example Microsoft Word) prefer to let the choice to the user. By default, kerning values are not applied automatically: it is up to the end-user to set on or set off this property.
Note also the following information:
- OTF files can contain both TrueType font format outline information and PostScript Compact Font Format (CFF) outline information.
- Font file containing TrueType outlines can have either the ".OTF" or ".TTF" extension, depending on the need for downward compatibility with older systems, or with previous versions of the font. These font files can contain both CFF and TTF information.
- Fonts with only CFF information (that is, no TrueType outlines) always have the extension ".OTF".
- If a ".TTF" file is renamed to ".OTF" (or ".otf"), this file can be used on both UNIX and Windows as an OpenType font file.
- If you save a document containing OpenType fonts then reopen it in an environment in which OpenType fonts are not installed, then the text is displayed using the default font.
DS ISO 1
The DS ISO 1 OpenType font is an OTF font that has been designed to display annotations with respect to the various ISO standards defining text representations. It is based on the ISO 3098 standards (ISO 3098-5:1997, ISO 3098-3:2000) and Unicode definition.
DS ISO 1 is a variable-pitch font, designed as an OTF font with TrueType format outlines definition. It is named according to the following rules:
| Style Name | Family Name | Full Name |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | DS ISO 1 | DS ISO 1 |
| Italic | DS ISO 1 | DS ISO 1 Italic |
| Bold | DS ISO 1 | DS ISO 1 Bold |
| Bold Italic | DS ISO 1 | DS ISO 1 Bold italic |
This font contains glyphs covering the following Unicode ranges:
| Range | Unicode | Defined Glyph in Range |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0000 - 0x007F | Controls and Basic Latin | Present |
| 0x0080 - 0x00FF | Controls and Latin | 0x00A1 - 0x00FF |
| 0x0100 - 0x017F | Latin Extended A | Present |
| 0x0374 - 0x03F3 | Greek | 0x0388 - 0x3F9 |
| 0x0400 - 0x045F | Cyrillic | Present |
| 0x2460 - 0x24EA | Enclosed Alphanumeric | Present |
There are also some extra Unicode ranges:
| Range (FontLab) | Unicode | Defined Glyph in Range |
|---|---|---|
| 0x02B0 - 0x02FF | Space Modifier Letters | 0x02D9 (Dot above) |
| 0x20A0 - 0x20CF | Currency Symbols | 0x20A7 and 0x20AC |
| 0x2100 - 0x214F | Letterlike Symbols | 0x2104 and 0x2126 |
| 0x2190 - 0x21FF | Arrows | 0x2197, 0x21AC, 0x21A7, 0x21B7 |
| 0x2200 - 0x22FF | Mathematical Operators | 0x2205, 0x2211, 0x2217, 0x2220, 0x2222, 0x2225, 0x2229, 0x222B, 0x2259, 0x2260, 0x2261, 0x2264, 0x2265, 0x229A, 22A5, 22B2, 22B3 |
The bold style is not defined in the ISO 3098 standard. However, a thickness has been defined for the Bold and Bold Italic styles by adding 50% to the thickness of the regular style.
Important:
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Drafting standards are also provided. For more information, see Drafting User's Guide.