Specifications

Font Management

Mac OS X Panther lets you organize and access fonts with unprecedented control

and ease. Whether you want to store fonts on a central server, activate and deactivate

groups of fonts with a click of the mouse, or organize fonts for a third-party font

manager, Mac OS X has the tools you need—already built in.

Mac OS X offers broader support for a variety of font formats than any other

operating system, so it can handle and manage virtually any type of font you have

in your creative arsenal.

Here are a few general guidelines for installing your fonts in Panther, depending

on what type of font you’re using.

For PostScript fonts, you will need to install both the screen (FFIL) files and the

printer (LWFN) files that correspond to each typeface to make everything display

and print correctly on your Mac OS X system. If you copy files from a CD that has

both Macintosh and Windows versions of PostScript fonts, be sure to use the

Macintosh versions.

Mac OS X also supports Multiple Master fonts, a special type of PostScript font.

As with other PostScript fonts, you will need to install both screen and printer files.

TrueType fonts have all the information they need for both onscreen display and

printing in a single file, so you need to install only one file for each TrueType font.

Note that Mac OS X can use both Windows and Macintosh TrueType fonts, but

you need to copy only the main TrueType font file. You don’t need to install the

Windows AFM file.

OpenType fonts and Mac OS X offer the benefit of letting you use an unlimited

number of characters. In addition to eliminating character limits, with Mac OS X

you no longer have to worry about using Expert typefaces as you did in previous

Macintosh operating systems. When installing an OpenType font, you need to copy

only one file for each typeface, because the file contains everything needed for

both screen display and printing.

Technology Tour

Advanced Typography

with Mac OS X