User Guide
FontLab 4
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T r u eT y p e A nd T ype 1 Hi nt s
The two most commonly used font formats are Type 1 and TrueType.
However they use very different hinting instructions and it is not always
possible to automatically convert Type 1 hints to TrueType hints.
Type 1hinting TrueType hinting
In Type 1 fonts, hints define the most important dimensions in the
characters, like the position and width of the crossbar of the letter ‘H.’
Font hints in TrueType (usually called instructions) directly control the
movement of points and the rounding of point coordinates. A TrueType
hinting program is written in a special programming language. This makes
TrueType hinting very flexible and powerful but also too complex to
program directly. Usually a smaller set of higher-level instructions are used
to define hints. These instructions are compiled to native TrueType hinting
language during font export.