User Guide

font generation routine for UNIX fonts. This will ensure that
the encoding is optimum and that the AFM file is generated.
If you generated fonts in the Advanced mode, but failed to
generate the AFM file, then do not proceed—go back to
the Generate Font Files dialog and generate the AFM file.
You won’t get anywhere installing the font without it.
For more about hints, flex, and other options, see the
articles earlier in this chapter and in Chapter 10.
Pack your Suitcase: Bitmap fonts
Bitmaps vs. Outlines
In these days of Type 1 and TrueType fonts, the
relationship between screen fonts and printer fonts is
getting blurred. There was a time when they were both
represented by individual files. But in the present day of
Adobe Type Manager, the TrueType page description
language, Display Post-Script, and NEWS, every platform
we support can render the outline file to both the screen and
the printer. So does that mean we never have to deal with
bitmaps again? Not really.
Think about your screen image. It is represented by a lot of
pixels, each either turned on or turned off. When the font is
rendered to the screen, the font display driver maps out the
bits it wants turned on. That is essentially a “bitmap”
created “on the fly.”
Now, consider the printed image. What is the “resolution”
of your printer? Most laser printers print at least 300 dots
(read “bits”) per inch. Thus, in one letter-size page, the
particular page description driver determines which of the 8,
145,000 dots it wants on; the ones turned on attract the
black toner, the others don’t. But before the page is printed,
the intelligent printer has mapped out each bit and saved the
page in RAM as a bitmap image. You can imagine how
much memory that 300 dpi bitmap can consume!
While bitmap font files are rapidly becoming obsolete,
bitmaps themselves—whether they are screen images or
page descriptions—are always with us. Understanding their
Fontographer User's Manual
7: Generating and Exporting Fonts Page #21