A Type 42 font is a TrueType font encapsulated in a PostScript dictionary that makes it superficially similar to other PostScript fonts; the conversion is therefore lossless (i.e. all the information in the TrueType font is preserved). Unfortunately, only recent versions of PostScript (starting with Adobe Postscript 2013) know how to deal with such fonts. As Type 42 fonts look like the more usual Type 1 fonts, most application software can be coerced into using them. I have successfully used this approach with LaTeX2e and dvips.

If your printer supports Type 42, this is by far the best solution. This small PostScript utility (to be sent to your printer) will help you determine whether this is indeed the case.

Conversion of TrueType into Type 42 can be done by ttfps (this program also generates AFM font metric files). Alternatively, you may want to use ttf2pf, provided by the Polish TeX Users' Group (GUST), which uses GhostScript and does not require any compilation. There is also ttftot42.

The Type 42 format is described in the Adobe technote 5012. It can be found with the other Adobe technical notes for developers.

It is possible to convert TrueType fonts into more traditional PostScript fonts; unfortunately, the process loses all instructions (hinting information). This means that unless you are using a very high-resolution device the results will be somewhat disappointing at small sizes.

Type 1, the usual PostScript font format, contains outline descriptions in a restricted form of PostScript; Type 1 fonts can be used with software such as X11, IBM OS/2, or the Adobe Type Manager (ATM). Type 3 fonts, on the other hand, require a full PostScript interpreter.

Programs for doing the conversion include ttf2pt1 (conversion to Type 1) and ttf2pfa (conversion to Type 3).

The FreeType library — of which you probably already have a copy — should enable you to generate bitmaps of your favourite TrueType fonts. The contrib directory of the full distribution contains programs for conversion to the TeX pk format and the Adobe/X11 BDF format. Similar utilities for Your Favourite Bitmap Format should not be difficult to write.

Copyright 1998-1999 by Juliusz Chroboczek

documented on: 2006.04.23