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Get The Most Out Of Windows November 2002 • Vol.8 Issue 11 |
 All About Fonts Facts To Help You Build Better Characters | ||
 Fonts. We all know what they are, right? Take a typeface such as Arial or Times New Roman, mix in a size such as 10-point, 12-point, or eye-catching 72-point characters, and add a weight and style such as bold and italic. That's all there is to it, correct? Well, not exactly. There's much more to fonts than simply knowing their names. Although the ways in which Windows and its applications use fonts can be fairly transparent, they don't come with a complete set of instructions. When you select a font while typing a word processing document, for example, the program won't ask you if you know how much hard drive space that font consumes. Here are some font-related questions and answers that every Windows user can benefit from. Q: What's the difference between typeface and font? A: In common parlance, not much. That's because many individuals incorrectly use the two terms interchangeably. Technically, a typeface is the general shape of the characters, and a font is the entire design, including size, style, and weight. Arial, often seen on the Web, is a typeface. Arial 12-point bold is a font. Q: How many fonts are there? A: The answer depends on whom you ask. You can't just go to the worldwide font directory and count the listings because no such directory exists. And even if it did, it would change daily because of the rate at which new fonts are created. Microsoft, which maintains an online directory of font foundries (sources for downloading or otherwise attaining fonts) at its Typography site (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links), estimates there are 100,000 or more digital fonts. Adobe Systems, developer of the popular "Type 1" digital font format, notes that more than 30,000 Type 1 fonts are in existence. So, considering the two estimates, we can be sure that there are somewhere between 40,000 and 100,000 fonts. Q: What do you mean when you refer to "Type 1" fonts? A: To answer that, it's helpful to take a quick look at the history of fonts. Fonts have been around for centuries (some historians trace "modern" fonts back to the 15th century), but digital fonts really started to evolve when Adobe developed a printing language called PostScript, a standard in desktop publishing. PostScript was founded on Type 1 and Type 3 font technologies. At almost the same time as Adobe developed PostScript, Apple Computer was creating a competing font technology, TrueType, which it included in its Macintosh OS (operating system) in May 1991. Microsoft got into the act by licensing TrueType from Apple, and Microsoft included TrueType in Windows 3.1. The font war was heating up. Fortunately for the PC user, the war ended in a truce: In 1996, Adobe and Microsoft teamed up to merge TrueType and Type 1 into a font format called OpenType. Q: How do I know what fonts my system has installed? A: The answer is as easy as opening the Fonts folder in the Control Panel. In Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Me, click the Start button, choose Settings, click Control Panel, and double-click the Fonts icon to open the Fonts folder window. In Windows XP, open the Start menu and click Control Panel. If you see categories rather than individual icons, click Switch To Classic View in the left pane. Then, double-click the Fonts icon. How the fonts display in the Fonts folder depends upon your folders' View settings. Because the default View setting is Large Icons, you'll probably see many large, similar icons with the font name listed underneath each icon. But regardless of which setting you select from the View menu, you'll still be able to see font icons and their associated font name. You'll notice that each icon has a letter associated with it. "O" stands for OpenType, "TT" refers to TrueType, and "A" refers to the non-TrueType and non-OpenType fonts. In addition, you can find out how much hard drive space each font consumes. Open the View menu and select Details. You'll see the font name and its associated file name, size, the date the font was last modified, and attributes (such as Read-Only, Hidden, or Archive). Fonts typically use between 20KB and 400KB of hard drive space, but some use much more.
A: Probably not. Some typefaces are fairly common (for example, Times New Roman is regularly used in word processing documents), so you'll probably want to keep them on hand, but others are extremely rare. Although the memory requirements probably won't break your system, you may wish to delete some fonts to free up hard drive space. To delete a font, you can select it and click Delete from the File menu, or you can right-click the font and choose Delete from the pop-up menu. Some OSes also will ask you to confirm your decision to delete the file. If so, click Yes. Keep in mind, however, that some fonts are system fonts, meaning that Windows uses them for checkboxes, arrows, or other features. You may not think you use it, but if you delete a system font, Windows won't be able to display certain items. Because the font file size is often relatively small, we recommend that you delete a font only if you installed it yourself. Q: How do I know whether a font is a system font? A: Users with systems running Win98 SE, WinMe, and WinXP can save themselves from several headaches by deciding not to delete any of the following fonts, which Microsoft considers to be system fonts: Arial (including Black, Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic); Book Antiqua; Calisto MT; Copperplate Gothic Bold; Copperplate Gothic Light; Courier (New, New Bold, New Bold Italic, New Italic, and Courier 10, 12, 15); MS-DOS CP 437; Century (Gothic, Gothic Bold, Gothic Bold Italic, Gothic Italic); Impact; Lucinda (Handwriting Italic, Sans Italic, Sans Unicode, Console); Marlett; Matisse ITC; Modern; News Gothic (MT, MT Bold, MT Italic); OCR A Extended; MS Serif 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24; MS Sans Serif 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24; Symbol; Small Fonts; Tempus Sans ITT; Times New Roman (including Bold, Bold Italic, Italic); Verdana (including Bold, Italic, Bold Italic); Fixedsys; Terminal; Webdings; Westminster; and Wingdings. In addition, there are other core fonts Microsoft recommends keeping on your system. For a list of fonts Windows and other applications need, see the Fonts And Products page of the Microsoft Typography site (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts). Also, please note that Microsoft suggests keeping all TrueType fonts (which have the .TTF file extension) and bit-mapped fonts (which have the .FON extension).
A: If you don't have the eye for design that you wish you did, take advantage of a built-in Windows tool that lets you create groups of similar fonts. From within the Fonts folder, open the View menu and select List Fonts By Similarity. Then, chose a font you like by selecting it from the drop-down menu (appears on its own toolbar), and Windows will sort the fonts by similarity, ranging from "very similar" to "fairly similar" to "not similar." Q: When I group fonts by similarity using the View menu, some of the fonts in the list appear next to a "No Panose information available" statement. What does this mean? A: Panose information describes a font's general characteristics, such as whether there are extra embellishments on characters (serif) or whether the typefaces don't have decorative lines (sans serif). If that type of information isn't available, Windows cannot classify a particular font and organize it via the Lists Fonts By Similarity feature. Q: I don't see the font I want. How can I install it on my system? A: It's relatively easy to install a new font. Start by opening the Fonts folder from the Control Panel (as we described earlier). From the File menu, select Install New Font. Click the drive and folder that contain the desired font. For example, if you have fonts stored on a floppy diskette, select drive A: (assuming that's the letter assigned to your floppy diskette drive), and then browse through the list of folders on the left. If you want to add more than one font, you can select multiple fonts in the same way you select multiple files in many Windows applications: Press and hold down the CTRL key to select font files one by one, or press and hold down the SHIFT key to select adjacent font files. Click OK. If you want to transfer fonts from another computer on a network, click the Network button and follow the instructions on-screen. If you don't want to use drive space on your computer during this process, make sure you deselect the Copy Fonts To Fonts Folder checkbox at the bottom of the dialog box. Q: I'm installing a new program. How can I tell what fonts this program will install on my system? A: There's no surefire way to obtain this information for all programs, but one helpful resource is the Microsoft Typography Fonts And Products page (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts). This page has a comprehensive cross-referenced list of applications and the fonts they include. Select a product from the first drop-down menu and click Go to obtain a list of fonts it supplies. For instance, when you choose Excel 2000, you'll see more than five dozen fonts appear in the list, from Arial (v2.76) to Wingdings 3 (v1.50). Or, select a font name from the second list and click Go to see a list of Microsoft products that supply that font. The latter option also presents you with interesting information about the font, such as who designed it and when it first became available. The Microsoft Typography Fonts And Products page also links to pages describing the fonts supplied with WinXP and Windows 2000, as well as a few non-Microsoft products. Q: Where can I find a custom font? A: The Web is home to many treasures, including custom fonts. One place to start looking for these fonts is FontSeek (http://www.fontseek.com), a directory and search engine for fonts. FontSeek lists its top 20 font resource pages, and 1001 Free Fonts (http://www.1001freefonts.com) is at the top of its list. This site lets you search for fonts by name or supported OS, and it provides tips for font installation. FontFreak (http://www.fontfreak.com), which claims to be the largest freeware and shareware archive on the Web, is another popular resource. You can perform searches by name or browse through all the font samples. Then there's Wanted Fonts (http://www.wantedfonts.com), which lets you browse through categories such as Adult, Famous, Horror, Romance, and Sans Serif. Microsoft also provides a list of commercial, shareware, and freeware foundries at its Typography site (see Type Foundries section at http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links), with a sentence or two that describes each Web site. Q: Is there any difference among freeware, shareware, and commercial fonts? How much can I expect to pay for each? A: In general, you'll probably notice that the quality of freeware and shareware fonts is somewhat lower than that of commercial fonts (after all, it's often true that you get what you pay for), but there are numerous exceptions. For instance, there are plenty of shareware and freeware programs skilled artists create who distribute them inexpensively because they believe everyone should have access to high-quality, professional-looking fonts. To see examples of this, look at some of the 4,000 free fonts found at Acid Fonts (http://www.acidfonts.com). Ancient Geek is a sharp, stylish font, and Bored Schoolboy looks just like the doodles you drew in your sixth-grade notebook. Rafael Dinner's three-dimensional fonts (http://www.stanford.edu/~rdinner/fonts.html), on the other hand, will cost you $5 each. The fonts at OldFonts.com (http://www.oldfonts.com) have a historical feel, and you'll pay between $39 and $49 for the privilege of downloading one (with discounts for volume purchases). Q: If I download a font, is it legal to use? A: The answer depends on where you downloaded the file and what you intend to use it for. If you're hacking into some artist's site and locate her private stash of fonts, odds are great that you're breaking the law if you take those fonts and use them in your own material. But if you're downloading from one of the sites we just mentioned (or similar sites), using those fonts is perfectly legal, provided you comply with the instructions listed, such as paying any required shareware fees (if applicable). Therefore, it's wise to read any text file included with a download. It's also wise for font developers to consider how to legally and ethically incorporate fonts into their own work. You'll find a great resource on this subject at Typophile (http://typophile.com), a free and open typographic community. In the Articles section (move your mouse pointer along the top of the site to see a menu appear), "Honor Among Thieves, Lament of a Small-Potatoes Font Developer" demonstrates why the illegal and unethical use of fonts harms fonts artists. Plus, you can download some of Typophile's public service announcements (in the Downloads section), including "Don't steal fonts," to post on your own Web site. Q: How do I create my own custom font? A: Creating a custom font isn't beyond the scope of the average designer and PC user, but it will take some time and patience. Head over to the Microsoft Typography site for both tools and tips in the Developer Information section. Also, visit FontSite (http://www.fontsite.com) for techniques production artists use, step-by-step instructions, and a style guide. You also can check out the $50 Font Creator Program from High-Logic (http://www.high-logic.com/fcp.html) to create and edit TrueType files. Q: Can I create a font that looks like my handwriting? A: You sure can. For that personal touch, use a convenient tool from Signature Software (http://www.signaturesoftware.com). You can demonstrate the vLetter tool online by choosing the handwriting style that most closely matches your own, selecting other characteristics (such as type size and line spacing), typing or pasting text into the message box, and clicking the Preview button to view your creation. The full version of the software, vLetter Pro, costs $149.95 and includes your own handwriting and signature. Q: I see a font on the Web that I like. How can I find out what its name is? A: Just take a virtual stroll over to the WhatTheFont page at MyFonts.com (http://www.myfonts.com/whatthefont). This feature takes a scanned image of a font, maps it against a database, and returns a list of the closest matches.  A Font Expert. Now that you've read this article, you're well on your way to becoming an expert on fonts. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, there are still some details that we weren't able to cover. If this article has merely whetted your appetite for font information, you'll find your fill of questions and answers (and more) at the Fonts FAQ Web page (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/fonts-faq). This collection of Usenet newsgroup postings will keep you entertained for hours.  by Heidi V. Anderson |
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