Font Book Dilemma—Enlighten me please

[Natobasso]

Originally Posted by b1hgaa88

I have been able to use this font (DCRTimes) on my iMac by putting it into the "Classic" System Folder. Microsoft Word X sees it from there and it operates normally in Classic mode (OS X—Panther), or with Word Perfect when booted directly into OS 9.2.2.

I am beginning to think there is something about the Intel chip (MacBook), or perhaps Tiger (OS 10.4.10) that prevents the use of it on this machine (Font Explorer tells me it is lacking a screen font).

Is this possible?

Sounds like either a corrupt font, or missing a screen font or both. Try repairing it through FontExplorer or if you have a font utility like Font Cache Cleaner you could use that too.

[b1hgaa88]

Actually, it is missing the PRINTER font (not the screen font as I mentioned before). Is there any way of generating a printer font from a screen font on the Mac (or even in Windows)?

[Natobasso]

I'm not aware of being able to do that, and I'm having trouble finding it at fonts.com as a font for sale...

[Natobasso]

Originally Posted by b1hgaa88

Actually, it is missing the PRINTER font (not the screen font as I mentioned before). Is there any way of generating a printer font from a screen font on the Mac (or even in Windows)?

Didn't you also say this?

... (Font Explorer tells me it is lacking a screen font).

[Natobasso]

Search for 'DCRTimes' on your computer. Do any other pieces show up on search?

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by b1hgaa88

... Is there any way of generating a printer font from a screen font on the Mac (or even in Windows)?

This depends on your definition of "screen font." If your printer fonts are PostScript and your screen fonts are bitmapped, then you cannot convert screen fonts into printer fonts.

[b1hgaa88]

Thanks to all your replies. I don't think the font is corrupt because I can "see" the text on my iMac monitor, though not print it.

Let me expand on this somewhat for a bit more clarity.

The problem I have is as follows. I have this old font, which I always assumed was a bitmap, that I used to use without problem on my old LC II for use in Roman transliteration of Sanskrit. It is basically a Times font but with special coding to handle Roman letters with diacritical marks. Thus, e.g. an 'a' with a bar on top of it would be produced by hitting 'option a' on the keyboard. It is called "DCRTimes" (for "diacritical Times") and I always assumed it to be a bitmap. However, my FontExplorerX tells me it is a Type 1 Postscript, and that the printer font is missing.

On my old slot-loading iMac booted directly into OS 9.2.2, or running Panther, my Microsoft Word X can load a romanised Sanskrit text and view it on screen with all the diacritical marks. No problem. However, I cannot print the text—printer wants to print but shows "No job printing". This makes sense to me if FontExplorerX is right. I should add that the font is located in my Classic "System Folder."

When I try to use this same text on my Intel MacBook running Mac 10.4.10 my MSWord 2004 cannot see the font. FontExplorer sees the font in red and cannot activate it (Information panel shows "Missing printer-font file").

Unfortunately, I no long have my old LC II machine, but I can assure you all that I was fully able to load and use the font to read (on the monitor) and to print (on paper) whatever I needed. In fact, in those halcyon days all (or most) of my fonts were single suitcases—my bet is they were mostly bitmap fonts.

I first looked into the possibility of generating (creating) a 'printer' font from my 'screen' font suitcase in Fontographer, but this program will not open the file. I then looked at Fontforge (which may be used to create fonts as I understand it), but find this program totally opaque and confusing. I have read the Manual, but cannot see how to proceed. It looks like something you need the Terminal for (at least I cannot see any decent GUI on the latest version that I have).

What I am looking for is:

a) an explanation of how come I could earlier use this font in OS 7.6 (which I ran on my LC II machine), but cannot use (to print) in either OS 9.2.2 or Classic, or OS X?

b) an explanation of how to use Fontforge to generate the 'printer' font from my 'screen' font suitcase.

c) Failing this, how to proceed from here (any other software available?)

I should add that this font (DCRTimes) is not a commercial font (so will not show up on fonts.com), and I cannot remember what University originally sent it to me.

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by b1hgaa88

... It is called "DCRTimes" (for "diacritical Times") and I always assumed it to be a bitmap. However, my FontExplorerX tells me it is a Type 1 Postscript, and that the printer font is missing.

On my old slot-loading iMac booted directly into OS 9.2.2, or running Panther, my Microsoft Word X can load a romanised Sanskrit text and view it on screen with all the diacritical marks. No problem. However, I cannot print the text—printer wants to print but shows "No job printing". This makes sense to me if FontExplorerX is right. I should add that the font is located in my Classic "System Folder."

...

a) an explanation of how come I could earlier use this font in OS 7.6 (which I ran on my LC II machine), but cannot use (to print) in either OS 9.2.2 or Classic, or OS X?

...

I should add that this font (DCRTimes) is not a commercial font (so will not show up on fonts.com), and I cannot remember what University originally sent it to me.

Without access to the original font, it is difficult to say what should be going on or what is going wrong. If the font dates back to System 7.6, then it could be a TrueType GX or PostScript GX font with glyphs for the entire panoply of diacriticals. FWIW, TrueType GX and PostScript GX are compatible with MacOS X.

I notice that FontExplorer incorrectly identifies bitmapped fonts as Adobe Type 1. Bitmapped fonts may be standalone or they may be linked to an Adobe Type 1, but they are not Adobe Type 1 fonts. The fact that DCRTimes is not a commercial font is of little concern. There are numerous freeware and shareware fonts which are not listed by Fonts.com. However, there should be a source somewhere. I have done a Google search on the name "DCRTimes," but I get absolutely no hits. The font may have a different file name, but you don't seem to know it.