System 6 Fonts

[Garrett]

The System 6.0.8 installation I use on the FloppyEmu for booting my 1988 Macintosh SE only has three of the basic fonts (Chicago, Geneva, and Monaco.) I was wondering how I what type of fonts can you install and how you install them? I know there's a "Font Mover DA" desk accessory for moving the fonts, but where can you download fonts that will work with System 6?

 

[Crutch]

I think Dog Cow has some fonts here:  https://macgui.com/downloads/?cat_id=261

You want the “Font/DA Mover” (or the even older “Font Mover”) which is an application that moves fonts and desk accessories, not a desk accessory that moves fonts.  

 

[Dog Cow]

 a "Font Mover DA" desk accessory for moving the fonts, but where can you download fonts that will work with System 6?

The site that Crutch referred to has a large collection of bitmapped fonts. For pre-System 7 Macs, you can install the TrueType INIT and use TrueType fonts too.

 

[Garrett]

Is there a way I can get the other system fonts on the SE? My Classic has the full set (Helvetica, Times, Athens, San Francisco, etc.) and I'd like to get those on the SE volume but wouldn't know how to do that.

 

[Dog Cow]

Is there a way I can get the other system fonts on the SE? My Classic has the full set (Helvetica, Times, Athens, San Francisco, etc.) and I'd like to get those on the SE volume but wouldn't know how to do that.

Are you asking how to copy fonts from one disk to another? Under System 6, you have to use the Font/DA Mover application, as Crutch mentioned.

 

[ArmorAlley]

There is and you have already mentioned it: The Font/DA Mover. It is an application as far as I remember.

You can create suitcase files (essentially containers for the fonts) with the Font/DA Mover and copy the fonts across.

You should have a look at the documentation from Apple for System 6. You'll find it at VintageApple.org.

The TrueType INIT will allow your System 6 Mac to use TrueType fonts.

 

[Garrett]

I was able to use the Font/DA Mover to move some fonts over, specifically from Mini vMac to the SE volume. Helvetica looks really pixelated when increased in size (to 18 pt.) whereas it's more crisp on the Classic when increased to the same size. Perhaps different versions or something?

I wasn't able to get any additional fonts loaded from the .bin file on the Dog Cow's MacGUI website - I don't even know how to properly open that. I also wasn't able to load the TrueType INIT either, mostly for the same reason. (How do I open a .sea.hqx file?)

Do fonts take up RAM at all times? I read somewhere that adding more fonts will use more RAM on startup and all times, which is a precious resource on the SE since it only has 1 MB of it.

Also, I had to use the Font/DA Mover included with ConcertWare since the "standalone" Font/DA Mover I downloaded from Macintosh Garden was "locked" and therefore Mini vMac didn't like it. I didn't even bother trying it with the SE since I knew it probably wouldn't like it, either.

 

[Crutch]

Fonts do not take up RAM when you are not using them (just disk space). They are purged from RAM and reloaded from disk as needed. 

With old bitmapped fonts, each size is essentially a separate font. Make sure you copied over “Helvetica-18” from your Classic, or that particular size won’t look good even if others do. Absent that, the Font Manager tries to scale a whole number multiple of your desired size up or down. It’s probably showing you Helvetica-9 at 2x magnification. 

 

[ArmorAlley]

I wasn't able to get any additional fonts loaded from the .bin file on the Dog Cow's MacGUI website - I don't even know how to properly open that. I also wasn't able to load the TrueType INIT either, mostly for the same reason. (How do I open a .sea.hqx file?)

BinHex & StuffIt 3.5 come to mind for System 6.

 

[Dog Cow]

I wasn't able to get any additional fonts loaded from the .bin file on the Dog Cow's MacGUI website - I don't even know how to properly open that. I also wasn't able to load the TrueType INIT either, mostly for the same reason. (How do I open a .sea.hqx file?)

Macintosh files with a .bin extension are typically MacBinary encoded. Use either MacBinary 5.0 or StuffIt Expander to decode these files.

The .hqx extension means BinHex encoding, and .sea means a StuffIt self-extracting archive. Again, use StuffIt Expander to decode these.

 

[Garrett]

So far, I'm having about 50% success. I was able to copy the fonts from the Classic into a font suitcase, which I loaded on to the SE volume. So the SE should now have the same fonts the Classic does, including versions for Helvetica and other fonts that are more suited for larger text.

What I was still not able to do was expand the StuffIt Expander and binary file. I tried using StuffIt Lite (StuffIt 3.5) to expand the .sea.hqx and .bin files - both with no luck. I tried expanding the .bin file using MacBinary/BinHex 5.0 and also had no luck - when choosing the "Download -> Application" option, the .bin file wouldn't even show up as an option to expand. (Similar to how .mid files wouldn't appear in ConcertWare.) Ugh... it's totally possible I'm missing something completely obvious.

But hey, at least right now I'm not limited to Chicago, Geneva, or Monaco on the SE. One step in the right direction...

 

[CC_333]

Files with the extensions .bin and .hqx are encoded in MacBinary II/III and BinHex 4.0, respectively, and must be decoded before you can work with them (later versions of Classic Stuffit Expander (such as 5.5, included with Mac OS 8.x and 9) can do that, but evidently, the early version you're using can't, so you must either a) find a separate program to do it or b ) you can decode them on modern macOS, which shouldn't wreck the resource forks because as far as I know, they're still supported. .sea is a self extracting sit archive, most likely requiring System 7 to run (it can be extracted by Expander like a normal .sit file, but probably not by the old version.

The safest way would probably be a), but then there's the classic catch22, wherein you download the decoder, and you need it to decode itself, but you can't because you need to decode it first :sadmac:

Anyway, here's a program for decoding MacBinaryII (unfortunately requires System 7): http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macbinary-ii

And for BinHex 4.0 (this one appears to be System 6 compatible): https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/binhex-40

I think the easiest way to solve that is to boot up mini vMac with System 7, MacBinary, BinHex (plus something to decode them), and/or a recent copy of Expander (5.5 is compatible with 7, I think), do all your decoding and expanding there, and then copy the results over via Floppy Emu to either the SE or the Classic.

I hope this helps!

c

 

[Crutch]

MiniVMac’s built-in file tools (ImportFl, I think it’s called? Edit - yep here it is https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/extras/importfl/) support MacBinary decoding, so if your’e using MiniVMac you don’t actually need to get a special purposes MacBinary decoder, but if you want one, this works with System 6:

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macbinary-v101-macbinary-ii

 

[Garrett]

Sorry for the delayed response. I had another problem arise - the 100 MB volume on the FloppyEmu that I use with the SE was almost full, so I had to create a new 224 MB volume. After sorting one issue out (the downside to playing with these machines late at night) I ended up doing a proper 6.0.8 install, which installed all of the system fonts anyways. It also "unlocked" the full control panel, which is nice.

Tomorrow (or later today?) I'll try installing some "custom" fonts, as well as installing the INIT to enable TrueType capabilities under System 6. I already do a lot of "prep work" with Mini vMac as I can have multiple images/volumes from the FloppyEmu open at one time. I'll also test out the binary file decoding capabilities of ImportFl. (I use ImportFl a bit, but never knew it had that capability. You learn something new every day... except I'm learning a lot with playing around with these Macs.)

System 7 will run on the Classic, but I haven't thoroughly tested it. I actually tried to run SoftPC in System 7.1 earlier on the Classic (failed), and then proceeded to run Word 4.0 in 7.1. Word works fine but there were some weird video issues at one point, and System 7 seems to eat quite a bit of memory. (With Word 4.0 open, I couldn't even open the brightness control panel due to "not enough memory.") The Classic only has 2 MB of memory, so it barely meets the minimum system requirements for System 7. With that said, System 6 seems to run a lot smoother and is more appropriate for the machine.

P.S./Tangent - I have an additional 2 MB memory expansion kit for the Classic, with two 1 MB SIMMs for the memory expansion daughter card. Unfortunately, every time I install them and power on the machine, the machine won't boot (won't even chime) and shows garbled video momentarily before going to a blank display. The SIMMs may be bad (I did accidentally drop them one time while trying to install them - oops) or I may not be installing them properly. (Sounds dumb - but maybe I'm not getting them seated properly? I'm always nervous I'm going to damage the socket. With each attempt, I have made sure to move the jumper to the "SIMM INSTALLED" position.)