Over 200 Linotype Type Faces (Also ... utility to convert PS to TT?)

[olePigeon]

Got an offer accepted on this lot:

Vintage Macintosh Fonts by Linotype - over 200 Typefaces - NEW, never opened | eBay

Also includes a Linotype NFNT (new font numbering table) software.

www.ebay.com

I've begun the process of archiving the disks. So far, so good. What I'm excited about is that I now own these fonts. Not the knockoffs. Which is nice since Fonts.com wants to charge $35 to $85 per typeface for these exact fonts.

A few years ago I regrettably lost out on an auction for a large collection of old Adobe fonts (probably 30 or so.) I really like the old floppy-based Adobe fonts because each font comes with a really cool book on the history of the font and its modern creation. They're an interesting read, and make for a nifty little library if you were to collect enough of them. Before they went to CD, that is. But they sold them on floppy for probably a good 10 years.


Also, does anyone know of a utility to convert PostScript to TrueType? I used to use Fontographer, but I lost my copy many years ago. No idea what happened to it. I want to avoid those sketchy websites. I feel like there was one for System 7, but I'm probably thinking of TTConverter which only converted Windows TTF to Macintosh TTF (and vice versa.)

Edit: I found one on Macintosh Garden called Evolution. I'll give it a whirl. Says it can convert between PostScript 3, 1, and TrueType.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nice! I remember buying a few of those back in the day. It's nice to own them.

In the early '90s somehow most of Adobe's Type Library wound up on the 270MB disk in my PowerBook 100. I think someone hooked some kinda cable up to it when I was visiting a DTP Studio? Dunno, it just magically appeared.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Also, does anyone know of a utility to convert PostScript to TrueType? I used to use Fontographer, but I lost my copy many years ago. No idea what happened to it. I want to avoid those sketchy websites. I feel like there was one for System 7, but I'm probably thinking of TTConverter which only converted Windows TTF to Macintosh TTF (and vice versa.)

Altsys (Fontographer, Freehand etc. developer) released such a utility after Adobe's encryption was cracked. Before that they released a utility that picked the brains of a LaserWriter with their encrypted Type 1 fonts in memory and spit out Type 3, AKA readable PostScript typefaces.

What's nice is that it looks like you have seven eminently useful Type Fonts, which are collections of the Typefaces available in those families. Common usage by the unwashed masses wreaked havoc on all manner of terminology back in the day. Interesting that the seller almost used proper terms properly in the listing. Reads better in a listing with equivocal expression. 200 individual lines in root menu implied reads better than seven dropdown menus of faces in root.

 

[olePigeon]

Yeah, Fonts and Faces became interchangeable after a while.

I discovered that in some fonts the varying typefaces could actually belong to different fonts. In one of the Adobe font books I mentioned earlier about (don't remember which font ... might be Caslon), it said that while there are historical references to the oblique typeset for that particular font, no surviving copies could be found either in print or the actual typeset. So they borrowed the oblique typeface from a different font entirely and modified it to better fit the characteristics of the current font.

Fun little books to read.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yeah, Fonts and Faces became interchangeable after a while.

Nap! Never happened, misuse of one became endemic, but folks who know design and type still keep it straight:

Fonts by Hoefler&Co.

H&Co designs fonts for print, web, and mobile environments.

www.typography.com

It's nice to see Jonathan become so successful. I helped the kid learn Fontographer at MPC in the Photo District circa IIfx release. Not a lot, but helped a little and provided much encouragement. His obsession with type design was quite impressive to see in a teenager.

I discovered that in some fonts the varying typefaces could actually belong to different fonts. In one of the Adobe font books I mentioned earlier about (don't remember which font ... might be Caslon), it said that while there are historical references to the oblique typeset for that particular font, no surviving copies could be found either in print or the actual typeset. So they borrowed the oblique typeface from a different font entirely and modified it to better fit the characteristics of the current font.

Cool, got a list of books to post?

Fun little books to read.

My fave from the day was a hardcover first edition of this or an earlier pub from URW:
Digital Formats for Typefaces by Peter Karow

URW was sticking to its spline curve based Icarus system, likely from the MiniComputer era or even on Mainframe timeshare? They were convinced that using Bezier Curves in digital type design would't have fast enough redraw updating to be practical . . . oopsie!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

A brief overview of developments in digital type design

This article was first published in Yearbook of Type #3, (Slanted Publishers, 2018). Read it here with additional images in full color and…

medium.com

 

[olePigeon]

Cool, got a list of books to post?

I didn't make a list, but they'd be whichever fonts Adobe released at retail on floppy disk. Here's an example of one I already have:

Adobe Caslon Type 1 Postscript Font Package | eBay

Adobe Original Caslon Type 1 Font Family. Includes regular, italic, semibold, semibold italic, bold and bold italic. Very well designed, classic text face.

www.ebay.com

You can see the little book. All of them (or at least, the few that I have) came with a little book about the font. I don't know if they were ever uploaded to Google books or archive.org. So if you had purchased a bunch of those early fonts on floppy, then you'd have a nice collection of little books, too. One about each font you bought. If put together, they'd make for a sort of nifty font encyclopedia.

 

[Alumamac]

Edit: I found one on Macintosh Garden called Evolution. I'll give it a whirl. Says it can convert between PostScript 3, 1, and TrueType.

If that doesn’t work I have a couple different versions of TransType Pro that should be able to convert those.

 

[ArmorAlley]

TT Converter is good. It's made by the same people who made Fontographer, if I remember correctly.

 

[splorp]

I found one on Macintosh Garden called Evolution. I'll give it a whirl. Says it can convert between PostScript 3, 1, and TrueType.

I worked at Image Club Graphics when we developed Evolution. I wrote the user manual, handled tech support, and designed the interface/packaging/icons. In fact, I even managed to keep a copy of the source code safe and sound … it’s around here somewhere …

Macintosh Garden only has version 1.0 of Evolution, whereas the last release was 2.0.2 … handling the PostScript to TrueType conversions more efficiently and accurately. Happy to send a supply a copy if you want to give it a try as well.

TT Converter is good. It's made by the same people who made Fontographer, if I remember correctly.

Altsys also made a font conversion program (around the same time that Image Club released Evolution) called Metamorphosis.

 

[olePigeon]

@splorp I would love a copy. Thank you!

 

[Alumamac]

@splorp Great story, what timeframe was this?

 

[splorp]

I would love a copy. Thank you!

I’ll zip up a disk image and DM you, if that works.

 

[splorp]

Great story, what timeframe was this?

This was mostly 1990–1991, during The Font Wars.

The basic timeline for the Evolution product:

• Q2 1990 — A beta version of Evolution was used to convert the Type 3 fonts in the Image Club Typeface Library to Type 1 format.
• Q3 1990 — Evolution 1.0 is released.
• Q3 1990 — FontConvert 1.0, a limited functionality version of Evolution, ships with all Image Club fonts.
• Q2 1991 — Evolution 1.0 receives a four mice rating from MacUser Magazine.
• Q4 1991 — Evolution 2.0 is released with support for TrueType.

 

[splorp]

Also, digging through my archives I found the beta versions of Evolution 2.0.3 … which was never released publicly. I’ll need to check for the release notes to determine what was changed or fixed in that version.

 

[ArmorAlley]

I worked at Image Club Graphics when we developed Evolution. I wrote the user manual, handled tech support, and designed the interface/packaging/icons. In fact, I even managed to keep a copy of the source code safe and sound … it’s around here somewhere …

Macintosh Garden only has version 1.0 of Evolution, whereas the last release was 2.0.2 … handling the PostScript to TrueType conversions more efficiently and accurately. Happy to send a supply a copy if you want to give it a try as well.



Altsys also made a font conversion program (around the same time that Image Club released Evolution) called Metamorphosis.

Yes, Metamorphosis. Thanks for the correction. Metamorphosis is a very useful tool.