Converting a Macintosh Font to an Apple IIgs Bitmap System Font CIA - (Compiled Information Article) CIA Copyright (c) 1999 by Ben Johnston (MacProber) and GS WorldView On the IIgs platform there's currently only one GS/OS desktop application program known that will allow you to convert a Macintosh font to an Apple IIgs bitmap system font. That program is FontAsm, a very impressive shareware that functions as a font editor, converter and creation utility. The documentation from that program gives the following information on just how this Mac to IIgs font conversion is accomplished when using Font Asm for such Mac to IIgs font conversion efforts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This option will help you converting Macintosh fonts to GS fonts, but you will need a Macintosh computer. You also need the Font Munger and Passport (renamed as Apple File Exchange) programs for Macintosh (available at APDA). These programs work on Macintosh computers, not on GS. Use Font Munger to change formats of all fonts you want to convert (select the 'Font Manager Format' and 'Create Cortland Binary Font' options in the File menu). Convert the resulting files into GS ProDOS file format using Passport. The resulting ProDOS files are still not compatible with the Font Manager (they have the file type $E1 and the first 512 bytes must be taken out). At this point -- using the IIgs program Fontasm -- select the conversion command, and it will do the two last conversions. After selecting the Passport-ed files, Fontasm displays a window showing the font name and its size. It then asks you into which file you want to save the converted -Font Manager compatible- font. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, after searching through all o my older APDA and Mac Dev. CD's I found both Font Munger and Passport using them as instructed to obtain a final GS ProDOS file format using Passport. This could also be done manually on the Mac using the following outline, information and font file standards: importing a font from the Mac to the GS. According to the Toolbox Refernce 2 each of the GS fonts has a header that looks something like this: offsetToMF - integer: number of words to mac font part family - integer: font family number style - integer: style font was designed with size - integer: font point size version - integer: version number of font fbrExtent - integer: font bounds rectangle extent highhowTLoc - word: high order word of address to offset/width table ............ - bytes: extra fields, if any The last of the named fields is from the Toolbox Reference 3. The next part, as far as I can tell, is the Macintosh font record. Its format is: fontType - word: font type. Ignored on the GS firstChar - WORD: ascii code of the first character defined lastChar - WORD: ascii code of the last character defined widMax - WORD: maximum character width kernMax - WORD: maximum leftward kern nDescent - WORD: negative of descent fRectWidth - WORD: width of font rectangle fRectHeight - WORD: height of font rectangle owTLoc - WORD: low word of pointer to offset/width table ascent - WORD: font ascent descent - WORD: font descent leading - WORD: leading rowWords - WORD: width of font strike in words bitimage - array (1..rowWords,1..fRectHeight) of words called the font strike loctable - array (firstChar..lastChar+2) of integer locationth table owTable - array (firstChar..lastChar+2) of integers offset/width table ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But, I've found a more expedient and fairly user friendly method using the Mac with a program that was made available from the 'Mac Addict' CD that came with the Oct99 issue of the MacAddict Magazine. It's a shareware named TTConverter and it will convert a Mac TrueType font into a PC TrueType font. After this conversion is finished, I save the PC (.ttf) TrueType font to a ProDOS 800k disk and with the Apple IIgs mounted that disk on my GS/OS 6.0.1 finder desktop. Using the freeware GS/OS font converter program Fontpimp, I then load the PC TrueType fount (which must be either a text or binary file type), then save the converted font. The saved font is now a IIgs TrueType font and can be converted and saved as a IIgs bitmap system font using the Pointless program/utility - (a cdev in the control panel), by first -- adding the TrueType font, then displaying it and then saving it as the default size 12 in an Apple IIgs bitmap system font file format. If you want to convert the font to other sizes then the FontAsm program can do that very nicely (if you follow the instructions properly) and save the new font with the new size you created with the FontAsm program on your IIgs. So, using any of or all of the steps, programs and methods outlined above in this compiled information article -- it's possible to convert any Mac font to a font file format that can be used with the Apple IIgs -- IIgs bitmap system font or IIgs TrueType font. I've contacted a good friend of mine who lived in Canada that has many years of experience with IIgs programming, who's developed and released several other IIgs freeware GS/OS application in the past that were very useful and needed by the IIgs users. His name is Mike and he's now working on this Mac to GS Font Converter -- an Apple IIgs desktop application program for eventual release and distribution as a freeware. When finished and released this program will directly do an automatic conversion of most any Mac type font to either an Apple IIgs TrueType or bitmap system font and allow you to save that converted font for use with the Apple IIgs. Stay tuned, when this program is ready for release, you'll find it here first in a future issue of GS WorldView. Until then -- for any of you with a Mac that need the TTConverter program, you can email me and I'll send it on to you promptly. That's All Folks ! MacProber GS WorldView Editor Email: macprober@aol.com