Converting MAC format Adobe Font Files to ASCII Postscript Programs


The CONVMACF utility reads a compressed Macintosh Format Adobe Font file
and unpacks it to an ASCII text file.  This permits sending the font to a
printer as a PostScript program, and eliminates the need for a font
loading program.  The disadvantage is that the font file takes up more
space on the host computer's hard disk, (but not in the PostScript
printer).  The utility does not decrypt the font file; rather, it converts
it to a format that can be sent to an Adobe PostScript printer directly.

The result of this is that those who do not use MACs can have access to
MAC format fonts for their Adobe's Printers.

To use CONVMACF, just:

     convmacf <input_MAC_font_file> <output_ASCII_font_program>

Then then you can send the ASCII font program to your printer.  For example,
in the DOS environment, with a PostScript printer on LPT1:

     type <ASCII_font_program> >prn


COMVMACF does not help with the problem of moving the Adobe Font File
from the MAC environment to your environment.  For MAC to PC applications,
my testing and development of CONVMACF involved moving the MAC font file
from the MAC to the PC over a network in which a SUN computer was the
file server.   The MAC side of the system required changes to the
font filenames so that they were compatible with DOS file-naming
conventions, e.g., no spaces, 8 characters, etc.

If you have problems CONVMACF, I suggest first looking at the source
file supplied.  CONVMACF is a simple program that borrows heavily from
the CONV program written by "mzellers" on BIX (in the conv.arc listing
in the postscript\listings conference).  I modified "mzellers" program
(which failed to convert MAC format font files).  "mzellers" can be
contacted on Bix as "mzellers" or via UUCP at
"decwrl.dec.com!batgirl!mark".  I can be contacted on BIX as "srogers".

You may also need to convert the MAC format AFM files.  This conversion is
quite simple, requiring the the addition of an ASCII line feed character
(0x0A) after every ASCII carriage return character (0x0D) in the MAC format
file.