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elliotfrancisco
Participant
August 25, 2009
Question

Transfer fonts from Mac to PC

  • August 25, 2009
  • 3 replies
  • 50850 views

Hi there,

I have recently switched from a Mac to PC and have CS4 on my new windows machine.

I rework a lot of open artwork files from Quark and InDesign and most of these originated on a Mac. These files are workable on my machine, however the fonts are not.

Is there any easy way to transfer the Mac fonts so they are readable on a PC?

I believe these are TT or T1 fonts.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Kind regards,


Elliot

    3 replies

    P
    partypao
    Participant
    July 26, 2014

    I found the solution. Copy the font files that look like suitcases in Mac (much like a font folder) to a usb drive and copy to your PC. After transfering to windows folder, on windows explorer where the copied fonts are visible click Tools>Folder Options  in View tab, tick the 'Show hidden files, folders, or drive', a transparent Resource will appear, and the fonts are in there. Copy them somewere else, and add a file extension .dfont. Convert them by uploading to http://www.fontconverter.org/ and the download the windows version ttf, otf or whatever option you picked on uploading.

    if you cant see the resource folder, try doing the tools>view option while veiwing the files on your usb.

      Kasyan Servetsky
      Kasyan Servetsky
      Legend
      August 25, 2009

      When I switched from Quark to InDesign, I used Fontlab to remake fonts. I resaved them in Open Type format: this way I could use the same fonts both on Mac and PC. It takes just about a minute to resave a font.

      Kasyan

      Peter Spier
      Community Expert
      Peter SpierCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 25, 2009

      Converting fonts may be a violation of the license agreement, and from what I've read it may not give you an exact duplicate as far as kerning pairs or font hinting are concerned, depending on the conversion tools.

      Scott Falkner
      Community Expert
      Scott FalknerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 25, 2009

      Yes, Macs can read Windows TT fonts and yes, Windows can't read Macintosh TT fonts. THis is not a new to OSX thing, it's been the case for at least a decade. The fortunate result of this is that there are very few fonts ship as Mac only TrueType fonts. Likely any TT fonts on your macs are WIndows format and will transfer, as will any OTF fonts.

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 25, 2009

      In short, no.

      Going in the other direction is easy. Mac can natively handle Windows TT and Type 1's can be placed in a private Adobe fonts folder.

      But Windows cannot read Mac specific fonts. This is one of the big benefits of OpenType.

      Bob

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