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philm60178710
Participating Frequently
July 3, 2018
Answered

Type 1 > OpenType (didn't get the memo)

  • July 3, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1598 views

At my job (creating forms and form instructions for a state tax agency) I have literally thousands of files, primarily in QuarkXPress on Mac, which I've been updating gradually over many years. Recent Mac OS upgrades have been causing font instability, which, upon researching, I learn is due to most of our fonts being original Type 1's.

When the Mac platform began to favor OpenType in place of Type 1 I never got the memo, and had no particular problems until, as I say, recent OS upgrades. I now face the task of needing to replace the eight basic Helvetica fonts with their closest OpenType relatives.

I've been reading Adobe's official FAQ messages and forum postings on this type of transformation, and while I feel better informed than before I still have some uncertainty. My preference for this replacement is to get the closest metric matches to the fonts already in use in my files, secondarily a close (if imperfect) aesthetic match, and with the family name being of a lesser concern (in other words, that it need not be a licensed true Helvetica).

My hope is that someone can advise me on how I can discover metric information for font files, so I can compare those already in use to those I should pursue for replacement, to minimize unwelcome surprises of reflow in what are very precisely arranged documents.

Thanks very much,

--Phil M.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer steve10100

    Hi Phil,

    No problem at all – but I am no expert, unfortunately, and can only pass on what I have learnt from experience.

    And there may be a snag: I have been presuming that your Helveticas are the same fonts which are part of the base 13 of original Adobe PostScript. But this might not be the case as Dov Isaacs states here Warning, warning: TrueType Helveticas bundled with MacOS   “… Also note that the TrueType Helvetica typefaces that are bundled with MacOS are not the same fonts that were distributed by Adobe or that were printer-resident in Adobe PostScript-based printers/RIPs.” – You do mention that your Helveticas are Type-1s but caution is advised nevertheless.

    Otherwise, this table may be what you are looking for

    Mapping of Adobe's Type 1 Fonts to OpenType

    (includes font mapping details for ITC Garamond and Adobe Garamond)

    but always keeping in mind the advice here (especially concerning Helvetica Condensed)

    Type 1 to OpenType font conversion FAQ

    Contrary to the aforementioned FAQs Helvetica Narrow has since been released in OpenType format and will be a better match metrically than Helvetica Condensed.

    Hope this helps,

    Steve.

    1 reply

    S
    steve10100
    Participating Frequently
    July 8, 2018

    The OpenType equivalents that correspond to the original Type-1-PostScript core font set Helveticas can be licensed from font vendors such as myfonts etc. Search for “Helvetica” by Linotype but NOT “HelveticaNeue”. The font names are as follows:

    Helvetica Regular (HelveticaLTStd-Roman)

    Helvetica Oblique (HelveticaLTStd-Obl)

    Helvetica Bold (HelveticaLTStd-Bold)

    Helvetica Bold Oblique (HelveticaLTStd-BoldObl)

    Helvetica Narrow Roman (HelveticaLTStd-Narrow)

    Helvetica Narrow Oblique (HelveticaLTStd-NarrowObl)

    Helvetica Narrow Bold (HelveticaLTStd-BdNarrow)

    Helvetica Narrow Bold Oblique (HelveticaLTStd-BdNarrowObl)

    Some later versions of postscript replaced the “narrow” Helveticas with “condensed” variants in which case you would need to license these instead (HelveticaLTStd-Cond etc.)

    However, there is also an excellent and free alternative worth considering: Helvetica “clones” have been released by URW++ type foundry and are available to download from github under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License (AFPL) here:

    https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/urw-base35-fonts/releases

    The zip-file contains eight “NimbusSans” *.otf font files which are metrically identical to the core font Helveticas and are a very close match stylistically, too.

    P
    philm60178710Author
    Participating Frequently
    July 10, 2018

    Greetings,

    Thanks very much for your informative reply. It’s a huge help with what’s been a thorny issue for me.

    What I didn’t mention in my inquiry (for reason of simplification) is that I’m having the same problem with a few other fonts besides the basic Helvetica set. Do you know if I could apply the same solution to the Helvetica Condensed set, and/or Garamond (using both ITC and Adobe versions)?

    I hate to take undue advantage of your expertise, but I’m not sure where else to turn. Perhaps you can recommend a resource where I could discover this information on my own.

    Many thanks again for your help with this,

    --Phil Milstein

    S
    steve10100Correct answer
    Participating Frequently
    July 12, 2018

    Hi Phil,

    No problem at all – but I am no expert, unfortunately, and can only pass on what I have learnt from experience.

    And there may be a snag: I have been presuming that your Helveticas are the same fonts which are part of the base 13 of original Adobe PostScript. But this might not be the case as Dov Isaacs states here Warning, warning: TrueType Helveticas bundled with MacOS   “… Also note that the TrueType Helvetica typefaces that are bundled with MacOS are not the same fonts that were distributed by Adobe or that were printer-resident in Adobe PostScript-based printers/RIPs.” – You do mention that your Helveticas are Type-1s but caution is advised nevertheless.

    Otherwise, this table may be what you are looking for

    Mapping of Adobe's Type 1 Fonts to OpenType

    (includes font mapping details for ITC Garamond and Adobe Garamond)

    but always keeping in mind the advice here (especially concerning Helvetica Condensed)

    Type 1 to OpenType font conversion FAQ

    Contrary to the aforementioned FAQs Helvetica Narrow has since been released in OpenType format and will be a better match metrically than Helvetica Condensed.

    Hope this helps,

    Steve.

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