Using Macintosh Fonts on Windows (really dumb question, in my view)

[Roger Breton]

I'm preparing to meet some users and I'd appreciate some confirmation on the following, with regards to fonts.

So, I'm on Windows and receive an InDesign document "Packaged for output", with Links and Fonts.

You see me coming...
Here is the content of the Fonts directory in Windows Explorer :

Let's not get "bogged down" into Licensing and font "types" (I can see DFONT and PS T1 fonts in this listing). I'm only interested in the possibility from a technical point of view : can InDesign directly access / use (parse) the fonts in this Directory at all? Without requiring me to use some kind of third party "font conversion" utility?  Hope this is not considered a "taboo" question...

[Peter Spier · Accepted solution]

In brief, no.

The only fonts that work cross-platform in both directions are OpenType and Windows TrueType.

[Randy Hagan]

As Peter said, no. Those Mac-based PostScript and TrueType fonts are effectively useless to you.

Even worse, if you remap those fonts to the Windows equivalents, and the job has tight copyfit, line breaks are going to change and you should closely proof the entire job to ensure that it still reads cleanly and matches the Mac-generated job you were given. By my experience, the font metrics generally pack tighter on the PC/Windows side, so you will likely find that long text threads come up short in the layout as well.

As much as I'm going to hate retiring all my old PostScript and TrueType fonts, the move to OpenType is all for the best.

Randy

[Roger Breton]

For the record...

I tried experimenting with various "approaches".

First, forget about InDesign being able to parse the Mac PS T1 fonts directly, as Randy noted above, even if the "fonts" are sitting in the expected, "Fonts", folder. InDesign still sees the fonts as "Missing". Strike 1.

Second, I tried to transcoded the received Mac T1 fonts to PC T1 *.pfb fonts, and dump them in the expected, "Fonts", folder. InDesign still does not recognize the fonts upon opening the InDesign document? Strike 2. 

Third, at that point, using the transcoded PC T1 fonts (or fonts transcoded to OpenType PFF format, the two work equally well), there is no choice but to remap all the fonts one by one, painstakingly, in the Missing fonts dialog box. Strike 3.

I still wonder what would happen (ignoring licensing issues) if the fonts were transcoded on the Mac side to PC T1? And manually substitued in the Fonts folder : would InDesign on Windows have a better chance of recognizing the fonts upon opening the document on the PC? 

This is sadly something I can't try because my Mac is way too old for anything... 

Thank you Peter and Randy for your kind help today.

[rob day]

I still wonder what would happen (ignoring licensing issues) if the fonts were transcoded on the Mac side to PC T1?

Hi Roger, Seems like the better approach might be to convert the Type 1 fonts to OpenType. You could look at FontLab’s TransType 4, which works great on my OSX Type 1 fonts—there is a Windows version.

https://www.fontlab.com/font-converter/transtype/

It keeps the font’s version number so I was able to make conversions and old documents would automatically find the OTF conversions:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/ende-der-unterst%C3%BCtzung-f%C3%BCr-ps-type-1-f...

[Creamer Training]

Back in the "old" Type 1 days, you could get a Mac version and a separate Windows version of an Adobe font (so, two purchases). It was up to the Mac font suitcase and the Windows equivalent (.pfb?) to match up by name. For example, Adobe Garamond could work cross-platform. The major problem was that type could reflow/rewrap between platforms--so in practice, not very useful. The conversion of Mac T1 fonts to Windows fonts (OT suggested) can be more complicated can a simple "load and convert" option.

Mac TTF fonts can be converted to Windows OT fonts, but again, it not a simple conversion process. Mac dFonts have to be split apart into TTF fonts with a utility before they can be converted. 

Here is a website listing lots of conversion programs: http://luc.devroye.org/conversion.html

I've used TransType Pro.

Anyone remember Type 3 fonts? Or the Font/DA Mover?

If this is a long-term project and the client is sold on using Helvetica Neue, you/they should consider purchasing the OT version of Helvetica Neue Std.