Postscript Type1

handcraftedtravel · February 11, 2021, 6:35pm

It looks like the fonts generated by FontSelf for Illustrator are Postscript Type1 – is this correct? I see that Adobe will dropping support of Type1 fonts (not until 2023, but still…).

Hybi · February 11, 2021, 7:25pm

NO!
FontSelf is creating OTF Fonts, a widely common modern standard.
Were did you see Postscript? Just create a font and look at the suffix.

Friendly greetz
Hybi

handcraftedtravel · February 11, 2021, 7:44pm

I understand that the file type is shown as .otf, but in FontBook it shows the ‘Kind’ as Postscript Type1, which is the reason for my question.

franz · February 12, 2021, 9:26am

This behaviour in FontBook is quite geeky (and surprising TBH) but confirming that all fonts generated by Fontself are OpenType font files, actually encoded in CFF (Compact Font Format Table) — which is different from the legacy PostScript Type 1 format.

Apparently, macOS will categorize any font that lacks specific features (like alternates or ligatures in the Glyph Substitution Table or color SVG glyphs) as a PostScript Type 1 font — even though they actually include data encoded in CFF (!?).

So if you add any of these features to the font, you will notice that macOS will then change how it detects the font, and display it as OpenType Postscript:

handcraftedtravel · February 12, 2021, 5:03pm

Thanks for that clear explanation, Franz. I was worried that what I had created would not be supported in a few years. Now I can rest easy.

Sosebot · September 15, 2022, 7:41pm

I’m am experiencing this issue now as well. My client is requesting I replace all of the Postscript fonts (I created with Fontself) with OpenType fonts. (to be prepared for the Adobe switch in Jan 2023). I explained to my client they were OTF fonts, and showed them a screenshot of the font file with the .OTF extension. But my client is telling me their reports from Adobe Acrobat are showing them as Postscript fonts.
Is it possible to confirm the FontSelf fonts will definitely work with Adobe products once they end support for Type 1 Postscript? Apologies if this is annoying— It’s a little beyond my scope.

Thank you.