Re: [ft-devel] Type42 handling

[mpsuzuki]

Hi,

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:09:24 -0600 (CST)
Huver <address@hidden> wrote:
>Why isn't a Type42 font handled internally the same as a TrueType?  Put
>the other way: why can't the Type42 font handler extract the "sfnt" array
>from the Type42 font file, and hand it over to TrueType handler?

The content in sfnts array of Type42 font dictionary
is not guaranteed to be full-featured TrueType.
If you have Adobe TechNote #5012, please check p. 12
for required tables. The sfnts array in Type42 font
dictionary is not guranteed to have a few essential
tables like "cmap", "post" and "OS/2".

However, Type42 font object generated for recent PDF
have cmap & post (I'm not sure about "OS/2"), it's
reasonable that some people expect sfnts array is
self-standing TrueType font - but it is too heuristic,
I think.

>Type42 format is rather a "wrapper" for sending TrueType font to an Adobe
>RIP.  The entire TrueType font file data is encoded into the "sfnt"
>array (strings or binary), then other Adobe Postscript-ish header/footer
>added.

Do you say that Adobe RIP uses sfnts array only and
ignores other contents?

Regards,
mpsuzuki