[scribus] Sources for typefaces (again).

[Gregory Pittman]

On 07/05/2010 02:38 PM, mick crane wrote:
> can somebody remind me what the difference is between true type fonts,
> postscript fonts, etc and useability.

This is a large question. There are, of course, many many different file 
formats for fonts. The ones which are of most use in DTP are going to be

PostScript Type 1
TrueType
OpenType

because they are easy to find, all scalable, and can therefore print 
with very high resolutions. Scribus can use all 3 types, but needs to 
make sure the font has all the necessary information; if it doesn't it's 
considered broken.

Also, just because a font isn't broken doesn't mean it's any good for 
any particular purpose.

In general, Scribus can embed a PS1 or TTF font, maybe not an OTF (at 
this time), but there is a workaround for this. It's very important when 
you use a font to know what you are allowed to do with it, according to 
its licence -- some may forbid you to embed them, for example.

PS1 fonts are limited to 256 characters (glyphs), so if you need a font 
with various foreign-language glyphs you may have to look elsewhere. TTF 
and  OTF are not limited by design, but that doesn't mean the font was 
created with all the glyphs you need. Some fonts even have designs for 
small caps versions of letters.

Greg