Wierd Font format

[Zaid Al-Hilali]

We are working on a localized version of a French Magazine. I received a set of fonts that should work on PC. All the fonts that were sent to us did not work on either Mac or PC, they all have a strange suffix like AFM/dat (see example below)
BauerBodBlaCon.AFM
BauerBodBlaCon.dat

I think the person who sent this to us exported them from ATM deluxe possibly or another font manager and not they are not a real copy of the font.

Any one knows what are these files or how to utilize them? We are waiting for a reply from France but they are taking their time.

[_Read_Roberts_]

You are correct that these are not font files. Type1 fonts for windows have the suffix *.pfb. They must also be accompanied by a metrics files. The binary version of the metrics file has the extension *pfm; there is another format with the extension *.inf, which can also be used by ATM Deluxe to install the font. To install a Windows Type 1 font with ATM Deluxe, you must have the *pdb font file, and either the the *inf or *pfm metrics file. Your *AFM file is a text version of the metrics file, and I have no idea what the *.dat file would be.

[_Read_Roberts_]

You are correct that these are not font files. Type1 fonts for windows have the suffix *.pfb. They must also be accompanied by a metrics file. The binary version of the metrics file has the extension *pfm; there is another format with the extension *.inf, which can also be used by ATM Deluxe to install the font. To install a Windows Type 1 font with ATM Deluxe, you must have the *pfb font file, and either the the *inf or *pfm metrics file. Your *AFM file is a text version of the metrics file, and I have no idea what the *.dat file would be.

[Zaid Al-Hilali]

Well explained Read... thanks
The .dat files that came along, are infact zero kilobyte in size, i.e. empty!
I've requested from the person in France to send the physical fonts (suitcases) and the accompanied metrics files (postscript part)

Thanks to you and to Nini Tjäder on InDesign/Mac forum

[Thomas Phinney]

Given the fact that those things are using 5-3-3 naming conventions, they are obviously MAC OS Type 1 fonts, and are useless on a PC. The zero-length ".dat" files are a side effect of that translation.

Cheers,

T