Topic awaiting preservation: fonts

A co-worker was able to send me 4 fonts of GaramondThree (regular, italics, bold, bold/italics). Each font has .PFM and .PFB files. I was able to successfully copy/paste the .PFM files but not the .PFB - I kept getting an error message.

Any reason why I need to copy/paste both .PFB and .PFM files?

Sorry, I should have caught this question earlier. If you're using a Mac, you probably need only the PFB file. If you're using Windows, you might need both.

PFB means "PostScript Font Binary" -- it's the code that defines the font for a PostScript printer. The average Mac printer is PostScript-compatible, as far as I know; or the Mac OS natively handles PFB fonts, or something like that. Vague answer, but the evidence suggests that just a PFB is likely to work on Macs.

PFM means "Printer Font Metrics" -- it's a special file that tells Windows printers what the font's shape is. You still need the PFB for your Windows programs; and when you're printing, you need the PFM (which goes in a subdirectory of your PFB directory). So you have every single PFB in one directory, and every single PFM in a subdirectory of that. If you have a PostScript printer hooked up to your Windows machine, you might not need the PFM; again, I have only a vague answer.

Anyway, that's at least something for you to go on. Try it all out and see.

Oh, and what's the error message?

<edit> Fixed confusing PFM/PFB typos. </edit>

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-31-2002).]

PT-

Thanks for the response. I was hoping you'd say "naw, you don't need .PFB files" but from your answer I guess you do.

The error message I keep getting is "unable to install the font. file. . . /GMBI_.PFB is either invaild or damaged."

Any help? Let me know. . .

Co-worker sent me true type fonts. All is good for now on my end- see what the printer says. . .