![]() ![]() When TrueType came along, foundries used this as an opportunity to revamp and improve their fonts without being hobbled by backward-compatibility issues. When updating fonts, foundries are usually careful not to change the glyph widths, sidebearings or kerning pairs since doing so will cause reflows in already existing documents. For example, good luck finding any updated versions of Bitstream fonts. ![]() Many of the commercial fonts from back them were from separate foundries that no longer exist due to Monotype gobbling them all up and consolidating the offerings into a few standardized versions of all those fonts. Most of the old “free” Type 1 fonts were never updated. I’m not even sure one-to-one replacements will be possible in most instances. Sure the typefaces can most times be replaced, but that will now come with a charge on top of the de-archive fee, Some of them had commercial use restrictions (as in “for personal use only”.) One of them had one of those new weird licenses that prohibit “manufacture” of items using the letter outlines (ie I could not cut them out of solid acrylic without getting an extended license,) and two of them the creators were nowhere to be found. I didn’t recognize a single type used on the samples page so I did a quick query (as I’m a printer and would have to license said fonts to work on the project.) All of them were freeware. Not too long ago I had a bid package sent to me. And worse, a project that relies on a face found somewhere online in a long distant past can come back to bite you. Holding them forever until you have no idea where they came from or why you have them? Not so productive. Typefaces should always be job specific and if a special one is needed, purchase it on the client’s invoice. Those few special ones, hold onto those and offload the rest. ![]() Most of them are worthless and will always be worthless. People collect fonts like baseball cards. If you don’t recognize some of them, delete them. If you can’t live without some of them, update them. I’m sure somewhere in their font management software there is an option to select by software type. It’s all those people with thousands-of-fonts collections that are complaining. They’ll still be the same old Type 1 fonts but in a new wrapper. Doing so won’t magically expand the character set, increase the quality, or make OpenType features appear. It’s probably worth mentioning that converting the Type 1 fonts to OpenType or TrueType will only make them compatible with newer software. Mostly, though, I use the same dozen or so typefaces repeatedly, so I don’t need them anyway. I suppose they’d still be helpful for particular purposes, like type to accompany a logo, but that’s about it. Somewhere, tucked away in a drawer in my house, are some old Zip drive cartridges with thousands of those Type 1 fonts that I probably would have no way of retrieving even if I wanted to. No one thought anything at all of making copies of everything. The newspaper where I worked bought the entire collection of Linotype and Bitstream fonts. Most anyone working with digital fonts since the 1980s (like me) probably has a whole collection of Type 1 fonts from the time when they were new and when nobody paid much attention to software licensing. ![]()
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