The TYPO Font Editing System contains also a number of conversion programs
from TYPO Raster and Curve formats into a variety of other formats, and back.
These are implicitly executed when a font is loaded or stored.
For users wishing to convert from/to their own font formats, the
formats of TYPO Raster and TYPO Curve fonts is described below.
TYPO fonts are ASCII files. Each line begins with an identifying character
which may be followed by additional information.
All lines may be trailed by SPACEs.
The font header information is common to curve and raster fonts.
The first line begins with a comment symbol ('#') and is followed
by another symbol distinguishing between curve and raster fonts.
Another comment symbol identifies curve fonts, and a colon identifies
raster fonts.
The next lines describe font properties:
- H "I_(name)" num
- Horizontal guide line at base y+num with type or name name
- V "I_(name)" num
- Vertical guide line at base x+num with type or name name
- V "I_(name)" num R
- Vertical guide line at base x+width+num with
type or name name
- I num
- Italics angle is num degrees
- U underthick
- Font underline thickness is underthick
- P psize dsize
- Point size is psize and design size is dsize
- N name fullname
- Font name is name and font full name is fullname
- F famname
- The font belongs to family famname
- W weight width
- Font weight is weight and font width is width (between 0-10)
- s style
- Font style is style
- X version
- Font version is version
- c "I_(copyrt)" "I_(note)"
- Copyright statement is copyrt and notice is note
- Y encoding
- Font default encoding is encoding
- f foundry
- Font type foundry is foundry
- n number
- Font identification number is number
- d yymmdd yymmdd
- Creation and last modification dates
The guide line order is top-to-bottom for horizontal guide lines and
left-to-right for vertical ones.
The properties are followed by a sequence of character descriptions.
The last character description is followed by a single line
with the identification character E.
If the font contains multiple masters,
each master except for the last is terminated by a single line
of the form
- EM
The last master is again terminated by a single line
containing only the letter
- E
Each character description begins with a glyph line.
Since the format of this line is different for raster and curve characters,
it is described below separately for both cases.
If the character kerns with any following characters,
then the glyph line is followed by kerning lines:
- K hex_1 val_1 . . . hex_n val_n
This line indicates that the character with hexadecimal code hex
is to be moved by val if it follows the present character
(as defined in the glyph line).
Alternatively, the line
- KS hex
specifies that the present character kerns the SAME AS the character with
code hex.
As said before, curve fonts begin with a line of the form
- ## comment
Font properties specific to curve fonts are:
- T t_1 t_2 r
- Tie threshold point sizes are t_1 (horizontally) and
t_2 (vertically) at resolution r
- O e
- e is 2 if the file was edited with TYPO,
otherwise 1 (if obtained by conversion from another font format)
- mmodecode paint parameters
- The paint mode for the whole font
The following table presents an overview of the parameters applicable for
each paint mode.
| Paint mode | code | Paint parameters |
| Default | md |
| Outline | mo | wstrokewidth |
| Even-odd fill | me | garea grey |
| Wrap count fill | mf | garea grey |
| Stroke | ms | Gstrokegrey
clinecap jlinejoin wstrokewidth
mmiterlimit |
| Even-odd fill/Stroke | mE | gareagrey
Gstrokegrey clinecap jlinejoin
wstrokewidth mmiterlimit |
| Wrap count fill/Stroke | mF | gareagrey
Gstrokegrey clinecap jlinejoin
wstrokewidth mmiterlimit |
| Elliptic pen | ml | Gstroke grey
ppenwidth Ppenheight apenangle |
| Rectangular pen | mr | Gstroke grey
ppenwidth Ppenheight apenangle
|
Each curve character description begins with a glyph line. If the
position of the character is less than 256, its form is one of these three:
- G "I_(name)" hex "I_(ASCII)" basex basey width
start_x start_y
- g "I_(name)" hex "I_(ASCII)" basex basey width
start_x start_y
- Gg "I_(name)" hex "I_(ASCII)" basex basey width
start_x start_y
If the character position is 256 or greater, it form is one of these three:
- G "I_(name)" hex decimal basex basey width
start_x start_y
- g "I_(name)" hex decimal basex basey width
start_x start_y
- Gg "I_(name)" hex decimal basex basey width
start_x start_y
where:
- G indicates a main character, g indicates a sub-character,
Gg indicates a callable main character (see
sub-character commands)
- name is the full name of the character
- hex is the hexadecimal position of the character within the font
(without a preceding 0x)
- ASCII is the ASCII image of the character position
(positions between 128 and 159 are preceded by 'LANGLE',
and positions beyond by >)
- decimal is the decimal position of the character within the font;
this entry is present instead of ASCII for characters with positions
beyond 255
- (basex, basey)
is the base point location in the character coordinate system
- width is the character width
- (start_x, start_y) is the start point of the first curve in the
character
A sequence of curve descriptions follows:
- B x1 y_1 x2 y2 x3 y3
- Bézier curve via (x1, y1), (x2, y2) to (x3, y3)
- A x1 y1 x2 y2 x3 y3 xc yc r
- Arc via (x1, y1), (x2, y2) to (x3, y3)
with center (xc, yc) and radius r
- L x1 y1
- Line to (x1, y1)
- M x1 y1
- Movement to (x1, y1)
A curve description may be followed by one or more of the following
lines (but at most one of each kind):
- C curvenum
- This curve is closed up to curve curvenum
(counting from 1) in this character
- h hintname hint kind tied hint
- There is a horizontal (stem) hint at the end of this curve by the name
hintname (one alphanumeric character).
The hint is of the kind hint kind. If this is a tied hint,
the entry tied hint will also appear; it is the name of the hint
to which this point or point pair is tied to.
- v hintname hint kind tied hint
- There is a vertical (beam) hint at the end of this curve by the name
hintname (one alphanumeric character).
The hint is of the kind hint kind. If this is a tied hint,
the entry tied hint will also appear; it is the name of the hint
to which this point or point pair is tied to.
Hint kinds are as follows (see also the section on
Hints):
Hint Kinds
| Hint kind | Description |
| A | Adjoined hint |
| L, R | Stem/beam hint |
| Left and right points of a stem hint pair |
| Upper and lower points of a beam hint pair |
| l, r | Point hint tied to hint tied hint |
| Point is tied to the left/right point of a stem hint |
| Point is tied to the upper/lower point of a beam hint |
| T, t | Tie hint tied to hint tied hint |
| Left and right points of a tie stem hint pair |
| Upper and lower points of a tie beam hint pair |
| G, g |
Point hint tied to a guide line with overhang alignment zone above |
| The guide line is above or below the tied point |
| K, k |
Point hint tied to a guide line with overhang alignment zone below |
| The guide line is above or below the tied point |
| I, i |
Tie hint tied to a guide line with overhang alignment zone above |
| Upper and lower points of the pair |
| Y, y |
Tie hint tied to a guide line with overhang alignment zone
below |
| Upper and lower points of the pair |
The h and v lines may also occur immediately before the
first curve description.
In this case, the first point of the curve is hinted.
Rigidity is specified as follows:
- r
- The preceding curve is rigid
Font properties specific to raster fonts are:
- #: comment
- The opening line of a raster font
- O e s r
- e is 2 if the file was edited with TYPO,
0 if it was converted from a TYPO curve font, and 1 otherwise
(e.g. if obtained by conversion from another font format). s is
the conversion scale factor if converted from a curve font, and r
is the intended device resolution
- G "I_(name)" hex "I_(ASCII/decimal)"
left right up down
width
- This glyph line marks the beginning of a raster character.
name is the full name of the character,
hex is the 2-hex-digit position of the character within the font
(without a preceding 0x),
ASCII/decimal is the ASCII image of the character position
(in the range 0 to 255).
Positions between 128 and 159 are preceded by <, and positions beyond
by >.
For characters beyond 255, the decimal position of the character
within the font is specified.
(left, up) is the base point location in the character matrix.
right is the horizontal extent of the matrix beyond the base point.
down is the vertical extent of the matrix beyond the base point.
width is the character width.
- R w1 b1 w2 b2 . . . wn bn
- A sequence of row descriptions of this form follows the glyph line.
A row description may extend over more than one line.
A character row is now described using the run length method:
A pair w b describes w white pixels
followed by b black pixels.
- D num
- A row description may be followed by a duplication line.
A duplication line indicates that the raster row is to be duplicated num
times.