Photofont
Encyclopedia
Photofont is a technology for creating bitmap fonts developed by Fontlab Ltd
. It is an open-standard font format that uses bitmap glyph
s rather than vector outline glyphs. Photofonts can be created without specialized font design software because they are simply collections of PNG graphics defined and organized by an XML
file. Details of the XML structure are available at www.photofont.com.
Being composed of raster images, Photofonts can inherently possess any visual effects; the letters could be pictures of anything. PNGs support transparency, including alpha transparency. In contrast, standard vector font formats like TrueType
, OpenType
and Type 1
define glyph outlines rather than rasterized images, which is why they can be scaled to any size without loss of fidelity. Photofonts cannot support any advanced typographic features and would not, for example, be able to represent Arabic correctly. They also require application-specific plugins. Plugins are currently being developed for Adobe InDesign
, Quark Xpress and Adobe Dreamweaver.
The following is an example of a Photofont:
FontLab
FontLab is both the name of a company, FontLab Ltd, and the former name of their flagship font editor product, now called FontLab Studio. Since the early 2000s, FontLab Studio has been the dominant software tool for commercial/retail digital font development. This is partly because the...
. It is an open-standard font format that uses bitmap glyph
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
s rather than vector outline glyphs. Photofonts can be created without specialized font design software because they are simply collections of PNG graphics defined and organized by an XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
file. Details of the XML structure are available at www.photofont.com.
Being composed of raster images, Photofonts can inherently possess any visual effects; the letters could be pictures of anything. PNGs support transparency, including alpha transparency. In contrast, standard vector font formats like TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
, OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
and Type 1
Type 1
Type 1 or Type I may refer to:*US F1 Type 1, 2010 F1 Car*Bugatti Type 1, an automobile*Diabetes mellitus type 1 , insulin-dependent diabetes*Type 1 37 mm Anti-Tank Gun*Type 1 47 mm Anti-Tank Gun...
define glyph outlines rather than rasterized images, which is why they can be scaled to any size without loss of fidelity. Photofonts cannot support any advanced typographic features and would not, for example, be able to represent Arabic correctly. They also require application-specific plugins. Plugins are currently being developed for Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books. In conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite InDesign can publish content suitable for tablet devices...
, Quark Xpress and Adobe Dreamweaver.
The following is an example of a Photofont: