Cross-platform font usage in FrameMaker

General rules

• Set up maker.ini on Windows
• Maker.ini - an example
• Some font names from the D+DD installation

General rules

If you are running FrameMaker on Mac, Unix and Windows, you can avoid much trouble and unresolvable errors by observing these rules:

Use Adobe Type 1 fonts only

Using TrueType fonts on Mac and/or Windows will introduce additional font names which can not be coped with.

Additionly, TT fonts do not use the same font metrics as T1. T1 fonts are based on a 1000 units scheme, whereas TT fonts use a 2048 matrix to set up the shape. Rounding differences will create problems in dense layouts and for the automatic line spacing.

Do not assume a streight forward procedure

A T1 font may contain up to three names. Nobody (at least the font experts I have talked with) knows, which name is used by an application. Hence the process to resolve the cross-platform issue of fonts for FrameMaker is iterativ, and not streight forward. Keep this in mind planning the implementation...

Set up maker.ini on Windows

The two sections in maker.ini, [WindowsToFrameFontAliases] and [UnknownToKnownFontMap] serve two purposes, as they imply in their names.

WindowsToFrameFontAliases - the principles

With this table you specify the Frame internal name of the font as should appear in the font list (e.g. in the paragraph designer). The general format of the table enties is:

WINDOWS_FONT_NAME, [Italic | Regular |*], [A_WEIGHT |*] = FRAME_FONT_NAME, [ AN_ANGLE | * ], [ A_WEIGHT | * ], ; [ A_VARIATION | * ]

AN_ANGLE may be any angle specified in the font vocabulary at the beginning of the [Fonts] section. For strange fonts it may be necessary to add a value to this definitions (for example, LeftSlanted). The definitons in the font vocabulary must be set on a single line. They are broken here into several lines for presentation purpose only!

Angles= Regular, Kursiv, Slanted, Oblique, Italic, Obliqued, LeftSlanted

A_WEIGHT may be any weight specified in the font vocabulary. To cope with the font in question it may be necessary to add a value here (for example, Black 800). The numbers are used for cross-platform specifications and provide a 'sort order' for stroke thickness.

Weights= Thin 100, ExtraLight 200, SemiLight 250, Light 300, Book 300, Regular 400,
         SemiBold 600, DemiBold 600, Bold 700, ExtraBold 800, Black 800, Heavy 900 

A_VARIATION is any definition concerning width (or other features) as defined in the font vocabulary. Again, it may be necessary to extend the font vocabulary (for example, Capitals).

Variations= UltraCompressed,  ExtraCompressed,  Compressed, Condensed, Narrow,
            Regular, Wide, Poster, Expanded, Capitals

WindowsToFrameFontAliases - the reality

The Windows font name should be found in the table under the heading Windows Menu Name. This is is, however only true for certain fonts. In a cross platform environment it is better to look at the FrameMaker log file when opening a file coming from the Macintosh platform.

So, to set up the font alias table in maker.ini,

1. Create a Frame document on Macintosh using all the fonts and variations in question; save it to disk and to a diskette
2. Open this Frame document in Frame on Windows; copy the contents of the log file (this may be deleted after closing FrameMaker) to NotePad (or your favourite editor) and print it.
3. Analyse it carefully and set up the alias table in maker.ini

It may be necessary to set up the table of font aliases with all details, rather than use wild card asterisks for the angle and weight properties on either side of the equal sign! This can only be found by experimenting...

UnknownToKnownFontMap

This table is used to define a translation of font names in a document from another platform, which should be mapped to the Frame internal name. Use this table only to support the names from UNIX.

maker.ini - an example

The following displays the relevant portions from the maker.ini file at the D+DD installation. The font vocabulary is mentioned above. You can use blanks to make it a nice table, but Frame will destroy your work, because it rewrites the ini file completly at close.

;-- DDD font is Meta --------------------------------------------
MetaPlusBook-Roman=         MetaPlus, Regular, Regular,   Regular
MetaPlusBook-Italic=        MetaPlus, Italic,  Regular,   Regular
MetaPlusBook-Caps=          MetaPlus, Regular, Regular,   Caps
MetaPlusBook-CapsItalic=    MetaPlus, Italic,  Regular,   Caps
MetaPlusBold-Roman=         MetaPlus, Regular, Bold,      Regular
MetaPlusBold-Italic=        MetaPlus, Italic,  Bold,      Regular
MetaPlusBold-Caps=          MetaPlus, Regular, Bold,      Caps
MetaPlusBold-CapsItalic=    MetaPlus, Italic,  Bold,      Caps

;-- GillSans and AvantGarde for customer work --------------------
;- Keep Condensed as a separate font, otherwise you get problems!
GillSans Light=             GillSans, *,       Light,     Regular
GillSans Extrabold=         GillSans, *,       Extrabold, Regular
GillSans Ultrabold=         GillSans, *,       Heavy,     Regular

GillSans, Regular, Regular= GillSans, Regular, Regular,   Regular
GillSans, Italic,  Regular= GillSans, Italic,  Regular,   Regular
GillSans, Regular, Bold=    GillSans, Regular, Bold,      Regular
GillSans, Italic,  Bold=    GillSans, Italic,  Bold,      Regular

GillSans Condensed,Regular, Regular=GillSans, Regular, Regular, Condensed
GillSans Condensed,Regular, Bold=   GillSans, Regular, Bold,    Condensed
GillSans UltraboldCondensed=        GillSans, Regular, Heavy,   Condensed

AvantGarde, Regular, Regular=  AvantGarde, Regular, Book, Regular
AvantGarde, Regular, Bold=     AvantGarde, Regular, DemiBold, Regular
AvantGarde, Italic,   Regular= AvantGarde, Oblique, Book, Regular
AvantGarde, Italic,   Bold=    AvantGarde, Oblique, DemiBold, Regular

Some font names

For an explanations of this table see Table of font names

Pkg	PostScript Name	Macintosh Menu Name	Windows Menu Name, Style Link	Prefix
356	OfficinaSerif-Book	ITC Officina Serif Book	ITC Officina Serif Book	OVBK_
356	OfficinaSerif-Bold	ITC Officina Serif Bold	ITC Officina Serif Book, Bold	OVB__
356	OfficinaSerif-BookItalic	ITC Officina Serif BookItalic	ITC Officina Serif Book, Italic	OVWI_
356	OfficinaSerif-BoldItalic	ITC Officina Serif BoldItalic	ITC Officina Serif Book, Bold Italic	OVBI_
357	OfficinaSans-Book	ITC Officina Sans Book	ITC Officina Sans Book	OWBK_
357	OfficinaSans-Bold	ITC Officina Sans Bold	ITC Officina Sans Book, Bold	OWB__
357	OfficinaSans-BookItalic	ITC Officina Sans BookItalic	ITC Officina Sans Book, Italic	OWWI_
357	OfficinaSans-BoldItalic	ITC Officina Sans BoldItalic	ITC Officina Sans Book, Bold Italic	OWBI_