I came across this issue the other day where a client had sent me some fonts that they wanted me to use while formatting a document. They are using a PC, and so of course they sent me PC formatted fonts. However, using my Mac I was not able to import the fonts into my FontBook. After a bit of researching I discovered the reason why and the solution for how to get around it.
First of all, here’s the Why:
The PC fonts I got were in zip files. After a zip file was opened up there was a set of three files: .AFM, .INF, AND .PFB – this is the norm for PC fonts.
On the flip side, Mac fonts need to be in either TrueType or OpenType format in order to be able to import them into your FontBook.
So obviously I need to somehow turn PC fonts into recognizable Mac fonts.
Now comes the Solution:
Eventually I found a program called CrossFont that can convert .PFB font types into OpenType fonts. Yay! The only catch is that this is a Windows program only, so I would either have to run it on the Windows side of my Mac (it’s an Intel Mac, of course), or I would have to get someone I know with Windows to download and run the fonts through for me.
Either way, using this program I was able to feed in .PFB fonts in on one end and have them pop out as OpenType fonts at the other, and they have since been successfully imported into my FontBook and are ready to roll.
So, although it sounded complicated at first it turns out there was, as always, a simple solution. I hope this post comes in handy for anyone else out there…