Can I simply convert my PostScript fonts?

Chad Slater, VP of Software Development discusses converting your PostScript fonts.

You can convert your PostScript fonts using various capable conversion tools available in the market. However, there are a few things to consider before proceeding. First, ensure that the license agreement for your original PostScript font allows for conversions, as some licenses may restrict this. If conversion is not allowed, you may need to purchase a suitable replacement font from the original foundry.

Keep in mind that many conversion tools cannot preserve rendering hinting, especially for high-quality PostScript fonts that have manual hinting applied. Consequently, after conversion, you may experience degraded rendering performance, particularly at different resolutions and sizes.

Additionally, when you convert a font, the associated metadata may change in a way that the operating system no longer recognizes it as the same font. This can lead to issues where Adobe applications, for example, perceive the fonts as missing because the metadata has changed and the font type, styles, or groupings have been altered.

Therefore, it’s crucial to be cautious when converting fonts, as it can potentially cause problems downstream.