acorn2sfd -- A program for comparing fonts
acorn2sfd [-version] [-help] {acorndir ...}
acorn2sfd will take several Acorn RISC/OS font directories and convert them into FontForge’s sfd files.
An Acorn RISC/OS font directory should contain two or three files, one
named Outlines* and one named Intmetric? (the Intmetrics file may
be omitted, in which case the advance widths will not be known).
acorn2sfd will read both files and generate an sfd file from them
(which FontForge can turn into TrueType or PostScript).
If the Outlines file ends in a digit (Outlines0) then a third file
named Base<digit>* will be searched for in the directory (if not found
there then in <acorndir>/../Encodings), and if found encoding
information will be read from it. If not found then the font will be
assumed to be an initial subset of Unicode.
-includestrokes acorn2sfd normally throws out the secondary stroked
version of the character, specifying this option will include it in the
sfd file (you may then want to invoke FontForge’s Expand Stroke command
on it).
-help will provide a mini description and will list the available
options.
-usage will list the available options.
-version will display the current version of acorn2sfd (a six digit
string containing the date stamp of the source files).
Bugs
- Acorn fonts use a different fill rule than either PostScript or TrueType. You should run Element->Correct Direction on the sfd file after converting it.
- Most Acorn fonts I’ve seen on the web are zipped up with a non-standard zip. Don’t expect acorn2sfd to be able to unzip them.
- Acorn hinting data are lost.