PostScript font

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PostScript font A form of scalable outline font introduced by Adobe Inc. The most common form is the Type 1 font (a Type 3 PostScript font format also exists but is little used). PostScript fonts are, at present, the main fonts that are used in the printing industry. The outlines are based on Bézier curves, and every weight or style of the font needs two files. On a Windows system, there is a .pfm (printer font metrics) file containing the metrics and a .pfb (printer font binary) file containing the outlines. Similar files are used on the Macintosh. PostScript fonts have generally needed Adobe Type Manager (see ATM) to display them on-screen, although this is not necessary with more recent operating systems.

Multiple-master fonts are an extension of the Type 1 format, allowing a user-defined variation in some font property (e.g. font weight).

See also TrueType font, OpenType Font.