Typophile

Command-line tool to convert TTF to OTF?

mike anderson0 votes

Does one exist? I really like the way TransType 3 Pro performs in its conversion process, but it would be more flexible if a command-line tool existed that did the same thing at at least nearly the same quality.
I've tried FontForge and it doesn't do such a good job on some TTFs I've tested. Sometimes it doesn't even convert the outlines to PS and the end/starting node(s) are not aligned properly but instead off by a few pixels creating an ugly jagged effect :/ Unfortunately also most online font converters do the same thing (bad quality).

Any ideas? Can be a program/script (ie. python) and run on Win/Mac/Linux no problem, I got all three OS's :)

Jens Kutílek0 votes

Why do you need to convert them at all? There are very few reasons that I can think of why this should be necessary.

Charles Ellertson0 votes

Jens, as I understand it, MS Word will not use OpenType features with a ttf font unless the font has a digital signature. Expensive. However, with Word, the same font will use the same OT features if the font is in otf format.

All more evidence for the hypothesis that there is (currently) no intelligent life beyond earth, because within 250 years of discovering radio wave communications, any species self-destructs.

Reynir Heiðberg...0 votes

It seems to have dribbled out of the documentation, but FontForge can append a dummy digital signature. Dunno if it's still Good Enough, though. I think it's also possible with ttx.

Frank E. Blokland0 votes

Té: ‘[…] a dummy digital signature. Dunno if it's still Good Enough […]’

Yes, adding a dummy ‘DSIG’ will do the trick. One can generate one with for instance FontForge and just copy it to other TTF fonts. At DTL we use OTM for this, of course, but surely there are other tools for this purpose too. I don’t know whether it is available still, but quite some time ago the free command-line utility Addtable.exe worked for us as well.

FEB

Dave Crossland0 votes

I've tried FontForge and it doesn't do such a good job on some TTFs I've tested. Sometimes it doesn't even convert the outlines to PS and the end/starting node(s) are not aligned properly but instead off by a few pixels creating an ugly jagged effect :/

Please email me about this, d.crossland@gmail.com, and I'll get FontForge fixed :)

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