Safari for Windows doesn't load Type 1 fonts


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If you don't have Helvetica ($) installed, then it'll revert to Arial. Problem is Safari refuses to load Helvetica, Helvetica Neue or any other Type 1 (pfb) font.

Anyone else have this problem?

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I don't know much about Safari on Windows, I heard it have frustrating bug.

I just un-installed the Safari3 on my mac here. It's super buggy, it affects my widgets & mail attachments. Those wierd blue question mark on HTML items.

Glad to be back to the Safari2.

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Safari must be using the (Windows) GDI+ text system, which doesn't support OpenType fonts nor Adobe Type 1 fonts.

Well that's no good.

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I've been using Safari3 for about 2 weeks now, and i've found it pretty good except at times, it won't recognise hyperlinks so you have to refresh the page. But other than that, it's been ok so far.

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Safari must be using the (Windows) GDI+ text system, which doesn't support OpenType fonts nor Adobe Type 1 fonts.
I hope the Windows font system supports OpenType, MS did design the format (and later Adobe joined in).

Got no hope with Type 1 though, unless you use some form of enabler, if such exists.

Edit: turns out Windows apparently comes with one, Type 1 fonts should install normally.

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The Windows font system exceptionally supports Opentype and Type 1. Safari does not. How can you gain market share when there's a guarantee that a large percentage of websites will not render?

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Well now we know Safari should never have been released at this stage. Apple need to do more testing.

.. Lots more testing. Do they even know how a Windows app is supposed to work?

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The Windows font system exceptionally supports Opentype and Type 1. Safari does not.

Paint.NET uses GDI+ and in doesn't render Opentype and Type 1 fonts. And that's a Microsoft (mentored) project.

How can you gain market share when there's a guarantee that a large percentage of websites will not render?

But your website renders perfectly(?)... with Arial. At least on my computer.

You're forgetting that you have a myriad of operative systems and devices, with a myriad of text systems and a myriad of browsers.

The myriad of * that I just listed might or not (individually or in conjugation with the others) display the used font. That's pretty difficult, especially when we're talking about USD$500 fonts (There were embeding solutions, and that's why they died: too many systems and **** that don't support or get supported; embedding $$$ fonts, yeah right first try to secure it, and then try to explain that distribution to Agfa or Linotype...).

If it's not possible to display Helvetica, fallsback to Arial, if it's not possible to display Arial, fallbacks to one the generic fonts (handled by the system).

So you might consider using generic font calls (serif, sans-serif, wakawaka, etc).

By the way, according to wikipedia:

"Windows 2000, XP and Vista support Type 1 fonts natively through GDI calls."

"The Windows Presentation Foundation introduced in Windows Vista, which is also available for Windows XP however drops support for Type 1 fonts, in favor of Type 2 fonts. WPF supports OpenType, TrueType, and OpenType CFF (Compact Font Format) fonts."

Edited by tiagosilva29
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But your website renders perfectly(?)... with Arial. At least on my computer.

No it does not. Safari detects that I have Helvetica, and attempts to render it (thus not falling back to Arial). Unfortunately it doesn't render and the result is the initial post.

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Hey, hey. Problem solved in 3.0.2.

Ah, Helvetica is Mac OS X's anti-aliasing. There is nothing better:

Actually no. Still no Type 1. Just properly falls back now.

post-22927-1182559309_thumb.png

Edited by mattrobs
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Yeah, Firefox and IE can load and show OpenType and Type 1 fonts, Safari can't, so they are using two different methods of text rendering (i'll need to try it in the new builds of Firefox that use Cairo, they render text differently as well)

And the copy of Helvetica Neue that comes with OS X can't be ported to Windows ;) (with fondu anyway, it pops out the .ttf files, but Windows reports them as mac only)

Edit: Firefox 3.0a6pre can't render the Type 1 font either, it falls back to a serif font (i'm using a CSS rule that requires a Type 1 sans-serif font, or a plain serif font, so it's noticeable)

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Edit: Firefox 3.0a6pre can't render the Type 1 font either, it falls back to a serif font (i'm using a CSS rule that requires a Type 1 sans-serif font, or a plain serif font, so it's noticeable)

I hope this is not becoming an acceptable loss, because I contest! We should still be able to use good typography on Windows.

Only way to do it at this point is to install the ttf of Helvetica (this guy's uploaded it for free [for now])

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Well, Type 1 fonts have been superseded anyway (Adobe consider OpenType the successor to Type 1 apparently), Firefox 3.0 can kinda render OpenType properly (i mean, i have a OpenType font with Postscript outlines and another one with TrueType outlines, Firefox 3 can't render the PostScript one, but can render the TrueType one).

I think full support for both forms of OpenType fonts is more important.

Edit: OpenType also supports Type 2 style outlines as well

Edit 2: Gecko's either going to support Uniscribe, or already does, and Uniscribe support Type 1/OpenType and such, so once that's settled they should work ok.

Edited by The_Decryptor
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i m not sure if this is related to the topic or not.

but i have 2 problems with font (?) in safari:

- the menu bar show strange 'language'

- the forum page doesnt show up properly

as shown in the attachment ^^

please take a look

i installed Helvetica Font Collection already ^^

post-122233-1182586627_thumb.jpg

Edited by oat_con88
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Well now we know Safari should never have been released at this stage. Apple need to do more testing.

Well now we know what to expect when using Safari on the iPhone.

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Firefox on the mac sucks for one, while Safari on the mac is great (Firefox on the mac is like Safari on the PC, not something you'd want to use)

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i m not sure if this is related to the topic or not.

but i have 2 problems with font (?) in safari:

- the menu bar show strange 'language'

- the forum page doesnt show up properly

i installed Helvetica Font Collection already

Your first problem is Lucida Grande. Replace your ones with the one in the \Program Files\Safari\Safari.resources in the Fonts folder.

Second problem is what this thread is about.

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