Rubicon Font Specifications

Font Formats

Rubicon fonts are available in the following formats:

		PC Truetype. Conforms to Microsoft Truetype Specification 1.0 Rev 1.66.
		PC Type1. Conforms to the Adobe Type1 Font Format specification, Version 1.1.
		Mac Type1. Conforms to the Adobe Type1 Font Format specification, Version 1.1.
		OpenType. Conforms to Microsoft / Adobe OpenType Specification, Version 1.4, OpenType CFF Fonts.

References

CSS 3 add-on fonts:

Wikipedia:

Microsoft:

Apple:

Mac OS X: Font Locations and Their Purposes.

Microsoft Typography:

Rubicon fonts provide essential typographic functionalities

Rubicon fonts are based on standard font designs. They are digitised accurately for superior print quality and programmed with gridfitting hints for legible appearance on-screen. They include matching font metrics, kerning pairs, and a standard character set.

Standard font formats are compatible with various operating systems

Rubicon fonts are available in OpenType, PC Trueype, PC Type1, and Mac Type1 formats. They are compatible with various versions of Windows and Mac OS as listed in the following table:

	OpenType	PC Truetype	PC Type1	Mac Type1
Windows Vista	X	X
Windows XP	X	X	X
Windows 2000	X	X	X
Mac OS X	X			X

Other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, or legacy versions of Windows or Mac OS may be compatible with some of these standard font formats. Refer to your operating system user guide for details.

CSS 3 brings add-on fonts to web browsers

CSS Fonts Module Level 3 and the @font-face rule bring web-based add-on fonts to compliant web browsers. The fonts are hosted on web sites, not installed on the browser machines. MacIntosh and Windows have supported add-on fonts since 1991 and 1992, but support for add-on fonts over the web is only becoming available now. Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and beta versions of most other browsers support web-based add-on fonts in OpenType and TrueType formats.

Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support web-based add-on fonts in OpenType or TrueType formats. It only supports the proprietary Embedded OpenType format, and has limited support for styles and weights in font families.

As browser support for the CSS 3 Fonts Module grows, web designers will no longer be restricted to using fonts from the Microsoft Core Fonts for the Web.

CSS 3 add-on fonts bring technical challenges

CSS Fonts Module Level 3 add-on fonts bring technical challenges as follows:

1. How to add TrueType and OpenType fonts to your web sites with the CSS 3 @font-face rule.

2. How to prevent users from hot-linking to the fonts on your web site.

3. How to control the interline spacing of your text.

4. Not all browsers support CSS 3 add-on fonts.

We are not currently providing the necessary instructions and code to do these things. However, we have posted some links to articles on CSS 3 add-on fonts in the left panel, and we have created some web pages to demonstrate the CSS 3 Fonts Module as follows:

#1 – Semi-Decorative Fonts
#2 – Newspaper and Book Fonts
#3 – Realist Fonts

Rubicon fonts support edge smoothing technology on-screen

Rubicon fonts are programmed with gridfitting hints which are optimized for on-screen display with edge smoothing. Edge smoothing is a technology that smooths the edges of characters on-screen by modifying the colour of certain pixels. To enable edge smoothing on Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Windows 98, follow the instructions below. To enable edge smoothing on other operating systems, consult their user guide. Edge smoothing is also known as anti-aliasing.

To enable edge smoothing on Windows 2000 or 98, do the following:

1. Navigate to the Display control panel
2. Click Effects
3. Select Smooth edges of screen fonts
4. Click OK

To enable edge smoothing on Windows XP, do the following:

1. Navigate to the Display control panel
2. Select Appearance
3. Click Effects
4. Select Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts
5. Select ClearType
6. Click OK

Updated Sep. 17, 2009