How to use Helvetica, Times and Courier on Windows Systems

Font files

For every font you want to use you need two files. A file with the extension .pfm which contains the font metrics, and a file with the extension .pfb which contains the font data in binary format. For Helvetica, Times and Courier the complete list is:

Helvetica hv______.pfm/.pfb Helvetica hvo_____.pfm/.pfb Helvetica Oblique hvb_____.pfm/.pfb Helvetica Bold hvbo____.pfm/.pfb Helvetica Bold Oblique

Times tir_____.pfm/.pfb Times Roman tii_____.pfm/.pfb Times Italic tib_____.pfm/.pfb Times Bold tibi____.pfm/.pfb Times Bold Italic

Courier com_____.pfm/.pfb Courier coo_____.pfm/.pfb Courier Oblique cob_____.pfm/.pfb Courier Bold cobo____.pfm/.pfb Courier Bold Oblique

How to get these files (legally!)

Well, first you could buy them from Adobe°. But that's the most expensive way.
You may have a copy of Adobe's Acrobat Reader 3.0 already installed on your system. If so, you have already got the font files! They are in a subdirectory of your Acrobat Reader installation. Just look there.

If you don't have Acrobat Reader installed, have a look an your CDs that came with your computer magazines. Note that newer versions of Acrobat Reader do not come with your desired fonts, but with those ugly Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New! So you have to watch out for version 3.0.

So you've got the files? Then proceed to the next step.

Adobe Type Manager

If you have Adobe Type Manager°, simply install the fonts from there, now that you know where the font files are.

If you don't have Adobe Type Manager, you should consider buying it. It comes at a reasonable price, packed with 30 extra fonts, and a Type On Call CD with two free font packages.

If you don't have Adobe Type Manager, and you don't want to buy it, all is still not lost.

Then you need to know someone who has Windows NT.

Windows NT

If you have Windows NT, you can install the fonts from your control panel. You don't need Adobe Type Manager. Windows NT can handle Type1 fonts, Windows 98 can't. But if you know someone who runs Windows NT on his machine, he can convert the fonts to TrueType format for you. When trying to install the fonts in the control panel, a dialogue box with multiple options is displayed. Choose "Convert to TrueType". Windows will convert the fonts to .ttf files, which you can then copy from your fonts system directory to a floppy and use them on a Windows 98 system.

Leave the fonts in Type1 format if possible, for the conversion to TrueType is not necessarily lossless due to the different structures of the two formats.