acorn2sfd

Converter from Acorn RISC/OS fonts

acorn2sfd [-version] [-help] {acorndir ...}

acorn2sfd will take several Acorn RISC/OS font directories and convert them into FontForge’s sfd files.

An Acorn RISC/OS font directory should contain two or three files, one named Outlines* and one named Intmetric? (the Intmetrics file may be omitted, in which case the advance widths will not be known). acorn2sfd will read both files and generate an sfd file from them (which fontforge can turn into TrueType or PostScript).

If the Outlines file ends in a digit (Outlines0) then a third file named Base<digit>* will be searched for in the directory (if not found there then in <acorndir>/../Encodings), and if found encoding information will be read from it. If not found then the font will be assumed to be an initial subset of Unicode.

-includestrokes

acorn2sfd normally throws out the secondary stroked version of the character, specifying this option will include it in the sfd file (you may then want to invoke FontForge’s Expand Stroke command on it).

help

will provide a mini description and will list the available options.

usage

will list the available options.

version

will display the current version of acorn2sfd (a six digit string containing the date stamp of the source files).

Bugs

  • Acorn fonts use a different fill rule than either PostScript or TrueType. You should run Element ‣ Correct Direction on the sfd file after converting it.

  • Most Acorn fonts I’ve seen on the web are zipped up with a non-standard zip. Don’t expect acorn2sfd to be able to unzip them.

  • Acorn hinting data are lost.

See Also

FontForge

Acorn Font Documentation