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I have type 1 fonts in pfb format that I would like to use with Inkscape on a Mac. However, I can't get Inkscape to find them. The instructions seem to be only for Linux or Windows, but I assumed things would work like in Linux. I could not find *fonts.cache-1 files in my system, it seems like what fc-cache does is to populate a few locations like .fontconfig/ with *-le64.cache-3 files (I assume this to be the same as the *fonts.cache-1 files).

I copied the pfb file to ~/.fonts. From a verbose output of fc-cache, I could see that this directory was read and included in fontconfig's cache. But when I try to open a pdf file with this particular font, Inkscape does not use it and replaces by the default font.

I've searched the web to no avail, there just isn't a lot of material out there on this. I've successfully opened the same pdf in Illustrator by copying the pfb file to Adobe's local font directory, so I know that the font works. But for some reason, Inkscape doesn't use it. Any clues?

I am aware that I can convert the fonts from .pfb to .dfont or otf/ttf, but in my case it is just not practical.

I am using the Inkscape.app downloaded from the webpage (0.48.2 r9819), XQuartz 2.7.4, and OSX 10.8.2. Thanks!

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Add fonts in fontbook.app ? – benoît Oct 14 '12 at 19:20
Fontbook doesn't work with type 1 fonts. – tiago Oct 14 '12 at 21:34
Since when does Fontbook not support Type 1? The problem is you have pfb fonts.. which are Windows files. You need Mac Type 1 fonts. – Scott Oct 15 '12 at 6:02

2 Answers

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In the olden days, Postscript Type-1 fonts came in two different versions – Mac or Windows. .pfb files are the Windows flavor, which doesn't work on operating-system level in Mac OS X. (Adobe applications have their own font handling, which is why it works there when you put the fonts into the Adobe font folder.) Anyway, the OS X standard folder for user-specific fonts would be ~/Library/Fonts (or /Library/Fonts to be accessible for all users)...

Maybe just convert the old fonts into the modern OTF format. There is a free web-based service for it at http://www.freefontconverter.com

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Thank you for the suggestion. I forgot to say that converting the fonts is not a viable option. For two reasons: there are many fonts with a pfb file for each font size/style (these are TeX fonts) and when I convert a single pfb file (e.g. cmr5.pfb), OS X imports it using its name (e.g. Computer Modern), not the CMR5 id that appears in the pdf. Thus, Inkscape can't use it. – tiago Oct 15 '12 at 2:09
I see. But a conversion is still required, or you won't be able to use the fonts in Inkscape. The more complicated way would be to open the fonts in a professional font editing or conversion program (e.g. Fontlab or TransType) and see how to set the correct name. (I'm no expert in font internals, someone else here might know how to do it...) The workaround would be to use Illustrator instead of Inkscape. Or, perhaps, open the PDFs in Illustrator and save them with the fonts embedded, then try opening the files in Inkscape? – TehMacDawg Oct 15 '12 at 2:19
So there is no way for Inkscape to use pfb fonts? This PDF has the fonts embedded, but Inkscape does not support embedded fonts just yet. – tiago Oct 15 '12 at 4:00
According to the FAQ, Inkscape supports type 1 fonts since version 0.46, so I don't think a conversion is necessary. – tiago Oct 15 '12 at 4:07
Conversion is necessary. The info in that FAQ is based on Inkscape on Windows. Inkscape on Mac can probably work with Mac Type-1 fonts, but not with the Windows Type-1 fonts that you have. – TehMacDawg Oct 15 '12 at 4:44
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Also, be aware that changing existing text in PDFs might turn out to be very difficult, depending on how the PDFs were generated. If they were made with Illustrator, chances are that they can be edited. If they were generated otherwise, the text can be broken down into many bits of words or even single characters instead of coherent paragraphs, even when you use Illustrator to edit the PDFs.

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