Interchange and Legacy Formats

Use interchange to collaborate without treating it as a promise that every editor understands the same source model. Keep the native project and compare representative data after each transfer.

Interchange Formats

Within the interchange category from Font and Metadata Formats, UFO is a structured font-source format with glyph files and metadata. UFO and .glyphs exchange are not fully lossless substitutes for native VFC/VFJ sources; smart-node/filter behavior and application-specific metadata may require conversion or may not survive another editor. FontLab supports UFO-version choices; UFO 3 provides a broader modern interchange model than UFO 2. UFOZ packages the directory data in a compressed file, while DesignSpace + UFO describes axes, sources, and instances across master files.

Font Lib maps to the DesignSpace lib, and each Master Lib to its UFO lib.plist; recall Completing Font Metadata. Export the whole project together. A .designspace file without the referenced UFOs is not a complete handoff. Check relative paths and any master-filename or masters-folder overrides before sending it.

Inspect glyph names and filenames, anchors, components, kerning, feature source, metrics expressions, and library data after exchange. A GLIF filename is a storage identifier, not necessarily the same literal spelling as a glyph's name.

FontLab-specific data can be stored in libs, including visual TT commands under com.fontlab.ttcommands. Another application can preserve a key without executing or editing its contents. Private metadata therefore helps round-trip information but does not establish equivalent editing behavior.

XFO is a compatibility import for extended FontLab-oriented data, not a standard export-profile choice. Use the supported interchange formats for a planned handoff; application-specific extensions are not baseline UFO behavior in every editor.

For .glyphs exchange, select the appropriate version and inspect the imported or exported model. Metrics-expression conversion, smart or serif components, custom parameters, and variable-component locations are especially worth checking. A visually correct static glyph can still have lost the source relationship needed for future edits.

Start a collaboration with a small representative exchange: an accented composite, a complex glyph, kerning classes, a feature, and several masters. Agree which native or interchange file is authoritative so repeated transfers do not overwrite intentional work.

Legacy Formats

PostScript Type 1 uses cubic outlines and its own older naming, encoding, hinting, and metrics conventions. Windows workflows use PFB and associated metrics files; Mac workflows can use suitcases and related files.

FontLab can import supported legacy sources and export supported Windows Type 1 output. Do not assume a Mac suitcase is a writable native source target. Type 1 does not carry the OpenType Layout system, and class kerning must be resolved into suitable flat data.

A legacy Type 1 style-linked family group has at most the four RIBBI roles recalled in Naming Fonts and Families. Larger modern typographic families require an appropriate grouping strategy rather than treating that group as the whole family. Likewise, a limited encoding vector is not the same as the modern Unicode mapping model.

Direct opening or saving of Type 1 Multiple Master fonts is not supported by this workflow; use available VFB/UFO source representations for migration instead. Preserve any available VFB/UFO or other source representation before migration.

Ikarus .ik import converts to cubic Bézier outlines; inspect the curves and use Contour > Simplify or Clean Up where justified. VFB is useful for older FontLab workflows but cannot retain every modern live construction. FOG and PHF provide other legacy inputs; BDF supplies bitmap-oriented material for pixel fonts; see Color Fonts.

Treat migration as a conversion with a review plan. Check identity, character coverage, outlines, metrics, kerning, and hinting before deleting or archiving the original files. A successful open is the beginning of that review.