D-Type Font Converter

When application performance is a must, D-Type fonts earn your trust.

If you are using D-Type Font Engine or D-Type PowerDoc Engine to render text, it makes sense to store your fonts in D-Type format. D-Type fonts are more versatile and more compact than existing commonly used font formats, such as TypeType, OpenType, Type 1 and even Adobe’s CFF (Compact Font Format). D-Type fonts can also provide an extra performance boost for your applications. Converting any existing scalable font format to D-Type format is straightforward when using D-Type Font Converter.

D-Type Font Converter is provided at no cost when you purchase a license for one of the following D-Type libraries:

Features

D-Type font format is feature-rich. Every feature available in existing scalable font formats is also present in D-Type. However, the D-Type font format is more compact and more versatile than other font formats, making it an ideal choice for D-Type Font Engine.

Feature Comparison With Major Font Formats

Feature	Font Format
Feature	TrueType / OpenType	Type 1	CFF	D-Type
Compact file size	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pure binary format	Yes	No	Mostly	Yes
Efficient to parse and process	Mostly	No	Mostly	Yes
No redundant data	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Clean design (e.g. no messy data structures)	Mostly	No	Somewhat	Yes
Easily extensible	Yes but with trade-offs and caveats	No	Somewhat	Yes
Supports more than 256 glyphs in a single file	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Supports Unicode	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Supports advanced typography	Yes	No	No	Yes
All font data in a single file	Yes	No	No	Yes
Random access	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Supports multiple fonts in a single file (i.e. font collections)	Yes	No	No	Yes
Supports multiple-master (or variable) fonts	Statring with OpenType version 1.8	Yes	Only CFF2	Yes
Supports glyph hints or instructions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Validator available	Yes	Not to our knowledge	Not to our knowledge	Yes

File Size

In the following section, we demonstrate the compactness and efficiency of the D-Type font format. We compare the sizes of eight randomly selected fonts in TrueType, Type 1, and CFF (Compact Font Format) with D-Type. We also show the size of each font when compressed using a conventional ZIP compressor, illustrating the efficiency of each format. For example, if a 90 KB font file can be compressed to a 46 KB ZIP file, its efficiency is only about 51% (calculated as 100 * 46 / 90), which is not very high. Conversely, if a 90 KB font file can be compressed to an 85 KB ZIP file, its efficiency is approximately 94% (calculated as 100 * 85 / 90), indicating a high level of compactness. When efficiency is this high, little additional size reduction can be achieved through compression, meaning the font file is already highly compact. The tests we conducted show that fonts converted from TrueType/OpenType, Type 1, and CFF formats to D-Type are consistently extremely compact, with an average efficiency around 90%.

It is also noteworthy that the efficiency of TrueType/OpenType, likely the most commonly used format today, is relatively low, around 58%. More importantly, converting TrueType/OpenType fonts to D-Type can reduce their file size by nearly three times!

TrueType/OpenType vs D-Type

Font Name	TrueType/OpenType Format			D-Type Format			D-Type Size Reduction (A / D)
Font Name	A Original Size	B Zipped Size	C Efficiency (B / A * 100)	D Original Size	E Zipped Size	F Efficiency (E / D * 100)	D-Type Size Reduction (A / D)
Times New Roman 3.00 (times.ttf)	400 KB	226 KB	56%	121 KB	103 KB	85%	3.3
Arial 3.00 (arial.ttf)	359 KB	194 KB	54%	106 KB	88 KB	83%	3.4
Palatino 1.15 (pala.ttf)	495 KB	302 KB	61%	138 KB	116 KB	84%	3.6
Verdana 2.35 (verdana.ttf)	137 KB	80 KB	58%	56 KB	47 KB	83%	2.4
Tahoma 2.80 (verdana.ttf)	260 KB	152 KB	58%	99 KB	87 KB	88%	2.6
Courier New 2.76 (cour.ttf)	291 KB	169 KB	58%	100 KB	87 KB	87%	2.9
Georgia 2.05 (cour.ttf)	140 KB	90 KB	64%	63 KB	58 KB	92%	2.2
Lucida Sans Unicode 2.00 (l_10646.ttf)	317 KB	178 KB	56%	122 KB	109 KB	89%	2.6
Average Efficiency and Overall Reduction			58%			86%	2.9

Conclusions

The efficiency of the TrueType/OpenType format is relatively low, averaging around 58%. In most cases, the original file size is approximately twice that of the compressed file.
The efficiency of the D-Type format is very high, consistently exceeding 85% and sometimes reaching as high as 92%. In most instances, the original file size is very close to the compressed size, meaning that little additional reduction can be achieved through compression. This stands in sharp contrast to the TrueType/OpenType format.
On average, D-Type fonts are nearly three times smaller than their corresponding TrueType/OpenType files.

Type 1 vs D-Type

Font Name	Type 1 Format			D-Type Format			D-Type Size Reduction (A / D)
Font Name	A Original Size	B Zipped Size	C Efficiency (B / A * 100)	D Original Size	E Zipped Size	F Efficiency (E / D * 100)	D-Type Size Reduction (A / D)
Helvetica 003.001 (hv______.pfb)	32 KB	31 KB	97%	16 KB	15 KB	94%	2
Antique Olive Roman 001.002 (aqr_____.pfb)	31 KB	29 KB	93%	16 KB	15 KB	94%	1.9
LucidaTypewriterEF-Bold 001.000 (ldbd____.pfb)	56 KB	52 KB	92%	26 KB	24 KB	92%	2.2
URW Chancery L Medium Italic 001.005 (z003034l.pfb)	38 KB	37 KB	97%	26 KB	27 KB	96%	1.5
URW Palladio L Roman 1.06 (p052003l.pfb)	173 KB	172 KB	99%	50 KB	41 KB	82%	3.5
URW Bookman L Light 1.06 (b018012l.pfb)	138 KB	137 KB	99%	52 KB	45 KB	86%	2.7
Nimbus Roman No9 L Medium 1.06 (n021004l.pfb)	133 KB	132 KB	99%	49 KB	43 KB	88%	2.7
Computer Modern 001.100 (cmmib5.pfb)	34 KB	31 KB	91%	20 KB	19 KB	95%	1.7
Average Efficiency and Overall Reduction			96%			91%	2.3

Conclusions

The efficiency of the Type 1 format is consistently high, averaging around 96%. In most cases, the original file size is very close to the compressed size. However, Type 1 fonts are limited to a maximum of 256 glyphs.
The efficiency of the D-Type format is also very high and consistent, averaging around 91% (about 5% less than Type 1). More importantly, D-Type fonts are not restricted to 256 glyphs.
On average, D-Type fonts are more than twice as small as their corresponding Type 1 files.

CFF vs D-Type

Font Name	CFF Format			D-Type Format			D-Type Size Reduction (A / D)
Font Name	A Original Size	B Zipped Size	C Efficiency (B / A * 100)	D Original Size	E Zipped Size	F Efficiency (E / D * 100)	D-Type Size Reduction (A / D)
CMU Bright Roman (CMUBright-Roman.cff)	184 KB	97 KB	52%	111 KB	101 KB	91%	1.6
CMU Serif Upright Italic (CMUSerif-UprightItalic.cff)	248 KB	114 KB	46%	122 KB	112 KB	85%	1.5
ESL Gothic Unicode (ESLGothic.cff)	40 KB	21 KB	52%	27 KB	23 KB	92%	1.5
Kozuka Mincho Pro (Kozuka.cff)	3,671 KB	3,230 KB	88%	3,637 KB	3,393 KB	93%	1.0
Adobe Caslon Pro Bold (ACaslopPro-Bold.cff)	113 KB	95 KB	84%	102 KB	99 KB	97%	1.1
Adobe Arabic Regular (AdobeArabic-Regular.cff)	103 KB	77 KB	75%	98 KB	83 KB	85%	1.1
Nimbus Sans L Bold (FreeSansBold.cff)	55 KB	32 KB	58%	38 KB	34 KB	89%	1.4
AntykwaTorunska-Regular (AntykwaTorunska-Regular.cff)	103 KB	77 KB	75%	94 KB	82 KB	87%	1.1
Average Efficiency and Overall Reduction			66%			90%	1.3

Conclusions

The efficiency of the CFF format varies significantly, ranging from as low as 46% to as high as 88%.
The efficiency of the D-Type format remains consistently high, averaging around 90%. In some extreme cases, it approaches 97%, indicating that further size reduction using conventional ZIP compressors is generally not feasible.
On average, D-Type fonts are more than 1.3 times smaller than their corresponding CFF files.

Key Specifications

Availability	Windows Linux macOS
Application Interface	Command Line Interface (CLI)
Input Font Formats	Any font format supported by D-Type Fony Engine
Output Font Formats	D-Type

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Additionally, you may find it helpful to explore the history of D-Type releases and review the D-Type News page.

Get Started Now Using D-Type

Available in binary, object, and/or source code format for any hardware or operating system environment, D-Type technology is an excellent choice for software developers seeking a rendering solution that is affordable, mature, reliable, secure, well-maintained, well-supported, super-fast and packed with features.

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