Edit

Share via

Converting East Asian AFM Files to NTF Files

  • Article

Important

The modern print platform is Windows' preferred means of communicating with printers. We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for printer device development.

For more information, see Modern print platform and the Print support app design guide.

To process an East Asian font .afm file, Makentf.exe (discussed in Converting AFM Files to NTF Files) requires .map and .ps files to create a mapping table from Unicode to CID (character ID) for the font.

The East Asian .afm file has the CID description and metrics for each glyph contained in the font. The .map file lists the Unicode codes and corresponding character codes for the font's character set. The .ps file contains a list of Unicode codes and the corresponding CIDs for the font's character set.

Starting with an East Asian .afm file, Makentf.exe determines the character set. Based on the character set, Makentf.exe finds the appropriate .map and .ps files. From the .map file, Makentf.exe lists the Unicode codes that can be used in the font. From the Unicode code list and the .ps file, Makentf.exe then creates a Unicode-to-CID mapping table for the font. Currently, the .afm file is used to verify that each CID (glyph) is contained in the font. If the CID is found in the .afm file, a mapping entry from the Unicode code to the CID is created in the mapping table. If the CID isn't found, the mapping entry isn't created.

The .map and .ps files needed to create an .ntf file for Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, and Korean are shown in the following lists. Place these files and your .afm files in the same directory.

Chinese Simplified

  • ucs2gbk.map

  • unigbh.ps

  • unigbv.ps

Chinese Traditional

  • ucs2bg5.map

  • unicnsh.ps

  • unicnsv.ps

Japanese

  • ucs283h.map

  • ucs283v.map

  • ucs2msj.map

  • uni83h.ps

  • uni83v.ps

  • unijish.ps

  • unijisv.ps

Korean

  • ucs2jhb.map

  • ucs2uhc.map

  • uniksh.ps

  • uniksv.ps