From: Identity Number Forty-Seven <identity@number.47>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:54:42 -0600
Subject: Java font programs
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.fonts

I wrote these Java programs to help manage my font collection. They
run on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. They are free under the GNU General
Public License. Please read the PDF documentation in each ZIP file.

Windows users should run RedEar's Font Renamer, which is posted
quarterly in alt.binaries.fonts.

The same Java programs can be downloaded from any of these web sites:

http://download.cnet.com/windows/keith-fenske/3260-20_4-6304677.html

http://linux.softpedia.com/progMoreBy/Publisher-Keith-Fenske-507.html
http://mac.softpedia.com/progMoreBy/Publisher-Keith-Fenske-3262.html
http://www.softpedia.com/progMoreBy/Publisher-Keith-Fenske-12108.html

http://www.psc-consulting.ca/fenske/

From: Identity Number Forty-Seven <identity@number.47>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:56:21 -0600
Subject: Re: Java font programs - FontRedate3-20100630.zip
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.fonts

Attachment: FontRedate3-20100630.zip     (Download hosted by another server)

Excerpts from program documentation

FontRedate is a Java 1.4 application to read internal dates from OpenType, PostScript, or
TrueType font files, and to change the file modification dates to match. The file contents are not
changed, only the date in the system file directory. Internal font dates may or may not be
accurate; many fonts are created and later edited without setting the date properly. Times may
differ from what you expect depending upon your time zone, and will usually agree with what the
Microsoft Font Properties Extension shows in its Version tab for OTF/TTC/TTF files, plus or
minus daylight saving time. Dates can not and will not be changed for read-only files, which is a
restriction imposed by the Java run-time, not the operating system.

OpenType fonts (*.OTF), TrueType fonts (*.TTF), and TrueType collections (*.TTC)
actually have very similar internal formats and are processed together. All three of these use a
single file for each font. PostScript fonts can have multiple files (*.AFM, *.INF, *.PFB, *.PFM,
etc). For PostScript, an attempt is made to extract the internal date from *.PFA or *.PFB files,
and if that works, then the file directory dates are changed for all files with the same root name
and one of the alternate file types. This naming convention does not apply to font files on an
Apple Macintosh, so use caution with Mac fonts!

For more information on the internal format of font files, start with the following on-line
PostScript fonts have largely been replaced by OpenType fonts. This program makes a limited
effort to extract the creation date from PostScript fonts, because the date is a text field with an
arbitrary format. The expected format is the UNIX style of “Fri Mar 28 22:03:48 1997” as used
by Adobe and most major font foundries. Other numeric styles will also be accepted.