Like most everything in life, you usually have a choice between high and low quality. The below tips will give you an idea how to tell the difference between high and low quality fonts. Some high quality fonts may have low quality characteristics, you have to evaluate for yourself.
Example: Monospaced fonts contain no kerning, initial caps only contain upper case characters.
HIGH QUALITY FONTS LOW QUALITY FONTS
* Have a large amount of kerning * Have a small amount or no kerning
pairs. With Type 1 fonts the kern- pairs. If the *.PFM file is approxi-
ing pairs are stored in the *.PFM mately 650 to 750 bytes in size
file. The larger the *.PFM file there are probably no kerning pairs
the more kerning pairs. for that font.
* Look good and sharp when printed * Look good when printed in small
in small and large point sizes. point sizes, but when printed in
larger sizes or at high resolution
the low quality shows.
* Contain hinting. * Do not contain hinting.
* Usually are smaller in file * Usually are larger in file size,
size, because they have a minimum because there are more control points
of control points that keep the than necessary. The exception is a
file size as small as possible and font that is highly detailed. Because
still keep the characters clear. of the detail there are more control
points making the font size larger.
* Usually draw to the computer * Usually draw to the computer screen
screen or print faster. This goes or print slower. This goes along with
along with the file size, the the file size, the larger the file
smaller the file size the faster size the slower the type will draw
the type will draw to the screen to the screen or print to the printer.
or print to the printer.
* Contain upper and lower case, * Usually only contain upper case,
numbers, punctuation, foreign lower case, sometimes numbers and
accented and special characters. limited punctuation.
