What is PFA?

PostScript Type 1 ASCII (PFA) is a human-readable printer font format used in professional typesetting and PostScript printing.

What is AFM?

Adobe Font Metrics (AFM) is a text file describing Type 1 font metrics including character widths, kerning pairs, and bounding boxes.

When Should You Use PFA vs AFM?

PFA vs AFM: Key Differences

• •The core technical difference: PFA relies on lossless compression whereas AFM uses lossless compression.
• •Neither format changes compression philosophy — both are lossless compression — so any size differences are due to encoding efficiency, not a shift in quality approach.
• •How transparency is handled: AFM supports transparency, so alpha information is preserved during conversion.
• •Storage footprint: 20-100KB per font for PFA vs Very small, text-based metrics for AFM.
• •Use case fit: PFA targets professional printing, postscript devices and AFM targets postscript font metrics, pdf font embedding — your choice depends on which workflow stage you are serving.

Advantages of PFA

• ✓The lossless nature of PFA means file sizes stay reasonable while handling Professional printing, PostScript devices efficiently.
• ✓From mobile devices to enterprise servers, PFA is recognized and supported everywhere.
• ✓The trade-off for PFA's perfection is larger files — but for archival work, it is worth every megabyte.
• ✓PFA is a first-class citizen in all major software ecosystems, from creative suites to development environments.

Advantages of AFM

• ✓AFM applies lossless compression specifically calibrated for PostScript font metrics, PDF font embedding.
• ✓AFM enjoys broad native support across operating systems, browsers, and creative tools alike.
• ✓AFM guarantees every bit of the original data survives — no approximations, no shortcuts.
• ✓You will find AFM support built into virtually every tool that handles PostScript font metrics, PDF font embedding — no plugins or converters needed.

Common Use Cases for PFA to AFM Conversion

• Icon sets
• Logo design
• Data visualization
• Presentation design
• Video subtitles
• Game UI typography

Industry Applications

Best Practices for PFA to AFM Conversion

• →Before converting PFA to AFM, review the font license — some licenses restrict format conversion
• →Check hinting data after conversion: AFM may handle TrueType hinting differently than PFA
• →Verify that all character sets (Latin, Cyrillic, CJK, etc.) survived the conversion intact
• →Test the converted font in both a browser and a desktop application
• →Keep the original font file in case the conversion alters spacing metrics

Troubleshooting PFA to AFM Conversion

• !AFM font doesn't render correctly → check if AFM supports all glyphs present in PFA
• !Licensing restrictions after PFA to AFM conversion → verify the font license allows format conversion
• !Hinting data lost converting PFA to AFM → some font formats like AFM may not preserve TrueType hinting
• !Special characters missing from converted AFM → font subsetting may have removed unused glyphs

Related Font Converters

All Font Formats

More Font tools