Evaluating the IBM and HP/PANOSE font classification systems

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to introduce, describe, and critically examine the IBM and Hewlett‐Packard PANOSE systems of (electronic) font classification. Microsoft's TrueType Font (TTF) file format allows font developers the option of classifying their fonts according to one or both systems, and writing that information into a special location in the TTF file for use by other software.Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive survey of 13,000 TTF files was examined for information about their use of either classification system.Findings – The classification systems are intended to help perform font substitution, as used when (part of) a document asks to be displayed in a font that is not present on the user's computer system, in which case the next nearest font is automatically chosen. However, of the nine sources of font compendia examined, only three had supplied adequate information about their fonts’ classifications in order to make this process workable. The other six sources had al...