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 pairs. With Type 1 fonts the kerning pairs are stored in the *.PFM file. The larger the *.PFM file the more kerning pairs. |
Have a small amount or no kerning pairs. If the *.PFM file is approximately 650 to 750 bytes in size there are probably no kerning pairs for that font. |
| Look good and sharp when printed in small and large point sizes. |
Look good when printed in small 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 size, because they have a minimum of control points that keep the file size as small as possible and still keep the characters clear. |
Usually are larger in file size because there are more control points than necessary. The exception is a font that is highly detailed. Because of the detail there are more control points making the font size larger. |
| Usually draw to the computer screen or print faster. This goes along with the file size, the smaller the file size the faster the type will draw to the screen or print to the printer. |
Usually draw to the computer screen or print slower. This goes along with the file size, the larger the file size the slower the type will draw to the screen or print to the printer. |
| Contain upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, foreign accented and special characters. |
Usually only contain upper case, lower case, sometimes numbers and limited punctuation. |
