The single term font is nearly always used in ambiguous ways to refer
-to either a given family or given face, depending on the context. For example,
-most users of word-processors use "font" to describe a font family (e.g.
-Courier, Palatino, etc..); however most of these families are implemented
-through several data files depending on the file format : for TrueType,
-this is usually one per face (i.e. ARIAL.TFF for "Arial Regular", ARIALI.TTF
-for "Arial Italic", etc..). The file is also called a "font" but really
-contains a font face.
-
+
+
+ 1. Font files, format and information
+
-As a convenience, a font file containing more than one face is called
-a font collection. This case is rather rare but can be seen in many asian
-fonts, which contain images for two or more scripts for a given language.
-
+ A font is a collection of various character images that can be used
+ to display or print text. The images in a single font share some common
+ properties, including look, style, serifs, etc. Typographically
+ speaking, one has to distinguish between a font family and its
+ multiple font faces, which usually differ in style though come
+ from the same template.
+
+ For example, "Palatino Regular" and "Palatino Italic" are two distinct
+ faces from the same famous family, called "Palatino"
+ itself.
+
+ The single term font is nearly always used in ambiguous ways
+ to refer to either a given family or given face, depending on the
+ context. For example, most users of word-processors use "font" to
+ describe a font family (e.g. "Courier", "Palatino", etc.); however most
+ of these families are implemented through several data files depending
+ on the file format: For TrueType, this is usually one per face (i.e.
+ arial.ttf for "Arial Regular", ariali.ttf for "Arial
+ Italic", etc.). The file is also called a "font" but really contains a
+ font face.
+
+ A digital font is thus a data file that may contain one
+ or more font faces. For each of these, it contains character
+ images, character metrics, as well as other kind of information
+ important to the layout of text and the processing of specific character
+ encodings. In some awkward formats, like Adobe's Type 1, a single
+ font face is described through several files (i.e. one contains the
+ character images, another one the character metrics). We will ignore
+ this implementation issue in most parts of this document and consider
+ digital fonts as single files, though FreeType 2.0 is able to
+ support multiple-files fonts correctly.
+
+ As a convenience, a font file containing more than one face is called
+ a font collection. This case is rather rare but can be seen in
+ many Asian fonts, which contain images for two or more representation
+ forms of a given scripts (usually for horizontal and vertical
+ layout.
+