O, boy, what a history....

From Luc Devroye's website, ON SNOT AND FONTS

Castcraft Software Inc (or: OptiFont)  

Castcraft [3649 W Chase Ave Skokie, IL 60026], showed off a comprehensive library of fonts, all with extended character sets for multi-language typography. OptiFont is a trademark filed in 1990 by Fredric J. Kreiter of Castcraft. Castcraft sold a CD-ROM Type Library Volume 1 at 200 USD. Its entire font collection was sold for 1000 USD. It also made some custom fonts. Most post-1990 fonts have the prefix OPTI. For example, OPTI-Peking is an oriental simulation font. OPTI-Favrile is a copy of Tom Carnase's Favrile (WTC).

A visitor warned me that there is absolutely zero security when you order from this outfit, so you are warned! It seems that Manny Kreiter (d. 2005) was the last President&CEO, and that his family (Abe, Harry and Ned Kreiter) have been at it since the days of metal type (1936) starting as Type Founders of Chicago. I found this on their pages: Castcraft has licensing the entire 20,000 TypeFaces from "Type Films of Chicago" and the entire "Solotype Alphabets" collection. Mike Yanega claims that most of their fonts are clearly not original any more than most of Bitstream's are original, and like them they re-name many of their fonts to avoid copyright issues. Their fonts all appear to be a "dead collection" of copies of relatively old designs that have already appeared in many other collections from the likes of WSI and SSi.

In 2010, John Brandt reports: Castcraft, aka Type Founders of Chicago, moved decades ago from Hubbard St in Chicago to a close-in suburb (Skokie? Niles?) and was still operating within the past few years when I happened to drive by. I failed to find any current incarnation, but they used several names even years ago as a prominent pirate. Besides pirated fonts (Typositor to later, generally poor digital), they were a big metal vendor (I have a partial metal set of Helvetica gifted as they left downtown in the 1970s), and also had a guy (whose name escapes me) who did fabulous high-end signage, from sand-blasted glass to the created-on-building inscribed metal logo for a well-known Michigan Ave mall. Longtime owner Manny Kreiter died in 2005, but whether Boomie or any of the others who may still be around kept it going is unknown. Aside from simply having ANY version of their many offerings, most would consider their collection worthless. Anyone who has a digital "OPTIfont" and a font editor can readily view the problems, including usually several times too many Bezier points within any character. I counted 78 control points on a minimal character, for instance, that should have had less than a dozen.

PostScript Type 1 Fonts

PostScript language font from The Font Company meet the latest specifications for PostScript Type 1 formats with advanced hinting. Your font package includes the diskette(s) that holds your font data and font utilities. You must have System/Finder set 6.02 (or later) and Font/DA Mover 3.8 (for System 6 users) to successfully install your new fonts. A font utilities such as Suitcase or MasterJuggler can also be used. A copy of Font/DA Mover 4.1 is in your utilities folder on your font disc. If you need a newer System/Finder, obtain it from your Apple dealer.

PostScript fonts consist of two parts; a screen font (also known as a bitmap font) and a printer font (also known as an outline font) although the screen and printer fonts must be installed separately they are related. When you select a certain font size on screen the Macintosh looks to see if that size is installed in the System. If it is, the screen font is drawn on the screen. The Macintosh is then directed to the associated printer font when you print that character. If you have Adobe Type Manager (ATM) installed and you do not have an install bitmap for a specific size, the bitmap font is generated automatically by ATM from the same font that is used for printing. The installation procedure for PostScript Type 1 fonts is different for computers running under any version of System 6.0 and those running under System 7. Both installation procedures are included depending on which system software you are using. 

We have also included Adobe Font Metrics (AFM) file with your PostScript font. This is a text file that contains character metric and kerning information and is used by some applications to determine character spacing. Most applications can retrieve metrics and kerning information from the screen font suitcase and do not need this file.

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Buyers are expected to do their own research in regard to the compatibility and hardware/software requirements for any item they are considering purchasing, as well as any necessary configurations needed for correct operation and system functionality. Only pictured items are included. Before you purchase this item, please make sure that you have verified compatibility with your system's manufacturer.

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