Foundry column?

MainType - Font Manager MainType - Support
1

Hello,
I am curious to understand how MainType generates information for the “Foundry” column in the font list window.

It seems to get it from partially from the 1-4 character VendorID.
For example:
1.) Sometimes a font will read something like UNKNOWN-JK (there is no font vendor JK registered with Microsoft’s registered font vendors) so it seems to add the suffix UNKNOWN if it is not on the Microsoft list.
2.) I assume “–” means no data for the Foundry (VendorID) entry?
3.) It will say: “FontLab Ltd. / Made with FontLab” when “pyrs” is the VendorID. In this case “PYRS” is the VendorID for FontLab, but it does not use “PYRS Fontlab Ltd. / Made with FontLab” and truncates the “PYRS” from the registered name.

So is MainType taking the 1-4 VendorID characters, comparing it to a table of registered foundry names, and outputting that to the Foundry column?
Is the Foundry entry considered “UNKNOWN” if there is no URL for the Microsoft registered font vendor, even if their name is in the Microsoft registered font vendor database?

2

Erwin,
I was wondering if you had any insights on this. I was trying to understand why the column seems to generate an “UNKNOWN”, even for foundries that are known in the Microsoft Registered Font Vendors. It seems like any Foundry without a URL gets an “UNKNOWN”.
Is this a potential bug?

3

We determine it based on some internal logic along with data from the Foundry list. We update it once every two years, so that is probably why you see some missing foundries.

4

Erwin,
Thank you for helping me understand how this works.
I look forward to you next update! :smiley: