Multiple Master fonts on Macs running System 9 or earlier

ATM 3.0 and later support Multiple Master fonts. It comes with a small application called Font Creator which can be used to create new instances of Multiple Master fonts. This extra information is stored in one of the resources of the font.
On Macs fonts are stored in the Fonts folder, inside of the System folder. But if you are using a utility to access fonts, such as Suitcase or ATM Deluxe, fonts can be stored in any user definable directory, or folder on your computer.

Multiple Master fonts on Macs running OS X

Mac OS X didn’t support Multiple Master fonts until release 10.2.3. From that release onwards, it is possible to install fonts but there aren’t any tools to modify those fonts.

Multiple Master fonts on Windows

To use Multiple Master fonts under Windows ‘95 and ‘98, you need at least ATM 3.0. The ATM control panel can be used to create various instances of a Multiple Master font.
Under Windows 2000, you need ATM (Lite or Deluxe) 4.1 (or later) to add support for Multiple Master fonts.
MM fonts consist of 2 files: a file that carries the .pfb extension and one with the .mmm extension which contains the font metrics data of the multiple master fonts.
On Windows computers the default directory for MM fonts is C:/psfonts.

Outputting Multiple Master fonts

Unfortunately Multiple Master fonts can be quite difficult to output correctly. The main problem seems to be that when people send a job containing Multiple Master fonts to a printer or service bureau, they tend to include the original Multiple Master font but forget to include the instances they created of that Multiple Master font.

But even if you have the correct instances of a Multiple Master font, your system may still output text in Courier instead of the beloved Multiple Master font. In the days of System 7 or 8, switching PostScript drivers or deactivating the ‘unlimited downloadable fonts’ option in the Print-menu were well-knows tricks to fix issues with Multiple Master fonts.

The future of the Multiple Master technology

The Multiple Master technology was no run-away success. Only a limited number of fonts have ever been released, the majority of them coming from Adobe. Late 1999, Adobe announced that it would no longer develop Multiple Master fonts. This was partially done because the company wanted to focus on OpenType fonts but the lukewarm reception of the Multipe Master technology and the lack of applications that supported it probably also played a role in Adobe’s decision.
The company kept selling their existing catalog of Multiple Master fonts until early 2003. At the end of 2004, Adobe stopped offering tech support for those fonts, excepting for customers who owned their Font Folio 9 library.

Today Multiple Master technology can be considered ‘dead’ and superseded by OpenType.

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