I've got some files of unknown origin with the .psf extension.  The
first few bytes of each file are "FSPA^C", where ^C is control-C.  How
can I view these files on unix or windows?

Hi there,

A quick Google search led me to a message board thread that had the
exact same question:
http://www.freelanceonline.com/messages1/4480.html

The jist of the response is that this is a Postscript Font file, and
in order to view the contents of the file as intended, you will need a
program that can open such a file.

There are a few program available that deal with .psf files, they are
outlined here:
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~kleiweg/postscript/#toepass

Put plainly, this isn't the type of file that is meant to be opened
and read/edited etc. Instead, it is a place where information is
stored about a font that has been created in Postscript.

This link will provide sufficient information on the types of
Postscript fonts and the file types associated with them:
http://rcum.uni-mb.si/local/fontfaq/cf_15.htm#SEC50

Hope that helps..good luck!

answerguru-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by jric-ga on 05 Jul 2002 16:21 PDT

Thank you for your thoughtful answer.  You are probably on the right
track with the postscript thing, but as far as these being font files,
I am skeptical.

Reasons for skepticism:

- These files are about 350k, typical graphic size.
- Although I don't know which application was used, I do know the
files were created as the result of a popular Windows program and a
scanner.  (Sorry for omitting that info from my orig. question.)
- If you look at the link
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~kleiweg/postscript/#font2ps, you'll see that
the example font files are text files, not binary.

I looked at the link you provided for application.  I scrolled over
the page carefully, and wasn't able to locate any applications there
that were suggested for viewing files, other than ghostview. 
Ghostview 1.5 chokes on the header, right at "FSPA".

---

Clarification of Answer by answerguru-ga on 05 Jul 2002 17:57 PDT

Hi again,

I guess you're looking for (dis)agreement on your skepticisms..I'll
try my best to abide:

Filesize of many fonts can get around that size when the character set
uses a special character set. This also relates to your binary vs.
text issue...often some special fonts cannot fully express the
character set without using graphics or objects of some kind. Thus,
the "binary looking" file when viewed in a text editor.

I may not have made clear the fact that these font files are not meant
for viewing; instead, you should consider them as data files that can
be used by various programs but not directly by the user.

Hope that cleared everything up...

answerguru-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by jric-ga on 08 Jul 2002 08:10 PDT

Going on the theory that these are font files, I attempted to parse
them using t1utils.  If they are postscript font files, then they are
not type1 (most common) fonts:

t1disasm: ../swbell2.psf does not start with font marker (`%' or 0x80)

so they'd have to be something more obscure.  To settle this question,
I need either a piece of unix or windows software to "view" or at
least verify the file format, or I'd settle for some documentation of
a postscript file format that starts with the magic sequence "FSP".

---

Clarification of Answer by answerguru-ga on 08 Jul 2002 09:41 PDT

Hi,

I agree that it probably is a more obscure type of font. I've spent a
considerable amount of time searching for a "verfication" type of
program but to no avail. As I mentioned earlier, this type of file is
not meant for viewing so there will not be any such program available
to view it.

Since you are now looking for a verification program, I think we are
getting away from the question. Though I gave it my best shot, you
might try posting another question referring to this one in an attempt
to find this type of program.

I hope I was able to provide some insight to the question, but its
likely that another researcher will be able to take it further.

Thanks for using Google Answers.

answerguru-ga

I asked how to view a particular file.  Answerguru asserted that these
files were not "viewable", because they were not meant to be viewed. 
Answerguru provided ambiguous evidence that his assertion was correct,
showing that the file extension was consistent with his assertion. 
Answerguru did not account for the other fact stated in my question,
regarding the header.  I believe Answerguru made a sincere effort to
answer my question, and that he may even be right, which is why he
get's two stars rather than a one, although I am still left wondering
what kind of file I have in my posession.

Hi, you could try this program:

http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/lheasoft/xanadu/ximage/ximage.html

Not sure if it's the same type file or not, good luck!

Thanks for the suggestion.  I think psf is a "point-spread-function"
in this context, and that's not the relevant context.  I should have
mentioned earlier that although I don't know what program these images
came from, I do know that they came from a flatbed scanner and I
believe they came from a popular Windows application.

Hello everybody,
I just encountered the same problem and solved it. It was a scanned
picture of a flatbed scanner. The creating application was called
"ArcSoft PhotoStudio" and can be bought at
http://www.arcsoft.com/en/products/photostudio/.
However, there is a free tool which can display it, too. This tool is
called "xnview" and can be donloaded from http://www.xnview.com/ .

nemonihil

Thank you nemonihil-ga, that worked for me.

I do use .psf bitmap fonts (they are not vector, like type1 or
truetype) in my linux machine. Those are the standard fonts when not
in an X11 environement (graphical environement for linux). That is to
say, those are the fonts that are displayed when in console-only mode.
If you run linux in non-graphic console mode you may be able to
display your font file with the CONSOLECHARS utility. Debian includes
a bunch of utilities to use, edit, convert, and so on, this kind of
files. On the other side, .psf may be used for some other file too (i
guess it is also used in some kind of sound format, since foobar2000
registers that extension in winxp).

Just got one of these myself.

Turns-out the "*.psf" with "FSPA" as its FOURCC/magic is an ArcSoft
PhotoStudio image file
(http://www.arcsoft.com/en/products/photostudio).

Alternatively XnView is a freeware program that can load/convert the
files (http://www.xnview.com/).

As-to specifically what is in the format, it seems that it might be
some kind of multi-file encapsulation as the file I have seems like it
might have JFIF (JPEG) and BMP headers further into it. But I wouldn't
be too sure about that last bit.

Moles.