AF4 File

What are AF4 files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an AF4 file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your AF4 files.

What is an AF4 file?

An .AF4 file is an Artline Font file.

Artline Font files are font files used by Artline, a vector-graphics and desktop-publishing program from Digital Research for the GEM desktop environment. These files store glyph outlines and font metadata for use when drawing text or designing layout in Artline. They are especially used for printer or high-quality output fonts rather than on-screen fonts.

These .AF4 files are generated by the utility BLDAF4 that ships with Artline. To create an .AF4 you start with a Bitstream Fontware PostScript printer font in .PFA format plus a font information file (.PFI), and optionally an Adobe font metrics file (.AFM) for kerning data. Running BLDAF4 with appropriate parameters produces the .AF4 font, which Artline then uses after it is added to its font list via its Font Manager.

. AF4 font files are identified internally by specific byte signatures. They begin with the byte sequence 0x04, 0x00 at offset 0, have 0x0000 at offset 14, and somewhere inside contain the ASCII string ".AF4".

How to open AF4 files

Important: Different programs may use files with the AF4 file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your AF4 file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 17, 2026

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