Differences between current version and predecessor to the previous major change of HowToFontHOWTO.
Other diffs: Previous Revision, Previous Author, or view the Annotated Edit History
| Newer page: | version 3 | Last edited on Thursday, October 21, 2004 4:56:44 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | |
| Older page: | version 2 | Last edited on Friday, June 7, 2002 1:06:35 am | by perry | Revert |
@@ -1,2683 +1 @@
-
-
-
-Font HOWTO
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!!Font HOWTO
-
-!!Donovan Rebbechi,
-elflord@panix.com
-
-
-
-
-!!1. Introduction
-
-
-*1.1 The Location of This Document
-
-*1.2 Rationale
-
-*1.3 Credits and Acknowledgements
-
-
-
-
-
-!!2. Fonts 101 -- A Quick Introduction to Fonts
-
-
-*2.1 Types of fonts
-
-*2.2 Families of Typefaces
-
-
-
-
-
-!!3. Fonts 102 -- Typography
-
-
-*3.1 Classifications of Typefaces
-
-*3.2 Ligatures, Small caps fonts and expert fonts
-
-*3.3 Font Metrics and Shapes
-
-
-
-
-
-!!4. Making Fonts Available To X
-
-
-*4.1 The font path
-
-*4.2 Installing Type1 Fonts
-
-*4.3 True Type Fonts
-
-*4.4 xfs
-
-
-
-
-
-!!5. Making Fonts Available To Ghostscript
-
-
-*5.1 Type1
-
-*5.2 True Type
-
-*5.3 Using Ghostscript To Preview Fonts
-
-
-
-
-
-!!6. True Type to Type1 Conversion
-
-
-*6.1 Why ?
-
-*6.2 How ?
-
-
-
-
-
-!!7. WYSIWYG Publishing and Fonts
-
-
-*7.1 Introduction and Overview
-
-*7.2 Applixware
-
-*7.3 Star Office
-
-*7.4 Word Perfect
-
-
-
-
-
-!!8. Netscape
-
-
-
-
-!!9. TeX / LaTeX
-
-
-*9.1 A Quick Primer on LaTeX/TeX fonts
-
-*9.2 Adding Type1 fonts
-
-
-
-
-
-!!10. Getting Fonts For Linux
-
-
-*10.1 True Type
-
-*10.2 Type 1 Fonts and Metafont
-
-
-
-
-
-!!11. Useful Font Software for Linux
-
-
-
-
-!!12. Ethics and Licensing Issues Related to Type
-
-
-
-
-!!13. References
-
-
-*13.1 Font Information
-
-*13.2 Postscript and Printing Information
-
-
-
-
-
-!!14. Glossary
-----
-
-!!1. Introduction
-
-!!1.1 The Location of This Document
-
-
-
-This document is located at
-my webpage
-
-
-
-!!1.2 Rationale
-
-
-
-I'm going to make this brief (-; The purpose of this document is to address
-what was a gaping hole in font documentation. While previously, there
-were several documents about fonts for Linux, I felt that none of them
-were comprehensive, all of them had a relatively narrow focus. Hence
-the goal of this document is not to provide radical new insight into
-the issue of font handling ( though I have included material previously
-unavailable ), the main aim is to provide a comprehensive source to act
-as a starting point for any and all font questions about Linux.
-
-!!1.3 Credits and Acknowledgements
-
-
-
-Special thanks are due to Rod Smith, who made several helpful suggestions,
-and fixed pfm2afm.
-Also thanks to Doug Holland, whose Font Deuglification HOWTO proved
-to be a good reference, John !McLaughlin, author of the document that
-helped me come to grips with Star Office,
-and the Linux community for their suggestions
-and construtive comments.
-----
-
-!!2. Fonts 101 -- A Quick Introduction to Fonts
-
-!!2.1 Types of fonts
-
-
-!Bitmap Fonts
-
-
-A bitmap is a matrix of dots. Bitmap fonts are represented in precisely
-this way -- as matrices of dots. Because of this, they are
-''device dependent'' -- they are only useful at a particular
-resolution. A 75 DPI screen bitmap font is still 75 DPI on your 1200 DPI
-printer.
-
-
-There are two types of bitmap fonts -- bitmap printer fonts, such as
-the pk fonts generated by dvips, and bitmap screen fonts,
-used by X and the console. The bitmap screen fonts typically have
-a bdf or pcf extension. Bitmap screen
-fonts are most useful
-for terminal windows, consoles and text editors, where the lack of
-scalability and the fact that they are unprintable is not an issue.
-
-!Type1 Fonts
-
-
-The Type1 font standard was devised by Adobe, and Type1 fonts are
-supported by Adobe's postscript standard. Because of this, they are
-also well supported under linux. They are supported by X and
-ghostscript. Postscript fonts have traditionally been the choice
-of font for anything on UNIX that involves printing.
-
-
-Typically, a UNIX Type1 font is distributed as an afm
-( adobe font metric ) file, and an outline file, which
-is usually a pfb ( printer font binary ) or
-pfa ( printer font ascii )
-file. The outline file
-contains all the glyphs, while the metric file
-contains the metrics.
-
-
-Type 1 fonts for other platforms may be distributed in different
-formats. For example, postscript fonts for windows often use a different
-format ( pfm ) for the metric file.
-
-!Type3 fonts
-
-
-These fonts are distributed in a similar manner to Type1 files --
-in groups of afm font metrics, and pfa files.
-While they are supported by the postscript standard, they are not
-supported by X, and hence have limited use.
-
-!!TrueType fonts
-
-
-True type fonts were developed by Apple. They made the format available
-to Microsoft, and succesfully challenged Adobe's grip on the font
-market.
-True type fonts store the metric and shape information in a single
-file ( usually one with a ttf extension ). Recently,
-font servers have been developed that make !TrueType available
-to X. And postscript and ghostscript have supported !TrueType fonts
-for some time. Because of this, !TrueType fonts are becoming more
-popular on linux.
-
-!Type42 Fonts
-
-
-Type42 fonts are actually just !TrueType fonts with headers that enable
-them to be rendered by a postscript interpreter. Most applications,
-such as ghostscript and SAMBA handle these fonts transparently. However,
-if you have a postscript printer, it may be necessary to explicitly
-create Type42 font files.
-
-!Type1 vs !TrueType -- a comparison
-
-
-Despite the historical feuding between the proponents to Type1 and !TrueType
-fonts, both have a lot in common. Both are scalable outline fonts.
-Type1 fonts use cubic as opposed to quadratic curves for the glyphs.
-This is in theory at least a slight advantage since they include
-all the curves available to !TrueType fonts. In practice, it makes
-very little difference.
-
-
-!TrueType fonts have the apparent advantage that their support for
-hinting is better ( Type1 fonts do have hinting functionality, but it
-is not as extensive as that of !TrueType fonts ).
-However, this is only an issue on low resolution
-devices, such as screens ( the improved hinting makes no discernable
-difference on a 600dpi printer, even at small point sizes. )
-The other point that makes this apparent advantage somewhat
-questionable is the fact that well hinted !TrueType fonts are rare.
-This is because software packages that support hinting functionality
-are out of the budget of most small time designers.
-Only a few major foundries, such as Monotype make well hinted
-fonts available.
-
-
-In conclusion, the main differences between !TrueType and Type1 fonts
-are in availability and application support. The widespread availability
-of !TrueType fonts for Windows has resolted in webpages designed
-with the assumption that
-certain !TrueType fonts are available. Also, many users have large
-numbers of !TrueType fonts because they ship with the users Windows
-applications. However, on Linux, most applications support Type1 fonts
-but do not have the same level of support for !TrueType. Moreover, most
-major font foundries still ship most of their fonts in Type1 format.
-For example, Adobe ship very few !TrueType fonts.
-My recommendation to users is to use whatever works for your
-application, and try to avoid converting from one format to another
-where possible ( because the format conversion is not without loss ).
-
-!Metafont
-
-
-Metafont was developed by Donald E Knuth as part of the TeX typesetting
-system. Metafont is a graphics programming language ( like postscript )
-that has applications wider than just fonts.
-Metafonts exhibit some very desirable qualities. One of the important
-features is that metafonts can scale very gracefully. The metafont
-Computer Modern has different shape at 20 point and 10 point. The
-shape changes with size, because it is desirable for a smaller font
-to be proportionately wider than a larger font ( this makes the larger
-fonts more elegant and the smaller font more readable ).
-
-
-Metafonts typically have a mf extension. They are rendered
-to device dependent bitmap fonts. The rendering is slow, so they
-are of excellent quality, but are not well suited to WYSIWYG
-publishing.
-
-!!2.2 Families of Typefaces
-
-
-
-Typically typically come in groups of a few variants. For example,
-most fonts come with a bold, italic, and bold-italic variant.
-Some fonts may also have small caps, and demibold variants.
-A group of fonts consisting of a font and its variants is
-called a ''family'' of typefaces.
-For example, the Garamond family consists of Garamond,
-Garamond-italic, Garamond-bold, Garamond bold-italic,
-Garamond demi-bold, and Garamond demi-bold-italic. The Adobe
-expert Garamond font also makes available Garamond small caps,
-and Garamond titling capitals.
-----
-
-!!3. Fonts 102 -- Typography
-
-
-Here, we discuss some typography basics. While this information
-is not essential, many font lovers will find it interesting.
-
-!!3.1 Classifications of Typefaces
-
-
-!Fixed versus variable width
-
-
-There are several classifications of typefaces. Firstly, there
-are fixed width fonts, and variable width fonts.
-The fixed width fonts look like typewriter text, because
-each character is the same width. This quality is desirable for
-something like a text editor or a computer console, but not
-desirable for the body text of
-a long document. The other class is variable
-width. Most of the fonts you will use are variable width, though
-fixed with can be useful also ( for example, all the example
-shell commands in this document are illustrated with a
-fixed with font ). The most well known fixed width font
-is courier.
-
-!To serif or not to serif ?
-
-
-Serifs are little hooks on the ends of characters. For example, the
-letter i in a font such as Times Roman has serifs protruding from
-the base of the i and the head of the i.
-Serif fonts are ''usually'' considered more readable than
-fonts without serifs. There are many different types of serif fonts.
-
-
-Sans serif fonts do not have these little hooks, so they have
-a starker appearance. One usually does not write a long book
-using a sans serif font for the body text. There are sans serif
-fonts that are readable enough to be well suited to documents
-that are supposed to be browsed / skimmed ( web pages, catalogues,
-marketting brochures ). Another application that sans serif fonts
-have is as display fonts on computer screens, especially at
-small sizes. The lack of detail in the font can provide it with
-more clarity. For example, Microsoft touts Verdana as being
-readable at very small sizes on screen.
-
-
-Notable sans serif fonts include Lucida sans, MS Comic Sans,
-Verdana, Myriad, Avant Garde, Arial, Century Gothic and Helvetica.
-By the way, Helvetica is considered harmful by typographers.
-It is somewhat overused, and many books by typographers plead
-users to stay away from it.
-
-!The old and the new -- different types of Serif fonts
-
-!Old Style
-
-
-Old style fonts are based on very traditional styles dating as
-far back as the late 15th century. Old style fonts tend
-to be conservative in design, and very readable. They are well
-suited to writing long documents. The name ``old style'' refers
-to the style of the font, as opposed to the date of its design.
-There are classic old style fonts, such as Goudy Old Style,
-which wre designed in the 20th century.
-The old style class of fonts has the following distinguishing features:
-
-
-*Well defined, shapely serifs.
-*
-
-*Diagonal emphasis. Imagine drawing a font with a fountain pen,
-where lines 45 degrees anticlockwise from vertical are heavy
-and lines 45 degrees clockwise from verticle are light. Old style
-fonts often have this appearance.
-*
-
-*Readability. Old style fonts are almost always very readable.
-*
-
-*Subtlety and lack of contrast. The old style fonts have heavy
-lines and light lines but the contrast in weight is subtle,
-not stark.
-*
-
-Notable Old Style fonts include Garamond, Goudy Old Style, Jenson,
-and Caslon ( the latter is contentious -- some consider it transitional )
-
-!Moderns ( or didone )
-
-
-The moderns are the opposite of old style fonts. These fonts
-typically have more character, and more attitude than their old style
-counterparts, and can be used to add character to a document rather
-than to typeset a long piece. However, nothing is black and white --
-and there are some modern fonts such as computer modern and
-Monotype modern, and New Century Schoolbook are very readable
-( the contrast between heavy and light is softened to
-add readability ).
-They are based on the designs popular in the 19th century and
-later. Their distinguishing features include:
-
-
-*Lighter serifs, often just thin horizontal lines.
-*
-
-*Vertical emphasis. Vertical lines are heavy, horizontal
-lines are light.
-*
-
-*Many moderns have a stark contrast between light and heavy strokes.
-*
-
-*Modern typefaces with high contrast between light and heavy
-strokes are not as readable as the old style fonts.
-*
-
-Bodoni is the most notable modern. Other moderns include computer
-modern, and Monotype modern ( on which computer modern is based ).
-
-!Transitional
-
-
-Transitional fonts fit somewhere in between moderns and old style fonts.
-Many of the transitionals have the same kind of readability as the old
-styles. However, they are based on slightly later design. While
-a move in the direction of the moderns may be visible in these
-fonts, they are still much more subtle than the the moderns.
-Examples of transitionals include Times Roman, Utopia, Bulmer,
-and Baskerville. Of these, Times leans towards old style, while
-Bulmer looks very modern.
-
-
-
-
-!Slab Serifs
-
-
-The slab serif fonts are so named because they have thick, block
-like serifs, as opposed to the smooth hooks of the old styles
-or the thin lines of some of the moderns.
-Slab serif fonts tend to be sturdy looking and are generally quite
-readable. Many of the slab serifs have Egyptian names -- such
-as Nile, and Egyptienne ( though they are not really in any way Egyptian ).
-These fonts are great for producing readable text that may suffer
-some dilution in quality ( such as photocpied documents, and documents
-printed on newspaper ). These fonts tend to look fairly sturdy.
-The most notable slab serif fonts are Clarendon, Memphis and
-Egyptienne, as well as several typewriter fonts.
-Many of the slab serif fonts are fixed width. Conversely, most
-( almost all ) fixed width fonts are slab serif.
-
-!The Sans Serif Revolution
-
-
-Surprisingly, the rise of sans serif fonts is a fairly recent
-phenomenon. The first well known sans serif fonts were designed in the
-19th early 20th century. The earlier designs include Futura,
-Grotesque and Gill Sans. These fonts represent respectively
-the ``geometric'', ``grotesque'' and ``humanist'' classes
-of sans serif fonts.
-
-!Grotesque
-
-
-The grotesques where so named because the public were initially
-somewhat shocked by their relatively stark design. Groteques are
-very bare in appearance due to the absence of serifs, and the simpler,
-cleaner designs. Because of their ``in your face'' appearance,
-grotesques are good for headlines. The more readable variations also
-work quite well for comic books, and marketting brochures,
-where the body text comes in small doses. Grotesques don't look
-as artsy as their geometric counterparts.
-Compared to the geometrics, they have more variation in weight, more
-strokes, they are squarer ( because they don't use such
-circular arcs ). They use a different upper case G and lower case
-a to the geometrics.
-While they are minimalistic
-but don't go to the same extreme as the brutally avant-garde
-geometrics.
-
-
-Notable grotesques include the overused Helvetica, Grotesque,
-Arial, Franklin Gothic, and Univers.
-
-!Geometric
-
-
-The Futura font came with the manifesto: ''form follows function''.
-The geometric class of fonts has a stark minimalistic appearance.
-Distinguishing features include a constant line thickness ( no weight ).
-This is particularly conspicuous in the bold variants of a font.
-Bold groteques and humanist fonts often show some notable
-variation in weight while this rarely happens with the geometric
-fonts. Also notable is the precise minimalism of these designs.
-The characters almost always are made up from straight horizontal and
-vertical lines, and arcs that are very circular ( to the point
-where they often look as though they were drawn with a compass ).
-The characters have a minimal number
-of strokes. This gives them a contemporary look in that they
-embrace the minimalistic philosophy that would later take the
-world of modern art by storm.
-A tell tale sign that a font is a geometric type is the upper case
-``G'', which consists of a minimalistic combination of two
-strokes -- a long circular arc and a horizontal line.
-The other character that stands out is the lower case ``a'' --
-which is again two simple strokes, a straight vertical line and
-a circle ( the other ``a'' character is more complex which is why
-it is not used ).
-Notable geometrics include Avant Garde, Futura, and Century
-Gothic.
-
-!Humanist
-
-
-As the name might suggest, humanist fonts were designed with a goal
-of being less mechanical in appearance. In many ways, they are
-more similar to the serif fonts than the geometrics and the
-grotesques. They are said to have a ``pen drawn'' look about them.
-They tend to have subtle variation in weight, especially observable
-in bold variants. The curve shapes are considerably less rigid than
-those of the geometrics. Many of them are distinguishable by the
-``double story'' lower case g, which is the same shape as the g
-used in the old style serif fonts.
-The humanist typefaces are the easiest to use without producing an
-ugly document as they are relatively compatible with the old style
-fonts.
-
-!Compatible Typefaces
-
-
-Grouping typefaces is not easy, so it pays to avoid using too many on
-the one page. A logical choice of two typefaces consists of a serif
-and a sans serif.
-Monotype's Typography 101 page
-provides a category-matchup. They conclude that
-the moderns and geometrics form good pairs, while
-the old styles and humanists also go together well.
-The transitionals are also paired with the humanists.
-The slab serifs are paired with the grotesques, and
-some variants of the slab serifs are also said to match
-the geometrics or humanists.
-
-
-From reading this, one gets the impression that their
-philosophy is essentially to match the more conservative
-serifs with the more moderate sans serifs, and pair the
-wilder modern serifs with the avant garde looking ( pun unavoidable )
-geometrics.
-
-!!3.2 Ligatures, Small caps fonts and expert fonts
-
-
-!Ligatures
-
-
-Properly spacing fonts brings with it all sorts of issues.
-For example, to properly typeset the letters ``fi'', the i should
-be very close to the f. The problem is that this causes the dot
-on the i to collide with the f, and the serif on the head of the i
-to collide with the horizontal stroke of the f.
-To deal with this problem, font collections include ligatures.
-For example, the ``fi'' ligature character is a single character that
-one can substitute for the the two character string ``fi''.
-Most fonts contain fi and fl ligatures. Expert fonts discussed
-later often include extra ligatures, such as ffl, ffi, and a dotless
-i character.
-
-!Small caps fonts
-
-
-Small caps fonts are fonts that have reduced size upper case letters
-in place of the lower case letters. These are useful for writing
-headings that require emphasis ( and they are often used in LaTeX ).
-Typically, when one writes a heading in small caps, they use a large
-cap for the beginning of each word, and small capitals for the rest
-of the word ( ``title case'' ). The advantage of this over using
-all caps is that you get something that is much more readable
-( using all caps is a big typographic sin ).
-
-!Expert fonts
-
-
-Expert fonts consist of several extras designed to supplement a typeface.
-These include things like ligatures, ornaments ( much like a
-mini-dingbats collection designed to go with the typeface ),
-small caps fonts, and swash capitals ( fancy, calligraphic letters ).
-
-!!3.3 Font Metrics and Shapes
-
-
-
-Font metrics define the spacing between variable width fonts.
-The metrics include information about the size of the font,
-and ''kerning'' information, which assigns kerning
-pairs -- pairs of characters that should be given different
-spacing. For example, the letters ``To'' would usually belong in
-a kerning pair, because correctly spaced ( or kerned ), the o
-should partly sit under the T. Typesetting programs such as LaTeX
-need to know information about kerning so that they can make decisions
-about where to break lines and pages. The same applies to WYWIWYG
-publishing programs.
-
-
-In addition to the metrics, is the font outline, or shape.
-The components of the fonts shape ( a stroke, an accent, etc )
-are called ``glyphs''.
-----
-
-!! 4. Making Fonts Available To X
-
-
-There are a number of ways fonts can be added to X. Firstly, XFree86
-has a ''font path'' which is just a list of several directories
-or ''font servers'' where it searches for fonts. A font server
-is just a background process that makes fonts available to XFree86.
-An advantage of font servers is that they can send fonts to remote displays.
-
-
-Recently, xfs ( the ``X font server'' ) has been patched
-to support !TrueType fonts, and run as a stand-alone program.
-The patched version ships with Redhat and Redhat-based distributions,
-and is included in XFree86 3.9.17 ( the latest version at the time of
-writing. It will also be a part of XFree86 4.0 )
-xfs is actually just the standard font server that comes
-with XFree86. It's source code is part of the XFree86 source tree.
-However, distributions have recently been shipping a version that runs
-in stand alone mode.
-The standalone X font server, with the !TrueType support
-patch ( the !TrueType support takes place via a font server
-called xfsft ) is probably the nicest font management
-solution currently available. Its advantages include:
-
-
-*Support for different types of fonts, including Type1, !TrueType
-and bitmap.
-*
-
-*Makes fonts available to remote displays.
-*
-
-*Greatly simplifies editing the fontpath -- you can do it via
-the command line utility chkfontpath, as opposed to
-having to edit configuration files. This not only makes life
-easier for users, it makes packaging more safer and more scriptable
-for packagers.
-*
-
-
-
-Because different distributions ship with different configurations,
-it is not true that one size fits all. We can split users up into
-three groups:
-
-
-*Your distribution ships with a standalone xfs
-and it has been patched to support !TrueType. This group
-includes Redhat users and users of derivatives of Redhat
-such as Mandrake, !TurboLinux, and Independence.
-For this group, the wisest strategy is to install both !TrueType
-and Type1 fonts through xfs
-*
-
-*Some distributions ship with a stand alone xfs
-package, but no !TrueType support (at the time of writing.
-Note that XFree86 supports !TrueType as of version 3.9.17 ).
-This includes Debian. For these users, the best thing to do is use
-xfs to install Type1 fonts, and install !TrueType
-fonts via xfstt. Debian users can seek out
-the
-!TrueType Fonts in Debian mini-HOWTO
-for information about installing !TrueType fonts in Debian.
-*
-
-*If you don't have xfs then you will need to install
-Type1 fonts by adding to their XFree86 font path and
-using xset. You should install !TrueType
-via xfstt.
-*
-
-
-!! 4.1 The font path
-
-
-
-XFree86 finds your fonts by searching a ''font path'',
-a list of directories ( or servers -- we'll explain this
-further later. ) containing fonts.
-When an application requests a font, it searches through
-the directories in your font path one at a time until the font
-is found.
-To make fonts available requires you to set your font path.
-You can add a directory to your font path with the command
-
-
-xset fp+ directory
-
-Once you have done this, you need to ask the X server to re-scan
-for available fonts with the command
-
-xset fp rehash
-
-Since you will want these commands to run automatically, you should
-put them in your .xinitrc file ( or possibly your
-.Xclients or .xsession file -- this depends on
-how you start X. It's convenient to make two of these files symlinks
-to the other to avoid confusion ).
-Another way to have the commands set automatically is edit XF86Config.
-For example, to add /usr/share/fonts/myfonts to the fontpath
-when X is started, edit XF86Config like this:
-
-...
-Section "Files"
-...
-!FontPath /usr/share/fonts/myfonts
-...
-!EndSection
-...
-
-The advantage of editing XF86Config is that the resulting changes
-are system wide.
-
-!!4.2 Installing Type1 Fonts
-
-
-!Run Type1inst
-
-
-The easiest way to make Type1 fonts available to X is with the
-help of the Type1inst utility. This is a perlscript that automatically
-creates the fonts.dir and fonts.scale files that you need for X
-to use the fonts. Simply CD to the directory, and run type1inst.
-
-cd directory
-type1inst
-
-
-!If You Have the xfs Package
-
-
-Now you need to add the fonts to your fontpath. If you already
-have the standalone
-xfs running, you do this
-by editing your xfs configuration file.
-''
-Redhat users can just use
-chkfontpath.
-the format is ''
-chkfontpath --add directory
-
-
-Your fonts should now be available to X. Now you
-just run
-
-xset fp rehash
-
-and X will be able to find the new fonts.
-
-
-
-
-!If You Don't Have The xfs Package
-
-
-In this case, you need to add the directory containing
-your new fonts to the font path, as described previously.
-
-!!4.3 True Type Fonts
-
-
-
-Adding !TrueType fonts is a little more difficult, because you need
-to have a font server that is capable of serving !TrueType fonts.
-Two font servers that do this are xfstt and xfs.
-
-
-xfstt is a !TrueType font server. While it's easy to configure,
-and quite useful, it appear that xfs is becoming more popular.
-The main advantage of xfs over xfstt is that it supports
-both Type1 and !TrueType fonts.
-
-!xfstt
-
-
-To set up xfstt, just download it and install it. If you have an rpm
-based distribution, there is a well packaged version of xfstt at
-http://independence.seul.org/.
-Once you install it, you need to do the following:
-
-
-#
-install fonts into the appropriate
-directory ( read the documentation that comes with the package ).
-#
-
-#cd to that directory and run xfstt --sync. This causes it
-to look for the fonts and create the fonts.dir file.
-#
-
-#Now add unix/:7100 to your font path.
-#
-
-Your !TrueType fonts should now display and be available to applications
-such as GIMP and Netscape.
-You may want to configure it to start every time your system starts up.
-Check to see if there's a startup file included ( if you are using
-RPM, you can use rpm -ql xfstt |grep init and look for the
-file with a name something like this: /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfstt
-)
-If you don't have an init script, just
-put two lines in /etc/rc.local like this:
-
-/usr/X11R6/bin/xfstt --sync
-/usr/X11R6/bin/xfstt &
-
-
-!! 4.4 xfs
-
-
-
-Some of the newer Linux distributions ship with the X font server
-xfs configured to run as a stand alone program.
-Notably, Redhat and all the redhat based distributions use this
-modularised xfs with !TrueType compiled in.
-Debian also ship xfs, but the version
-they ship doesn't have built in true
-type support.
-
-
-Running xfs
-as a stand alone server has several benefits, especially
-if it is compiled with !TrueType support. The main advantage is that since
-the font server is no longer attached to the X server, it is possible
-to serve fonts to remote displays. Also, it makes it much easier
-to modify the font path.
-
-!The xfs Path
-
-
-As a font server, xfs has it's own font path.
-One might wonder where this fits into the picture. It
-works like this: you can place the xfs font server
-in XFree86's font path, by adding unix/:port to
-the XFree86 font path.
-Once you do this, any font in the xfs font path
-automatically becomes available to XFree86.
-
-
-The xfs font path
-is determined by the xfs configuration file,
-which is /etc/X11/fs/config on Redhat, and
-/etc/X11/xfs/config on Debian.
-Redhat users do not need to explicitly edit this file, they
-can use the chkfontpath utility.
-The syntax is simple:
-
-
-chkfontpath --add directory
-
-Users of other distributions can edit the configuration file as
-follows:
-
-catalogue = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
-...
-/usr/share/fonts/my_new_fonts/,
-...
-/usr/share/fonts/some_other_directory
-# in 12 points, decipoints
-default-point-size = 120
-...
-
-The above would add /usr/share/fonts/my_new_fonts/ to the
-xfs font path. ''Note that the last line of the list of
-directories doesn't have a comma at the end.''
-For these modifications to the font path to become effective, xfs
-must be restarted. It's also a good idea to restart your
-X session after restarting
-xfs.
-
-!Installing a Font Into xfs
-
-
-To prepare a font for xfs, you need to follow the following
-steps:
-
-
-*If you don't have xfs installed, you need to install it.
-*
-
-*Put the new fonts in a directory.
-*
-
-*If you are installing Type1 fonts,
-prepare the new directory for the server
-by running type1inst in the directory.
-*
-
-*If you are installing
-!TrueType fonts, ( ''remember, not all distributions can do !TrueType via
-xfs ! '' ), prepare the new directory for the server by running
-
-ttmkfdir -o fonts.scale
-mkfontdir
-
-in the directory containing your new fonts.
-ttmkfdir is part of the ''freetype'' package.
-*
-
-*Now you can add the new directory to your xfs search path.
-Users of Redhat-like distributions
-can do this with the chkfontpath utility:
-Other users can do this by editing their xfs configuration
-file.
-*
-
-*if xfs is already installed on your system,
-you should see which port it is running on. You can do this
-as follows:
-
-ps ax|grep xfs
-
-
-*
-
-*Then check your XFree86 font path.
-
-xset -q
-
-
-*
-
-*If your font path includes something like unix:/''port_number''
-were ''port_number'' is the port which the server is running on, then
-you already have xfs set up properly. Otherwise, you should add it to
-your XFree86 font path.
-
-xset fp+ unix/:port_number
-xset fp rehash
-
-You can add it permanently by editing your .xinitrc as explained
-previously.
-To add it system wide, edit your XF86Config file ( probably either
-/etc/X11/XF86Config, /etc/XF86Config or
-/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config ), by adding a
-line !FontPath "unix:/port_number" in the Files section.
-Here's an example:
-
-...
-Section "Files"
-...
-!FontPath "unix/:-1"
-...
-!EndSection
-...
-
-
-*
-
-*If xfs is already properly installed, then you can restart
-it like this:
-
-/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart
-
-
-*
-
-*After restarting xfs, it's a good idea to restart your
-X-session.
-*
-
-----
-
-!!5. Making Fonts Available To Ghostscript
-
-
-To make fonts available to ghostscript, it suffices to tell ghostscript
-where the files corresponding to a given font are located. The
-file that needs to be edited is
-/usr/share/ghostscript/version/Fontmap.
-The format is very simple, almost immediately self evident on
-perusing it.
-
-!! 5.1 Type1
-
-
-
-Adding Type1 fonts is straightforward. Run type1inst on the directory
-containing the font. type1inst will output a file called
-Fontmap. Append this file to the ghostscript
-Fontmap file.
-
-!!5.2 True Type
-
-
-
-Adding truetype fonts is a little trickier, because we have to get the
-name of the !TrueType font. One way (brute force, alas) to do this is using
-the ttf2pt1 !TrueType to Type1 converter, and grabbing the font
-name from the afm ( there's got to be a more efficient way !
-but this works, ugly as it is ). You do it like this:
-
-ttf2pt1 -A fontname - 2 > /dev/null |grep !FontName
-
-Then you add an entry to the ghostscript Fontmap file
-in the correct format, eg
-
-some-font (/usr/share/fonts/subdirectory/somefont.pbf);
-
-Well, that works fine, but try doing it with 500 or so fonts.
-This is the kind of thing that calls for a short perlscript:
-
-#!/usr/bin/perl
-# ttfontmap -- generate fontmap file for !TrueType fonts
-my $directory=shift || print STDERR "Usage: ttfontmap {directory}\n";
-$directory=~s/\/$//;
-for my $fontname ( glob ( "$directory/*.ttf" ) )
-{
-open ( R, "sh -c \"ttf2pt1 -A $fontname - 2>/dev/null\" |" );
-while ( <R> )
-{
-if ( $_ =~ /^!FontName/ )
-{
-s/^!FontName\s*//;
-chomp;
-print "/" . $_ . " ($fontname);\n" ;
-}
-}
-close R;
-}
-
-''You can
-download this script''
-
-
-To set this script up, all you need to do is cut and paste it into
-a file called ttfontmap, and place the file somewhere
-in your PATH ( such as /usr/bin ).
-You run this script like this:
-
-ttfontmap directory > output_file
-
-where directory is the directory containing the
-fonts. You are left with the file output_file which you can append
-to your ghostscript fontmap. Note: some will observe that you could
-just use
-
-ttfontmap directory >> /usr/share/ghostscript/version/Fontmap
-
-However, I advise against this ( what would happen if you typed ``>'' instead of
-``>>''
-? )
-
-!!5.3 Using Ghostscript To Preview Fonts
-
-
-
-Once you've made fonts available to ghostscript, you can preview them.
-Do this by running the ghostscript interpreter on the file prfont.ps
-in your ghostscript installation, and after you start it, type:
-
-/Fontname !DoFont
-
-at the ghostscript font ( where !FontName is the ghostscript
-name of the font you wish to preview ).
-There are several other ways you can invoke gs. For example,
-if you want to create a postscript file that you can look at in
-a nicer postscript viewer such as gv, you can use
-
-gs -sDEVICE=pswrite -sOutputFile=somefile.ps prfont.ps
-
-Having done this, you can also print your output file.
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!6. True Type to Type1 Conversion
-
-!!6.1 Why ?
-
-
-
-or perhaps the right question to ask is ``why not ?'' The typical
-Linux user has experienced a migration from Windows, and probably
-has an enormous collection of !TrueType fonts. Many of these
-fonts ( eg those that ship with MS Word and Corel's products )
-are of fairly good quality. However, some Linux applications, such
-as Star Office and LaTeX do not support !TrueType fonts, but do support
-Type1 fonts. ''update: it looks like Star Office can handle !TrueType
-fonts, but I'm still trying to work out the details. At best, it involves
-some fairly gruesome hacks.''
-This is a pity, because
-with ghostscript support for !TrueType, and !TrueType font servers,
-Linux has the infrastructure it needs to handle !TrueType.
-
-!!6.2 How ?
-
-
-
-To convert your !TrueType fonts into Type1 fonts, go to
-http://quadrant.netspace.net.au/ttf2pt1/
-and get ttf2pt1.
-To convert a !TrueType to a Type1 font,
-use the following syntax:
-
-ttf2pt1 -b file.ttf name
-
-Where name is the name of the file corresponding to the new Type1
-font ( ie it's arbitrary. It's a good idea to make it the same as the ttf file.
-eg ttf2pt1 -b foo.ttf foo.
-
-
-Well, that worked fine for one font. If we have a lot, we
-need a smarter way to do it. One can just
-just use a loop:
-
-for X in *.ttf; do ttf2pt1 -b $X ${X%%.ttf}; done
-
-Alternatively, you can download the
-ttfutils
-package and use ttf2type1 for the conversions.
-
-ttf2type1 *.ttf
-
-----
-
-!!7. WYSIWYG Publishing and Fonts
-
-!!7.1 Introduction and Overview
-
-
-
-Installing fonts for WYSIWYG publishing on Linux is a relatively
-complex task. It typically involves three steps:
-
-
-*Make the font available to the X server
-*
-
-*Make the font available to ghostscript
-*
-
-*Make the font available to the application
-*
-
-The main reason for the complexity is that
-the ''font printing system'' ( ghostscript ) is unrelated
-to the ''screen font system''. In a way, Linux's left hand
-does not know what it's right hand is doing.
-This problem is nontrivial to solve, because it is possible that
-printer fonts and display fonts reside on different machines, so there
-is no guarantee that all fonts the XClient uses are printable.
-
-
-The good news is that most WYSIWYG applications use what is a reasonable solution
-to this problem. The solution involves constructing some kind of
-mechanism that maps screen fonts to printer fonts ( this is the main issue.
-There are also other issues, such as grouping bold, italic and roman variants
-into ``families'' of fonts ).
-Unfortunately, there is no standard way to do this. It seems that font management
-standards which address this issue would greatly simplify the installation
-of fonts into WYSIWYG publishing systems, because all applications could
-use a system-wide ( as opposed to application-specific ) configuration.
-
-!!7.2 Applixware
-
-
-
-There are two ways to install fonts into Applixware. One method
-involves using !FontTastic, which is Applixware's ``private'' font
-server. The other method involves editing Applixware's fontmap,
-to use a font already installed on the system. Installing into the
-font server is more convenient, but fonts installed in this manner may
-only be printed at 300 dpi.
-
-!!FontTastic
-
-
-Using !FontTastic is the easy way to do it. To install new fonts
-like this, simply do the following:
-
-
-#Run Applixware as root
-#
-
-#Click on the ''tools'' menu.
-#
-
-#Choose ``Font Installer''
-#
-
-#Check ``OK'' in the popup dialog
-#
-
-#Click the ``Catalogs'' menu and choose ``create''
-#
-
-#Fill in the ''catalog name'' box. It
-doesn't matter what you put there. For the rest of this example,
-we'll assume it's called ``foobar''
-#
-
-#Select your foobar catalog from the catalog manipulations
-list.
-#
-
-#From the ``Services'' menu, select
-``install fonts into -> !FontTastic font server''
-#
-
-#Make sure catalog foobar is selected in the catalogs list,
-then press the ``select files'' button.
-#
-
-#Use the select files dialog to select the fonts you want to
-install. Press ``OK'' when you've selected the files.
-For example, if you want to select arial.ttf in
-the directory /usr/share/fonts/ttfonts/, you would type
-''/usr/share/fonts/ttfonts'' in the ``Current Directory''
-dialog, then select arial.ttf from the files dialog box, then click
-``OK''. Note that you can select multiple files, but they all must
-come from the same directory.
-#
-
-#You can edit your list by checking on the different fonts in the
-list box and possibly removing or renaming them.
-#
-
-#When you're ready, click the ``install fonts'' button. Then click
-``OK''.
-#
-
-#Go to the ``services'' menu and choose ``update''. Check ``OK''
-on the annoying modal dialog, then choose exit from the services menu.
-Exit applix.
-#
-
-#Congrats, you're done ! The new fonts will be available when you
-restart Applix.
-#
-
-
-!Using System Wide Fonts With Applixware
-
-
-This method is more involved, but produces better results. I recommend
-that this method is used for fonts that are really important, and that
-you use a lot. There are a few steps to this:
-
-!Make the fonts available to X
-
-
-This is explained
-in the previous section
-!Make the fonts available to ghostscript
-
-
-This is explained in
-in the previous section
-!Edit the fontmap.dir
-
-
-This is the final step in making your fonts available to Applix, and
-also the most time consuming step. The file ''fontmap.dir''
-is in under the ''axdata/fontmetrics'' of your applix installation.
-The purpose of this step is basically to tell applix which screen fonts
-go with which outline fonts. This is in general a very nontrivial problem,
-because the screen fonts are not always on the same computer that the
-application is installed.
-
-
-We describe how to add fonts to fontmap.dir. In this example, we
-add the font Baskerville Italic.
-
-
-
-
-
-#First, we add a line that says
-!FontRecord = Baskerville-Normal-Italic
-In fact, the name we use in !FontRecord is completely arbitrary.
-However, the font record must be unique to the font. Because of
-this, it's good practice to use the name that ghostscript
-uses for the font.
-#
-
-#Next, we a line that says
-Family = Baskerville
-The family name for a font is the name that appears
-in Applix's font selection menu. Typically, it is ''non-unique'',
-since bold, italic, roman and bold-italic variants of a font will
-typically go under the same family.
-#
-
-#If the font is either a bold, or italic variant, or both, we need to add the
-following lines:
-
-Slant = 1
-
-if the font is italic, and
-
-Weight = 1
-
-if the font is bold.
-If the font is bold ''and'' italic, we add both lines.
-In this example, we need only add the line
-
-Slant = 1
-
-
-#
-
-#We add a line that looks like this:
-
-!ScreenName = "-paradise-baskerville-medium-i-normal------p--iso8859-1"
-
-The screen name is the name that the X-server uses for the font.
-We can list font names containing the string ``bask'' by typing
-
-xlsfonts|grep -i bask
-
-
-#
-
-#Now we add a line that gives the name of the printer font:
-!PostScriptPrinterName = Baskerville-Normal-Italic
-#
-
-#Next, we need to specify the location of the font metric file
-and the outline file
-
-!MetricsFile = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvli.afm
-Type1FontFileName = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvli.pfb
-
-If you are adding a !TrueType file, you can use ttf2pt1
-to generate an afm file :
-
-ttf2pt1 -A foo.ttf - > foo.afm
-
-( or get the ttfutils package and use ttf2afm )
-Then you use something like this:
-
-!MetricsFile = /usr/share/fonts/misc/foo.afm
-
-Do ''not'' include a Type1FontFileName directive --
-let ghostscript take care of this.
-#
-
-
-
-That's it. Now after adding the whole family of fonts, you should
-have something like this:
-
-!FontRecord = Baskerville-Normal
-Family = Baskerville
-!ScreenName = "-paradise-baskerville-medium-r-normal------p--iso8859-1"
-!PostScriptPrintName = Baskerville-Normal
-!MetricsFile = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvl.afm
-Type1FontFileName = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvl.pfb
-!FontRecord = Baskerville-Normal-Italic
-Family = Baskerville
-Slant = 1
-!ScreenName = "-paradise-baskerville-medium-i-normal------p--iso8859-1"
-!PostScriptPrintName = Baskerville-Normal-Italic
-!MetricsFile = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvli.afm
-Type1FontFileName = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvli.pfb
-!FontRecord = Baskerville-Bold
-Family = Baskerville
-Weight = 1
-!ScreenName = "-paradise-baskerville-bold-r-normal------p--iso8859-1"
-!PostScriptPrintName = Baskerville-Bold
-!MetricsFile = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvlb.afm
-Type1FontFileName = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvlb.pfb
-!FontRecord = Baskerville-Bold-Italic
-Family = Baskerville
-Weight = 1
-Slant = 1
-!ScreenName = "-paradise-baskerville-bold-i-normal------p--iso8859-1"
-!PostScriptPrintName = Baskerville-Bold-Italic
-!MetricsFile = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvlbi.afm
-Type1FontFileName = /usr/share/fonts/misc/baskvlbi.pfb
-
-
-
-
-
-
-It is possible to do more with this configuration file. The file itself
-has a ''glossary'' which explains the format of the configuration
-file.
-
-!!7.3 Star Office
-
-
-
-Here, we cover Star Office 5.. The procedure with Star Office 5.1
-is similar,
-but the utility is called spadmin, not psetup.
-It's worth mentioning up front that
-John !McLaughlin's page
-is an excellent source on this issue, and it inspired most
-of what follows.
-
-
-Having tried both Star Office 5., and 5.1, I have found that Star Office
-5.1 seems to give me less grief when adding new fonts. I was not succesful
-adding true type fonts to Star Office 5., but it proved somewhat easier
-with Star Office 5.1.
-
-!Backup Your Configuration Before you Start !
-
-
-It's good to make a backup in case you inadvertantly hose your
-configuration. Modifying fonts will impact several files in the
-xp3.
-You should definitely backup the file xp3/psstd.fonts.
-I recommend going further and backing up the whole xp3
-directory. You can do this by cd-ing to your Star Office
-directory, then using
-
-tar cvzf xp3.tgz xp3
-
-to create a backup. To restore a backup,
-delete the xp3 directory and unpack the archive
-
-rm -rf xp3
-tar xvzf xp3.tgz
-
-
-!Adding Type1 Fonts to Star Office
-
-
-Adding Type1 fonts to Star Office is relatively simple.
-If you want to use your !TrueType fonts with Star Office 5.,
-the best thing to do is convert them to Type1 fonts, and then follow
-the procedure outlined
here. If you have Star Office 5.1, you
-might wish to use the proceedure for installing !TrueType fonts
-instead ( though it is somewhat more difficult ).
-Firstly, do the usual thing -- make the font available to both X and
-ghostscript. Once this is done, the font can be installed into Star Office
-using the psetup tool. The procedure is as follows:
-
-
-#As root, run psetup ( or spadmin if you have Star Office 5.1 )
-#
-
-#Press the ``add fonts'' button.
-#
-
-#The easiest thing to do after
-this is press the ``initialize font paths'' button. This puts a
-list of all fonts in your X font path in the list box.
-#
-
-#Choose
-the directory containing the font you wish to install ( it should
-be in the box ), and then press ``OK''.
-#
-
-#Click the ``convert all font metrics button''.
-#
-
-That's it. You're done. You can exit ( or click ``OK'' until it exits ).
-When you restart Star Office, you will have the new fonts.
-
-!Adding !TrueType Fonts to Star Office
-
-
-Adding !TrueType fonts to Star Office is
-nontrivial, but possible.
-After some hard work, and long hours stareing at
-John !McLaughlin's page
-page, I finally got them working in Star Office 5.1.
-Note that this does not work with version 5..
-The following steps are appropriate it you are printing
-through ghostscript:
-
-
-*Make the fonts available to X.
-*
-
-*Make the fonts available to ghostscript.
-*
-
-*You need to have afm files for the fonts you wish to
-add. Use
-
-ttf2pt1 -A foo.ttf - > foo.afm
-
-to create the afm files.
-Alternatively, you can get the
-*
-
-*
-ttfutils
-package
-and use ttf2afm The advantage of this
-is you can handle several at a time, eg
-
-ttf2afm *.ttf
-
-
-*
-
-*Star Office needs pfb files corresponding
-to each ttf file. You can create them
-with the command
-
-touch foo.pfb
-
-Actually, Star Office only uses these files for printing purposes.
-And by enterring the font in the PPD, thus duping Star Office into
-thinking the fonts are inside your printer ( when they're actually
-inside ghostscript's rendering system ), you get around needing to
-use these files. Star Office just seems to require that the
-pfb file exists to install the font.
-
-*
-
-* Now you can run spadmin and install the font(s).
-*
-
-*
-Now add the fonts to the PPD file corresponding to your
-printer configuration. The name you use for the font should
-be the same name Star Office uses for it, ''not'' the
-ghostscript font name. For example, if the font is
-foobar.ttf and the corresponding afm
-file is foobar.afm, you use the name
-``foobar'' for the font in the PPD file. The entry
-should look something like this:
-
-*Font cloistrk: Standard "(001.002)" Standard ROM
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-On the other hand, if you are not printing from ghostscript,
-you have different issues to deal with. In this case,
-tricking Star Office into thinking that your printer has the fonts
-is a bad idea, because your printer does ''not'' have the
-fonts in the ROM, so while gv will display the postscript
-files nicely, your printer will not be able to print them.
-If you have a postscript printer, the main differences are as follows:
-
-
-*Do not edit the PPD file.
-*
-
-*Instead of using touch foo.pfb to create empty pfb
-files, you need the pfb files to be Type42 postscript
-fonts. A Type42 font is really a ``printer !TrueType font''.
-You don't really notice Type42 fonts even when you use them, because
-most applications handle them transparently.
-To create Type42 fonts, you use
-ttfps to create the files.
-
-ttfps foo.ttf foo.pfb
-
-
-*
-
-
-
-
-
-
-There are some gotchas. Sometimes, Star Office might not choose the
-screen font you like. It is sometimes worth checking
-xp3/psstd.fonts and possibly editing it to make sure
-that Star Office is really using the font you had in mind for screen
-display.
-Also, Star Office doesn't handle configuration problems gracefully.
-If there's something wrong with your configuration, it's
-possible that the word processor will not even start. This is why
-you should back up your xp3 directory.
-
-!Under the Hood
-
-
-If you wish to install !TrueType fonts in Star Office, you may need
-to learn how Star Office handles things. When you run spadmin
-or psetup, the following happens:
-
-
-*Star Office makes symbolic links to the pfb outline
-files in your xp3/pssoftfonts directory.
-*
-
-*The afm file is copied into the directory
-xp3/fontmetrics/afm/
-*
-
-*An entry is added to the xp3/psstd.fonts file.
-This file stores the names of all the screen fonts used by
-Star Office ( in particular, it maps the screen fonts to the outline
-filenames ).
-*
-
-
-
-This is why it's good to simply backup the whole xp3 directory --
-it is the only convenient way to restore Star Office to a
-clean configuration.
-
-!!7.4 Word Perfect
-
-
-
-Nothing yet.
-Rod Smith's webpage
-is the definitive resource regarding installing fonts on Word Perfect.
-----
-
-!!8. Netscape
-
-
-Perhaps the most notorious application as far as fonts are concerned is the
-dreaded Netscape. However, there is a fairly simple procedure to attack
-Netscape font ugliness. The main problem is that Netscape wants to use
-75dpi fonts which is typically too small. You can fix this by specifying
-the appropriate X resources in your .Xdefaults file:
-
-Netscape*documentFonts.sizeIncrement: 20
-Netscape*documentFonts.xResolution*iso-8859-1: 100
-Netscape*documentFonts.yResolution*iso-8859-1: 100
-
-The number 100 can be chosen arbitrarily. For example, if you like your
-fonts really large, like I do, then you may want to use 150 instead.
-
-
-The other essential tip with regard to addressing Netscape font ugliness is this --
-get the Microsoft font pack. These fonts are widely used and it makes an enormous
-difference if you have ( or don't have ) those fonts.
-----
-
-!!9. TeX / LaTeX
-
-!!9.1 A Quick Primer on LaTeX/TeX fonts
-
-
-
-Adding fonts to TeX and LaTeX is a somewhat complex procedure. However, like
-a lot of things, it's easy if you know how to do it.
-Some fonts are distributed in metafont format, and some in Type1 format.
-Usually, the Type1 formats are more easily available. However, metafont fonts have
-the distinct advantage that they can adjust their shape at different sizes,
-while Type1 and !TrueType fonts at different point sizes are simply magnified
-or reduced versions of precisely the same shape. The main reason why this feature
-is desirable is that ideally, fonts should be ( relatively ) wider at smaller
-sizes and narrower at larger sizes.
-
-
-For this discussion, we focus on Type1 fonts, since they are more widely
-available, and more problematic to install.
-
-
-Here's a quick primer on LaTeX fonts. LaTeX uses the following
-types of font files for handling Type1 fonts:
-
-
-* .pl -- property list. This is a human readable version of a
-tex font metric file.
-*
-
-* .vpl -- virtual property list. Human readable version of a
-virtual font file.
-*
-
-* .fd -- font definition. Used to define a ''family'' of
-fonts.
-*
-
-* .tfm -- tex font metric. This is a metric file, as explained
-in the glossary. It is completely analogous to the .afm files used
-by Type1 fonts. TeX needs the font metrics to properly layout the page.
-*
-
-* .vf -- virtual font. These files contain encoding details, and
-act as interpreters. TeX treats them as fonts. For example,
-Imagine that there's some wacky font foobar-exp.pfb which consists
-of a few ( say 20 ) alternate characters, and there's a virtual font
-which uses a few of these alternate characters ( and it gets the
-rest of the characters from font foobar.pfb ).
-Dvips might say
-``I want character 65 of virtual font foo.vf''. Dvips knows that 65 is always
-an ``a'' in TeX's scheme. Then the virtual font maps TeX's request to
-a request for character 14 of the Type1 font foobar.pfb ( which might
-be the alternate ``a'' in the Type1 font foobar.pfb ). The virtual font
-mechanism is very flexible and allows fonts to be constructed from many
-different font files. This is useful when using fonts such as adobe's
-``expert'' fonts.
-*
-
-* .pk -- a device dependent bitmap font. These are usually constructed
-on an as-needed basis ( they are renderings of Type1 and metafont fonts ).
-They are typically high resolution ( about 300-1200dpi ),
-and are intended to be rendered on a printer. Because of their high resolution,
-and the fact that each point size of each font requires a .pk file,
-they require a lot of disk space, so they are cached, but not stored.
-*
-
-*.mf -- metafont files. Metafont is a graphics programming language
-widely used for font design ( though it can also be used for graphics ).
-It has many advantages over !TrueType and Type1 schemes. However, it's main
-weakness is that it is not as ubiquitous as !TrueType or Type1 ( and it is also
-not terribly well suited to WYSIWYG publishing. Of course, this isn't a
-major disadvantage when TeX is your typesetting system. )
-
-*
-
-
-
-
-
-
-It's good to know your way around the TeX directory structure. Here are
-the main directories you'll need to know about:
-
-
-* $TEXMF/fonts -- the main font directory
-*
-
-* $TEXMF/fonts/type1 -- the type1 font directory
-*
-
-* $TEXMF/fonts/type1/foundry -- the directory for the shape files in a given foundry
-*
-
-* $TEXMF/fonts/type1/foundry/fontname -- contains the font called ''name''.
-The ''name'' is usually plain English, and needn't follow TeX's cryptic
-naming scheme for fonts.
-*
-
-* $TEXMF/fonts/afm/foundry/fontname -- the directory containing the afm
-files corresponding to the font name belonging to foundry foundry.
-*
-
-* $TEXMF/fonts/tfm/foundry/fontname -- analogous to the afm directory,
-but contains tfm files instead.
-*
-
-*$TEXMF/fonts/vf/foundry/fontname -- similar to the above, but contains the virtual fonts.
-*
-
-*$TEXMF/fonts/source/foundry/fontname -- similar to the above, but contains metafont files.
-*
-
-*$TEXMF/dvips/config/psfonts.map -- fontmap file for dvips. This file is similar
-in both function and format to ghostscript's Fontmap file.
-*
-
-*$TEXMF/tex/latex/psnfss -- this is where all the font definition files go.
-*
-
-
-
-
-
-!!9.2 Adding Type1 fonts
-
-
-!Naming the fonts
-
-
-First, you need to appropriately name your fonts.
-See the fontinst documentation on your system for instructions
-on how to name fonts ( it should be fontinst subdirectory of the
-directory containing your tetex documentation ).
-To make a long story very short, the naming scheme is
-FNW{V}E{n} where:
-
-
-*F is a one-letter abbreviation for the foundry ( m = monotype, p = adobe,
-b = bitstream, f = free )
-*
-
-*N is a two letter abbreviation for the font name
-( for example, ag = ``avant garde'' )
-*
-
-*W is the font weight ( r = regular, b = bold, l = light d = demibold )
-*
-
-*V is an optional slope variant ( i = italic , o = oblique )
-*
-
-*E is an abbreviation for the encoding ( almost always 8a which is
-adobe standard encoding ).
-*
-
-*N is an optional width variant ( n = narrow )
-*
-
-For example, the font Adobe Garamond demibold is pgad8a.
-
-!Creating the virtual fonts and tex font metrics
-
-
-Now you can run fontinst as follows:
-
-latex `kpsewhich fontinst.sty`
-
-then you type at the prompt:
-
-\latinfamily{font_name}{}\bye
-
-where font_name is the first three letters of your
-font file name ( for example, pad for adobe garamond ).
-Now fontinst will generate a number of files --
-font description files, property list files and virtual property
-list files. It also generates a lot of .mtx files. These
-are created by fontinst, but you don't need to use them.
-You need to convert the property lists and virtual property lists
-to metrics and virtual fonts. This is done using the utilities
-vptovf and pltotf.
-
-for X in *.pl; do pltotf $X; done
-for X in *.vpl; do vptovf $X; done
-
-Then remove the old vpl, pl and mtx files.
-
-!Configure dvips
-
-
-You will need to edit your dvips config file, psfonts.map.
-The best way to explain the format of the file is to give an example.
-
-marr8r ArialMT <8r.enc <farr8a.pfa
-marbi8r Arial_BoldItalicMT <8r.enc <farbi8a.pfa
-marb8r Arial_BoldMT <8r.enc <farb8a.pfa
-marri8r Arial_ItalicMT <8r.enc <farri8a.pfa
-marr8rn Arial_Narrow <8r.enc <farr8an.pfa
-
-The 8r.enc is simply there to inform dvips of the encoding scheme
-used ( in all our examples, it's 8r, because of the way fontinst
-constructs the virtual fonts ). The leftmost column is the font name TeX
-uses. The second column is the real name of the font, which is hardcoded
-into the font file ( this name can be
-deduced by opening the afm file in a text editor, and looking
-for the !FontName directive ). The last column is the filename
-of the shape file corresponding with the font. It is not necessary to
-provide a directory path -- tex knows where to look.
-
-!Test the font
-
-
-Try running latex on a document like this:
-
-\documentclass{article}
-\begin{document}
-\usefont{T1}{pga}{m}{n}\selectfont
-\huge
-Testing a new font \dots the quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dogs
-\end{document}
-
-where you replace pga with the outline of your font.
-If this works, you are almost done. All you have to do now is put all the
-files in the right directories ( as explained in the primer ), then
-run
-
-texconfig rehash
-
-so that tex can update the directory lists.
-
-!Create a .sty file
-
-
-You may want to create a .sty file so that you can more easily use
-fonts. Use the files in $TEXMF/tex/latex/psnfss as a template.
-----
-
-!!10. Getting Fonts For Linux
-
-!!10.1 True Type
-
-
-!Commercial Software
-
-
-True type fonts are very
-easy to come by, and large amounts of them are typically included
-in packages like Microsoft Word and Word Perfect. Getting Word
-Perfect is an easy way to get an enormous amount of fonts ( and
-if you're really cheap, you could buy a legacy version of Word Perfect for
-windows. The fonts on the CD are readable. )
-
-!Microsoft's Font Download
-
-
-Microsoft have also made several !TrueType fonts available. The
-.exe file is simply an archive, you can extract it
-using unzip.
-You can get them from
-the download site
-!Luc's Webpage
-
-
-
-Luc Devroye's webpage
-has links to several sites with free fonts available.
-What's unique about these fonts is that a lot of them are really free, they
-are not ``warez fonts''.
-
-!Web sites with truetype fonts
-
-
-There are several web sites offering freely available downloadable
-fonts. For example,
-the freeware connection has links to a number of archives.
-
-!Foundries
-
-
-Several foundries sell !TrueType fonts. However, most of them
-are quite expensive, and for the same money, you'd be better
-of with Type1 fonts. I'll discuss these more in the Type1 fonts
-section. The one place that does do sell true type fonts
-at low prices is
-buyfonts.
-Please read the section on ethics before you buy cheap fonts.
-
-!!10.2 Type 1 Fonts and Metafont
-
-
-!Dealing With Mac and Windows Formats
-
-
-Many foundries ship fonts with Windows and Mac users in mind.
-This can sometimes pose a problem. Typically, the ``Windows fonts''
-are fairly easy to handle, because they are packed in a zip
-file. The only work to be done is converting the pfm file
-to and afm file ( using pfm2afm ).
-
-
-Macintosh fonts are more problematic, because they are typically
-made available in .sit.bin format -- stuffit archives.
-Unfortunately, there is no tool for Linux that can unpack stuffit archives
-created with the newer version of stuffit.
-The only way to do it is run Executor ( Mac emulator ), or try running
-stuffit in dosemu or Wine.
-Once the sit.bin file is unpacked, the Macintosh files can
-be converted using t1unmac which comes with the
-t1utils package.
-
-
-Unfortunately, some vendors only ship Type1 fonts in Macintosh format
-( stuffit archives ). However, according to font expert
-Luc Devroye, all major
-foundries make Type1 fonts available for Mac and Windows.
-
-!Free Stuff
-
-
-
-ctan
-have a number of good fonts, many of which are free.
-Most of these are in Metafont format, though some are also
-Type1 fonts.
-Also, see
-Bluesky
-who have made available Type1 versions of the computer modern
-fonts. ( The computer modern fonts are of excellent quality --
-to purchase anything of comparable quality and completeness
-will cost you around $500-. They are comparable to the premium
-fonts. )
-
-
-
-Luc Devroye's webpage
-has links to several sites with free fonts available.
-What's unique about these fonts is that a lot of them are really free, they
-are not ``warez fonts''.
-
-
-URW have released the standard postscript fonts resident in most
-printers to the public domain. These fonts are quite good.
-
-
-The
-Walnut Creek Archive
-has several freely available fonts, and shareware fonts.
-Some of these are obvious ripoffs ( and not very good ones ).
-If a font doesn't come with some kind of license, chances are
-it's a ripoff.
-Also
-Winsite
-have several Type1 fonts ( in the fonts/atm subsection of their
-windows 3.x software ). Unfortunately, several of
-these have afm files which have mistakes and are missing
-all kerning pairs ( you can fix the afms by editing
-the "!FontName" section of the afm files. It should match
-the fontname given in the font shape file. Of course, adding
-kerning pairs is a topic beyond the scope of this document. )
-
-
-
-Luc Devroye's webpage
-includes several free fonts he designed, as well as a lot of
-links, and fascinating discussion on the topic of typography.
-This site is a ``must-visit''.
-There are also several links to many foundries.
-
-!Commercial Fonts
-
-!Value vs Premium: Why Should I buy Premium Fonts ?
-
-
-So you're wondering -- why do some fonts cost a lot and others
-are cheap ?
-These fonts are the ``standard postscript
-fonts'' resident in most postscript printers. Also the famous
-Why should I buy the more expensive ones ?
-My take on it is that for a casual user, the value fonts
-( such as those on the Bitstream CD ) are just
-fine. However, if you're using the fonts for ``real work'', or
-you're just a hard core font junkie, then the better quality
-fonts are a must-have -- and most of the quality fonts are either
-free ( for example, Computer Modern ), or they are upmarket commercial
-fonts.
-
-
-The advantage of the cheaper fonts is self evident -- they are cheaper.
-The quality fonts also have their advantages though.
-
-
-*''Ethical issues:'' The cheaper fonts
-are almost always ripoffs. Type design takes a long time and
-and experienced designer. Fonts that are sold for less than $1-
-per font were almost certainly not designed by the vendor.
-CDs with insane quantities of fonts on the are almost always
-ripoffs ( the possible exceptions being collections from major
-foundries that cost thousands of dollars ).
-Usually, the ripoffs lack the quality of fonts from respectable
-founries.
-*
-
-*''Completeness:'' The higher quality fonts ( notably
-from Adobe ) come in several variants, with some nice supplements to
-provide the user with a more complete font family.
-There are often bold, italic,
-and demibold variants, swash capitals, small caps,
-old style figures, and extra
-ligatures to supplement the font. More recently, Adobe have a multiple
-master technology which gives the user ( almost ) infinite variation
-within one font family.
-*
-
-*''Quality:'' A lot of the freely available fonts or the cheap
-ripoffs lack fairly essential features such as kerning pairs and
-decent ligatures. They are basically cheap copies. In contrast,
-reputable designers take a lot of trouble to study the original
-design, and rework it to the best of their ability.
-*
-
-*''Authenticity:'' The person who designed Adobe Garamond
-( Robert Slimbach ) actually studied the original designs of
-Claude Garamond. In fact reputable foundries always
-carefully research their designs, rather than just swiping something
-off the net, and modifying it with Fontographer.
-*
-
-
-!Value
-
-
-
-
-
-*An excellent place to go for a CD packed with several Type1
-fonts of reasonable quality is
-Bitstream.
-Bitstreams more noted products include their
-250 font CD
-and their
-500 font CD
-( the latter goes for $50- at the time of writing ).
-These are fairly good quality fonts, and are a fairly good starting
-point for the casual user.
-The fonts used in Corel's products are (mostly) licensed from bitstream.
-*
-
-*
-Matchfonts offer more modestly priced fonts --
-they are distributed in ``packs'' of about 8 fonts
-for $30. This includes some nice calligraphic fonts.
-All fonts seem to be offered in a usable format
-( the windows ATM fonts come in a .exe file.
-Don't let the extension fool you -- it's just a zip archive ).
-These are not ripoffs as far as I can tell.
-*
-
-*
-EFF
-sell !TrueType fonts for $2- per hit.
-They also have ``professional range'' postscript and !TrueType
-fonts for $16- per typeface.
-*
-
-
-!Premium
-
-
-
-
-
-*Adobe have several
-high quality, fonts available at
-Adobe's type website.
-Some of these are expensive, but they have several
-more affordable bundles -- see
-Adobe Type Collections.
-Adobe have some of the most complete font families on the market,
-for example,
-Garamond,
-Caslon,
-and their
-multiple masters
-( Myriad and Minion, used on their website are among the nicer
-of their multiple masters. )
-*
-
-*
-Berthold Types Limited
-is a major foundry, who offer several quality fonts. Some of
-them are resold through Adobe, all are directly available
-from Berthold. Same price ballpark as Adobe.
-*
-
-*ITC develop several
-quality fonts ( including some of the ones Corel ships with
-their products ) at
-http://www.itcfonts.com
-They offer family packages for about $100-180 US.
-Their fonts, come in both Type1
-and !TrueType format. It's better to choose the
-``Windows'' package, because Mac formats are difficult
-to handle on Linux.
-*
-
-*
-Linotype
-are a well known foundry who offer fonts by legendary designers
-including Herman Zapf. ( yep, the guy ``Zapf Chancery'' is named after.
-He also designed Palatino. )
-*
-
-*
-Monotype
-develop most of the fonts shipped with Microsoft
-products. One of the older and well respected foundries.
-*
-
-*
-Tiro Typeworks
-sell good quality, if somewhat expensive typefaces.
-Their typefaces are very complete, for example, they
-include complete sets of ligatures, and smallcaps, titling
-fonts, etc.
-UNIX is listed as one of the OS options -- which is a welcome
-surprise after seeing the words ``Windows or Mac'' too many times..
-*
-
-
-!More Links
-
-
-For links to a bunch of other foundries,
-see
-Luc Devroye's page
-
-
-----
-
-!!11. Useful Font Software for Linux
-
-
-There are several font packages for Linux. Many of them are essential.
-
-
-*chkfontpath is a utility for manipulating the xfs configuration
-file.
-*
-
-*
-DTM -- the Definitive Type Manager
-is a global font management tool. This is a developer's release.
-*
-
-*
-fontinst is a LaTeX package designed to simplify the installation
-of Type1 fonts into LaTeX.
-
-*
-
-*
-Freetype
-is a !TrueType library that comes with most Linux distributions
-*
-
-*
-Ghostscript
-is the software that is used for printing on Linux. The version
-of ghostscript that ships with Linux is GNU ghostscript. This is one version behind
-the latest release of Aladdin ghostscript ( who release their old versions
-under the GPL )
-*
-
-*
-pfm2afm
-is a utility for converting windows pfm font
-metric files into afm metrics that can be used
-for Linux. This is based on the original version available
-at CTAN, and includes modifications from Rod Smith to make
-it compile under Linux.
-*
-
-*
-mminstance and t1utils are two packages for handling Type1 fonts.
-mminstance is for handling Adobe's
-multiple master Type1 fonts.
-t1utils is a suite of utilities for converting between the different
-Type1 formats.
-
-*
-
-*
-ttf2pt1
-is a !TrueType to Type1 font converter. It is useful if you
-have applications that require Type1 fonts.
-*
-
-*
-ttfps converts .ttf !TrueType font files
-into Type42 files.
-
-*
-
-*
-ttfutils
-A package of utilities for handling !TrueType fonts. This
-package requires ttf2pt1. Useful if not essential.
-
-*
-
-*
-type1inst
-is an essential package for installing Type1 fonts. It greatly
-simplifies the installation.
-*
-
-*
-xfstt
-is a !TrueType font server for Linux. It's useful, but xfs
-is probably a better choice.
-*
-
-*
-xfsft The xfsft font server. Note that this is included
-in xfs.
-*
-
-*
-x-tt is a font server designed to handle Korean and Japanese
-fonts.
-*
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!12. Ethics and Licensing Issues Related to Type
-
-
-Font licensing is a very contentious issue. While it is true
-that there is a wealth of ''freely available'' fonts, the chances
-are that the fonts are ``ripoffs'' in some sense, unless they come
-with a license indicating otherwise.
-The issue is made more confusing by intellectual property laws regarding
-typefaces. Basically, in the USA, font ''files '' are protected
-by copyright, but ''font renderings'' are not. In other words,
-it's illegal to redistribute fonts, but it's perfectly legal to
-``reverse-engineer'' them by printing them out on graph paper and
-designing the curves to match the printout. Reverse engineered fonts
-are typically cheap and freely available, but of poor quality.
-These fonts, as well as pirated fonts are often distributed on
-very cheap CDs containing huge amounts of fonts.
-So it's not always easy to tell if a font is reverse engineered, or
-simply pirated. This situation creates an enormous headache for
-anyone hoping to package free fonts for Linux.
-
-
-Perhaps one of the most offensive things about the nature of
-font piracy is that it artificially debases the value of the
-work that type designers do. Pirated fonts invariably are bundled
-en masse onto these one zillion font CDs, with no due credit given
-to the original designers. In contrast, what is commendable
-about several
-legitimate font foundries is that they credit their designers.
-
-
-There are many differing opinions on this issue. See
-typeright for
-an explanation of the case in favour of intellectual property rights.
-Also, see
-Southern Software, Inc
-for another opinion -- but don't buy any of their fonts! Their Type1 fonts
-( poorly reverse-engineered Adobe fonts )
-do not have AFMs, and are thus unusable.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-The comp.fonts FAQ
-also discusses the issues of fonts and intellectual property,
-as does
-Luc Devroye's homepage. These
-references are somewhat less extreme in their views.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!13. References
-
-!!13.1 Font Information
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-Rod Smith's homepage
-contains a wealth of information about using fonts and printers
-with Applixware and Word Perfect.
-*
-
-*
-John !McLaughlin's page
-discusses setting up fonts with Star Office
-*
-
-*
-Jim Land's homepage
-contains a lot of links to sites on postscript and fonts.
-*
-
-*
-The comp.fonts FAQ
-is the definitive font FAQ.
-*
-
-*
-Luc Devroye's homepage
-Contains enough information about fonts and other things
-to sink a ship. This guy designed a bunch of free fonts,
-and his homepage has a lot of interesting links,
-information and commentary.
-*
-
-*
-The Font Deuglification HOWTO
-discusses !TrueType fonts under Linux. This
-is the clear winner of the ``!TrueType'' HOWTOs.
-An excellent
-source of information.
-*
-
-*
-!TrueType Fonts in Debian mini-HOWTO
-discusses installing !TrueType in Debian.
-A must-read for Debian users.
-Also worth reading if you have ''any'' distribution
-that doesn't have the version of xfs with !TrueType
-support.
-*
-
-*
-The (preliminary) True Type HOWTO
--- an incomplete HOWTO dated June 1998. Included in this
-list for completeness.
-*
-
-*
-!TrueType for XFree86 Mini-HOWTO
--- a slightly dated HOWTO. Only applicable to Redhat 5.x
-*
-
-
-!!13.2 Postscript and Printing Information
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-Adobe's Postscript page
-is the definitive site on the postscript standard.
-*
-
-*
-Ghostscript's home page
-has a lot of information, and all the latest printer drivers.
-*
-
-*
-Jim Land's homepage
-contains a lot of links to sites on postscript and fonts.
-*
-
-*
-Christopher Browne's Printing FAQ
-
-*
-
-----
-
-!!14. Glossary
-
-
-
-
-
-*__afm__
-Stands for __Adobe Font Metric__. These files store information about
-the width and spacing associated with the font, as opposed to information
-about the font shape.
-
-*
-
-*__anti-aliasing__
-also referred to as font smoothing is a technique
-used to render fonts on low resolution devices ( such as a monitor ).
-The problem with rendering fonts is that the fonts consist of outlines,
-but the device renders in dots. The obvious way to render a font is
-to color black any pixel inside the outline, and leave all other dots.
-The problem with this is that it doesn't adequately address the pixels that
-are on the outline. A smarter algorithm would be to color the boundary pixels
-gray. Anti-aliasing essentially involves doing this.
-
-*
-
-*__bdf__ fonts are a variety of bit-mapped fonts that may be
-used with X.
-
-*
-
-*__bitmap fonts__
-These fonts are simply a collection of dots. Each character of
-the font is stored as a dot matrix. Because of this, bitmap fonts
-are device dependent, so you can't use the same bitmap fonts on
-a screen and a printer. Examples of bitmap screen fonts include
-.pcf and .bdf fonts used by X. Examples of printer bitmap
-fonts include TeX's PK fonts.
-
-*
-
-*__didone__ see modern.
-
-*
-
-*__DPI__
-Dots Per Inch. Monitors typically display at 75-100 DPI, while
-modern printers vary from 300-1200 DPI
-
-*
-
-*__expert fonts__ are collections of additional characters
-that supplement a font. They include small caps fonts, ornaments,
-extra ligatures, and variable width digits. Many of Adobe's fonts
-have expert fonts available.
-
-*
-
-*__font server__
-a background program that makes fonts available to XFree86.
-
-*
-
-*__glyph__ A glyph is a fancy word for a shape. It is a component
-that makes up an outline font. For example, the dot on the letter
-``i'' is a glyph, as is the vertical line, as are the serifs. Glyphs
-determine the shape of the font.
-
-*
-
-*__kerning__ In variable width fonts, different pairs of characters
-are spaced differently. The font metric files store information regarding
-spacing between pairs of characters, called __kerning pairs__.
-
-*
-
-*__ligature__ A ligature is a special character that is used
-to represent a sequence of characters. This is best explained by example
--- when the letter fi are rendered, the dot on the ``i'' collides
-with the ``f'', and the serif on the top left of the i can also
-collide with the horizontal stroke of the f. The fi ligature is a
-single character that can be used in the place of a single f followed
-by a single i. There are also ligatures for fl, ffi, and ffl.
-Most fonts only include the fi and fl ligatures. The other ligatures
-may be made available in an __expert font__.
-
-*
-
-*__metafont__
-A graphics language used for creating fonts. Metafont has a lot of nice
-features, the main one being that fonts created with metafont need not
-just scale linearly. That is, a 17 point computer modern font
-generated by metafont is not the same as a magnified 10 point
-computer modern font. Prior to Adobe's multiple master technology,
-metafont was unique with respect to having this feature.
-Metafonts main advantage is that it produces high quality fonts.
-The disadvantage is that generating bitmaps from the outline fonts
-is slow, so they aren't feasible
-for WYSIWYG publishing.
-
-*
-
-*__metric__ this stores information about how much space a font
-takes up. A font metric is like a box that one can embed the font in. Font
-metrics are essential for the purpose of laying out fonts on a page, while the
-font shape itself is not. So typically, variable width fonts have metric
-information as well as shape information. The metric also includes kerning
-information.
-
-*
-
-*__modern__ fonts are fonts based on designs developed in the
-19th century or later. The moderns have a solid appearance due to
-their vertical stress. They tend to have more ``character'' or
-``attitude'' than the old styles and transitionals, but still carry
-a certain amount of dignity and formality.
-They are not suited for writing long passages, but they are useful
-for adding character to a piece of writing.
-Bodoni is a notable modern typeface.
-
-*
-
-*__old style__ fonts are a traditional class of typeface.
-The old style fonts are based on designs from as far back as the late
-15th century. Old style fonts are great for writing long documents
-( such as books ). While the old style fonts are designed in the
-tradition of the earlier designers, some of them were designed
-quite recently. Notably, the face __Goudy Old Style__ was
-designed by Goudy in the early 20th century. Notable old style
-faces include Goudy Old Style, Garamond, and Caslon.
-
-*
-
-*__pcf__ fonts are bit-mapped fonts used by X.
-
-*
-
-*__postscript__ is a programming language designed for page description.
-Postscript was a trademark of it's inventor, adobe. However, it is also an
-ISO standard. Postscript needs an
-interpreter to render it. This can be done
-via a program on the computer, such as ghostscript, or it can be interpreted
-by some printers.
-
-*
-
-*__serif__ fonts are fonts with
-little hooks ( called serifs ) on the ends of the font.
-the serifs usually help make the font more readable.
-However, serifs are quite
-difficult to render on low resolution devices, especially at small font
-sizes ( because they are a fine detail ), so it is often true
-that at small sizes on low resolution devices, sans serif fonts
-( such as Microsoft's Verdana ) prove more readable. Another issue
-is that there are sans serif fonts ( like the moderns ) that are
-not designed for writing long documents.
-
-*
-
-*__sans serif__ fonts are fonts without serifs ( sans is French
-for ``without'' ). These fonts have a stark appearance, and are well
-suited for writing headlines. While textbook typography mandates that
-serif fonts be used just for headlines, they can have other uses.
-There are sans serif fonts designed for readability as opposed to
-impact.
-Short punchy documents that are skimmed ( such as catalogues and
-marketting brochures ) may use them, and recently, Microsoft have made
-available the Verdana font which is designed for readability at small
-sizes on low resolution devices.
-Well known sans serif fonts include Lucida Sans, MS Comic Sans,
-Avant Garde, Arial, Verdana, Century Gothic.
-
-*
-
-*__slab serif__ fonts are a certain class of font whose serifs
-look like slabs ( eg flat lines or blocks ) and not hooks.
-Slab serif fonts are __often__, but not always very readable.
-Because the serifs are simple and strong, they give one the feeling
-that they have been punched into the page.
-Well known examples of slab serifs are Clarendon, New
-Century Schoolbook, and Memphis.
-
-*
-
-*__transitional__ fonts are fonts that are based on more
-recent designs than the old style fonts. many of the transitional
-fonts have good readability. Notable transitionals include Baskerville,
-and Times Roman.
-
-*
-
-*__Type1__ is a type of font designed by Adobe. These fonts are
-well supported by almost all linux applications, because they have been
-supported by the X server architecture and the postscript standard for
-a long time. Postscript fonts are distributed in many different
-formats. Typically, a UNIX postscript font is distributed as
-an afm ( adobe font metric ) file, and an outline file, which is
-usually a .pfb ( printer font binary ) or
-.pfa ( printer font ascii ) file. The outline file contains
-all the glyphs, while the metric file contains the metrics.
-
-*
-
-*__type3__ fonts are similar to Type1. The file extensions
-are similar to Type1 fonts ( they are distributed as pfa and
-afm files ), but they are not supported by X, and because
-of this, there are not very many linux applications which support them.
-
-*
-
-----
+Describe [HowToFontHOWTO]
here.
