On Thursday 27 July 2006 02:37 am, Juergen Spitzmueller wrote: > Rich Shepard wrote: > > Years ago, I started working my way through the font installation guide > > (trying to take advantage of the NFSS), but gave up about half-way > > through. Has it become easier in the past few years to add a new font > > family to TeX/LaTeX/LyX? Specifically, I want to add the Baker Signet > > typeface (which I installed as both Type1 and TTF those same years ago > > when I bought the Bitstream font collection). > > If you're lucky, someone already did the implementation. My first place is > always the (German) page from Walter Schmidt, the PSNFSS maintainer, who > provides packages for a range of common commercial fonts, and the quality > of the metrics is very good: > http://home.vr-web.de/was/fonts.html > > Unfortunately, Baker Signet is not included. If you have to implement them > yourself, here are some pointers: > http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=instt1font > ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/Type1fonts/fontinstallationguide/fontin >stallationguide.pdf > > Hope this helps, > Jürgen
Having never installed a font into TeX/LaTeX/LyX, I was surprised to hear this was so complex as to be avoided if possible. So I just read the referenced documents. I think much of it can be automated into a Perl, Python or Ruby script (if I'm gonna write it, I prefer Ruby or maybe Perl). The first module would be to test that everything is present. In what directory are the new fonts? Does that directory contain both the font files and the AFM files? Any other sanity checks would be put here. If it fails, a REALLY DESCRIPTIVE message of what's wrong and what needs to be done will be printed. /*make prepare*/ The next module walks the user through Berry name renaming, giving very descriptive prompts explaining exactly what to do, and why. The user fills in everything, and then the files are renamed. This step also generates a TeX file to control Fontinst. /*make berry*/ The next module runs Fontinst to generate font metrics and virtual fonts in human readable form, and then run pltoft to create tfm files and vptovf to create the vf files. /*make metrics*/ The next module installs the fonts in the local tree. I very strongly recommend that the user be given the choice of specifying a directory in his data tree, and then symlinking that directory into the tree. In that way, the user doesn't need to go through Berry renaming if he gets a new computer or upgrades his texmf or whatever. /*make copyfonts*/ The next module creates and installs map files for dvips, pdftex and xdvi. /*make mapfiles*/ The next and final module runs texhash. /*make texhash*/ IMHO this should be done as a simple state machine, which, for each font or font family, keeps track of which steps have been done. I could probably make such a state machine, but I have a feeling that someone really proficient with make files could do that a lot better. The make targets should be named very intuitively, and documented well. Once again, I feel VERY strongly that these custom fonts should be built and stored in a data tree, and simply symlinked into the font trees. That way, this work will survive TeX updates and computer migrations. Even though this script will simplify things, from my reading the Berry filename renaming will ALWAYS be confusing and time consuming (if one wants to get it right). I won't have any time before August 15, but maybe after that I can start on some of this if someone reminds me. The modular nature means several people can each do a piece. Anyone out there really good at make files? Thanks SteveT Steve Litt Author: * Universal Troubleshooting Process courseware * Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist * Manager's Guide to Technical Troubleshooting * Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting * Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore http://www.troubleshooters.com/utp/tcourses.htm
