On Sun, Mar 15, 2026 at 17:18 (+0100), Hans Hagen via ntg-context wrote:
> On 3/15/2026 4:39 PM, Jim wrote:
>> On Sun, Mar 15, 2026 at 12:35 (+0100), Hans Hagen via ntg-context wrote:
>>> On 3/13/2026 3:52 PM, Jim wrote:
>>>> On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 23:48 (+0100), Wolfgang Schuster wrote:
>>>>> Am 12.03.2026 um 19:00 schrieb Jim:
>>>>>> On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 16:43 (+0100), Wolfgang Schuster wrote:
>>>>> Context uses a typescript file to load cambria and expects either
>>>>> cambria.ttc or cambmath.ttf as file names.
>>>> Wolfgang,
>>>> thanks. I'll try renaming the file and see what happens.
>> I did get further after installing the font file with the right name. Then
>> it gave me a similar error because of some other font.
>> "So many fonts, so little time."
>>> there are various names used for cambria (here i have an official one for
>>> instance independent of a windows installation)
>>> fwiw: i never use the system fonts but use copies in texmf-fonts/data
>>> because then one knows what one gets (read: don't expect me to bother with
>>> issues with system fonts as these can change)
>> Good point.
>> Thinking about people who use ConTeXt on multi-user systems (where it might
>> not be feasible to let everyone put their own fonts in the stand-alone or
>> TL distribution texmf-fonts/data), would it make sense for ConTeXt to have
>> a standard place to look for a user's "personal" fonts?
> Those users are likely not permitted to use anything the sysadm doesn't
> recognize anyway.
I think that is painting with a broad brush. While working I sometimes
used a server that I had no admin permissions on, but I might have liked to
add some non-stock things without grovelling at the door of the sys admin.
But given that I have admin control over all the computers I use, I can get
the admin guy to do things whenever I need. ;-)
>> For example, pdftex (reportedly) looks in the directories specified in the
>> environment variable $T1FONTS (as one example).
> That's also preset in the configuration ... I dont' remember ever having
> such a system directly (maybe because I never used system fonts unless
> copied to texmf-fonts).
That's because your admin guy will always do what you want too. :-)
>> If ConTeXt used some similar environment variable, then each user could put
>> their own font collection somewhere under their home directory (for
>> example) and not need to worry about updating the files inside the
>> stand-alone distribution, "all" they would have to do is populate their own
>> font collection, and maybe run some mtxrun command when they add new ones.
> Now you make it sound like users buy fonts.
I actually did once.
But that's not relevant, because I may want to use some free font(s) that I
find on the internet somewhere.
> Well, tex live kicks out files that reference non free fonts so these
> users are toast anyway.
I'm not talking (specifically) about TL, and not in terms of getting them
to install anything. I'm talking about the idea of having my font
collection somewhere under my home directory rather than copying my font
files into the distribution directories. But then setting an environment
variable which gets context (regardless of which distro that comes from) to
look at my font files as well.
>> I know there is OSFONTDIR, but (in my tests) if I specify OSFONTDIR and
>> then run
>> mtxrun --script fonts --list
>> it doesn't list my fonts in that dir. For example, after sticking some
>> Cambria fonts in
>> $HOME/data-files/fonts/cambria,
>> the command
>> OSFONTDIR=$HOME/data-files/fonts/cambria mtxrun --script fonts --list --all
>> --pattern=Cam\*
>> doesn't list them. (Whereas, after copying them into the right place in the
>> standalone distribution and running
> mtxrun --generate
> might help
It did not (by itself), but running
OSFONTDIR=$HOME/data-files/fonts/cambria mtxrun --generate
OSFONTDIR=$HOME/data-files/fonts/cambria mtxrun --script fonts --reload
did, thanks.
Mind you, this works because it rewrote some files in the standalone
distribution, which are owned by me, since I use a one-user computer.
Which sorta kinda gets me back to where I started. If some environment
variable specified a list of other directories to search for fonts, and
mtxrun --... wrote the cache info (for files in those "other" directories)
into some canonical place inside those other directories, then all those
poor schmoes who don't have admin perms on the ConTeXt distro could
cheerfully use their own personal fonts. Just imagine J.R. Drofnats
happily typesetting beautiful documents using ConTeXt. ;-)
>> mtxrun --generate ; mtxrun --script fonts --reload
>> the command
>> mtxrun --script fonts --list --all --pattern=Cam\*
>> now lists some fonts.)
> It should normally work out ok. We also scan some of these system font
> overview files (unless of course the format of those files changed).
>> Maybe I'm doing things all the wrong way (I'm still figuring things out,
>> please bear with me), but if so I don't know The Right Way.
> You'll eventually figure it out ...
I appreciate your faith in me. I hope I figure it out before I die. :-)
Jim
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