[tex-live] Missing Courier AFMs found

[gnwiii at gmail.com]

On 5/8/06, Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:
> >>>>> "Karl" == Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org> writes:
>

>   > Except if they don't allow modification, we should delete them.
>   > (Even aside from the quoteleft/quoteright issue.)
>
> It's certainly the best solution.
>
>   > So does that leave us with URW Courier?  Or didn't Bitstream (or
>   > someone else) donate a Courier at some point?  What's best?

What's best also has to consider what glyphs are available.

> At the Bachotex conference Hans, Jerzy, and Volker introduced the "New
> Font Project".  The idea is that Jacko creates new fonts using
> MetaType1:
>
>  1. The standard URW fonts (except Symbol and ZapfDingbats).
>
>  2. Bitstream Charter and Vera.
>
>  3. Adobe Utopia.
>
>  4. URW Garamond and Letter Gothic.
>
> Hence we will get a Courier (which will certainly/hopefully not be
> called Courier) which will be much better than everything you can buy
> today.  At least Jacko's fonts will support much more languages.  And
> these fonts will have a copyright which is acceptable even for Debian
> people.

Sounds good, but experience has shown that it takes some years to work
out all the glitches in new fonts.  Hopefully much of this experience
has been incorporated in the software, but
all those people who have been texing away on their books will not
want to change until the fonts have been around for a while.

> Ralf Stubner creates new fonts based on URW Palatino using fontforge.
> I fear that the projects overlap, but if Jacko doesn't plan to create
> expert fonts (don't know) then it would be nice if Ralf could provide
> them.
>
> Hence I'm quite optimistic that people can live without IBM Courier.

Maybe, but many people think they have been using "Adobe Courier" all
these years when they have really been seeing URW NimbusMonL.  If you
tell them you are gettng rid of IBM Courier they will say "IB Who? --
Just don't mess with my Adobe fonts!".   OTOH, there are lots of
people asking for fonts that look better than Courier for URL's, code
listings, etc.

Even when people are writing in English they want fonts that support
their native language, and it can be very confusing when they all
think they are using Adobe Courier, Adobe Helvetica, Adobe Times, etc.
yet are seeing very different looking output.  So what is needed from
new fonts?

1.  free in the Debian sense so everyone can have them
2.  more languages so almost eveyone can use them
3.  better appearance so everyone will be glad to dump Courier
4.  new names not aliased to Adobe names so people understand what
they are really using
5.  TeX support so everyone can use them  -- including a "plain"
format with the new fonts
preloaded.

--
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia