[tex-live] Conflits in gsfonts packge and tex-live distro

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 19 May 2009 Pander wrote:

 > When having texlive 2008 distro installed and gsfonts and
 > gsfonts-x11 (both Ubuntu) installed, some conflicts arise. My
 > fontconfig is correctly configured and includes all fonts from
 > texlive next to the fonts installed via Ubuntu.
 > 
 > 1) Names of pfb files are not identical between gsfonts(-x11) and
 > texlive. According to the version numbers inside he fonts, texlive
 > is lagging behind with version 1.05, where gsfonts is at 1.06. Can
 > texlive be upgraded and rename its files?

TeX Live ships the original fonts as provided by URW.  Ghostscript
provides modified versions of these fonts.  You shouldn't mix them up.
The gsfonts themselves had been modified but not their /FontName.
/FontName is the internal name which PS interpreters use to identify
fonts.  PS interpreters don't rely on filenames and are not even aware
of them.  The Type1 specification clearly sais that there should never
exist two different fonts with the same /FontName.

And not even the /UniqueID had been changed or removed!!!

NimbusRomNo9L-Regu 1.05 (URW/CTAN/TeX Live):

   /UniqueID 5020931 def

NimbusRomNo9L-Regu 1.06 (ghostscript):

   /UniqueID 5020931 def

Thus, I regard the gsfonts as being broken.  At least they are not
compliant with the Type1 specs and should be avoided.  And the one
who modifies a font has to change /FontName and /UniqueID, not the
one who provided or maintains the original fonts.

TeX Live doesn't lag behind.  It just provides the authentic fonts,
very well maintaned by Walter Schmidt.  The fonts shipped with
ghostscript only claim that they are authentic, but they aren't.  And
exactly this is the problem.  Avoid them whenever possible.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-3373112
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