PostScript font installation in TeX, alpha release.

[alanje@cogs.susx.ac.uk (Alan Jeffrey)]

Dear TeX font users,

A prototype font installation package is available by anonymous ftp
>From ftp.cogs.susx.ac.uk (192.33.16.70) in pub/tex/fontinst/*.  This
package allows you to install PostScript fonts (or any other fonts
given in AFM format) in arbitrary encodings.  Features of this font
installer are that it:

 * Is written in TeX, for maximum portabilty (at the cost of speed).

 * Supports the full Cork encoding (as much as one can with
   PostScript fonts).

 * Allows fonts to be generated in an arbitrary encoding, with
   arbitrary `fake' characters---for example the `ij' character can be
   faked if necessary by putting an `i' next to a `j'.

 * Allows caps and small caps fonts with letter spacing and kerning.

 * Allows kerning to be shared between characters, for example `ij'
   can be kerned on the left as if it were an `i' and on the right as if
   it were a `j'.  This is useful, since many PostScript fonts only
   include kerning information for characters without diacriticals.

 * Allows the generation of math fonts with nextlarger,
   varchar, and arbitrary font dimensions.

 * Allows more than one PostScript font to contribute to a TeX font,
   for example the `ffi' ligatures for a font can be taken from the
   Expert encoding, if you have it.

 * Automatically generates an fd file for use with version 2 of
   the New Font Selection Scheme.

 * Can be customized by the user to deal with arbitrary font encodings.

At the moment, it's still being prototyped, so don't rely on it too
much!  I'll be talking about this package at the Aston TUG meeting,
and I'd appreciate any feedback you can give me before (or indeed
after) then.

Cheers,

Alan.

Alan Jeffrey        Tel: +44 273 606755 x 3238        alanje@cogs.sussex.ac.uk
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, Sussex Univ., Brighton BN1 9QH, UK