tex font software

[alan Hoenig <AJHJJ@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>]

I have placed updates of 3 packages on CTAN that might be useful to
members of this list.  Here are brief descriptions:

1. The VFinst package automates the process of making Type1 scalable
fonts usable by TeX.  The fonts it creates---upright, italic, oblique,
unslanted italic, smallcaps, underline, and a few others---display
accents, ligatures, small caps, and so on as you would expect in any
proper TeX font.

2. MathInst helps use non-Computer Modern math fonts with TeX.  If you
have MathTime, Euler, Lucida New Math, or Mathematica math fonts, and
if you specify a text font family, MathInst manufactures compatible
fonts that allow you to typeset math (using the usual TeX input
conventions) that looks great with the text fonts.

3. MathKit also creates math fonts, but is for people who don't want
to spend extra money for the proprietary math fonts that MathInst uses
or who want a closer match between their math and text fonts.  If you
specify a text font family, MathKit creates math fonts using
characters from the text fonts for letters and numerals and Computer
Modern characters---whose parameters have been tweaked to match the
text fonts---for all other special math symbols.

In all cases, you don't have to know anything about virtual fonts, Perl,
Metafont, fontinst, Berry fontnaming (these concepts are all integral
to these packages) to use these packages.  In all cases, style files
for both plain TeX and LaTeX are automatically produced.  Test files
are also produced, so you can both test your fonts and see how to use
them.

To retrieve this material from CTAN, go to the

  fonts/utilities

area, and enter the subdirectories vfinst, mathinst, or mathkit as
appropriate.  Comments, suggestions, feedback, and bug reports are
welcome.

---Alan Hoenig (ajhjj@cunyvm.cuny.edu)