Re: truetype and tex?

[Rebecca and Rowland <rebecca@astrid.u-net.com>]

>Sorry if this is a faq, but I noticed that Microsoft is offering some
>decent TrueType fonts these days, some done by Matthew Carter:
>http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm
>
>... and I'm wondering if there's any way to use them with TeX.  That is,
>get usable TFM's out of them somehow, and then either rasterize them
>into PK fonts or convert them into Type 1's?

There's no need to worry about rasterising them if you don't need to create
a PS file using dvips: all you need is OzTeX, and either System 6.0.3 (or
above) and the Truetype init, or System 7.0 or above.  I assume you're
using at least System 6.0.3?  ;-)  OzTeX's dvi driver can use TrueType
founts directly with no fuss, *but* you do need to create tfm files for
them somehow.

As far as I can work out (can't test), OzTeX's dvi driver can print
Truetype founts to a PS printer (or file) if you tick the `Standard
PostScript' option in the File menu so you use the MacOS PS printer driver
rather than dvips.

Despite what Berthold says, not all Mac TeX systems that can use TT founts
directly can also produce tfm files for them.

>The only thing I could find on the web was a Mac program Font Hopper at:
>http://www.btinternet.com/~whoami/macutils.html
>But that won't help with the TFM's ...

Erm...  Dunno.  I'm not sure that you can get decent metric information out
of Truetype founts in any event.  But...  Possible solutions include:
EdMetrics from CTAN which I've never managed to get to do anything useful;
or using Font Hopper (or similar) to convert the Mac Truetype fount to a
Windoze form, and use a tool on a Wintel box to get some species of metrics
information out of the ttf file.

(btw, is that really a *legal* copy of Font Hopper?)

Rowland.