Re: fontnames for Bitstream Univers

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

>On Sat, 28 Nov 1998 19:25:41 +0000, Rebecca and Rowland wrote:
>
>>The thing about this is that LaTeX only `knows' two weights: \bfseries
>>selects bx, \mdseries selects m, and that's it AFAIK.
>
>???
>
>\fontseries{<series>}\selectfont
>
><series> ::= ul | el | l | sl | md | sb | b | eb | ub
>
>See the "LaTeX Companion"!

That's what the LaTeX Companion says, but it's just a suggestion for a set
of standard weights so that people can create fount installations with
more-or-less consistent weight designations.  None of the above weight
designations are built in to any of the files that come with the base LaTeX
distribution (not *quite* true - cmr at least does have a `b' series
version).  The standard author-level fount selection commands give you
access to bx and m only, by using the commands \bfseries and \mdseries.

The thing about <series> is that it can be absolutely anything you want it
to be -  I have founts with series called things like `ubx'.  It all
depends on what the relevant fd file says - there is nothing in LaTeX
itself that limits you to the list above.  In fact, there is no reference
inside LaTeX to *any* of those series (aside from b).

The point I'm trying to get across here is that the listing in the LaTeX
Companion is a useful guide, but doesn't say anything about LaTeX itself -
all that listing is is a suggested convention.

Interestingly, the LaTeX Companion misses out on one unusual series: sbc.
cmss/sbc/n is a defined fount in the standard LaTeX distribution, but
there's no selection command to give you straightforward access to that
series and it's not listed outside the relevant fd files.

If you depart from the two series that LaTeX already has fount selection
commands for (these are, therefore, the only two series that LaTeX knows
about), you either need to use the clumsy \fontseries{}\selectfont
combination, or write your own selection command.

> IMHO it should be possible
>to map the given "font series" sensibly to these.

Quite often, but I view the LaTeX Companion's suggestion as nothing more
than that: a suggestion.

>Even Helvetica has only four "degrees of weight" above the
>regular one, the names being
>
>"medium" (sic!) - "bold" - "heavy" - "black"
>
>which could be mapped to
>
>"sb" - "b" - "eb" - "ub"
>
>This is a good example, showing that you cannot stick to the
>original FontNames:  What is named "Helvetica medium" is indeed
>something like "semibold", and you cannot map it to what LaTeX
>calls "md".

You can map it to anything you like - whether it makes sense or not is a
different matter.  As an example of the sort of perversions one can indulge
in with the NFSS: I have some founts which are available in a large range
of weights.  I've created multiple fd files for some of these sets, and I
might (for example), select (taking the example above) the fd file for
`Helvetica heavy' which would give me Helvetica Heavy for the `m' series,
and Helvetica Black for the `bx' series.  This might not make sense from
the strict naming point of view, but it does make it terribly easy to use
with standard LaTeX commands and structures.  Since the changes are all
done in the fd file, you can still get access to `normal' Helvetica by
changing to a different fount family (all my bizarre fd files refer to
fount families with modified Karl Berry family names beginning with `f')

Rowland.