Using fonts from the LaTeX Font Catalogue

[Paulo Ney de Souza]

Bob,

Here is my full report:

Paulo Ney



I ignore "Font Warnings", for example, stuff like:

LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape `B1/cmss/bx/n' undefined
LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape `LS1/stix2bb/b/it' in size <10.95> not
available
LaTeX Font Warning: Size substitutions with differences
LaTeX Font Warning: Some font shapes were not available, defaults
substituted.
LaTeX Warning: Font shape declaration has incorrect series value `mc'.
Package pbsi Warning: bad encoding; assuming T1..

as well as things like:

pdfTeX warning: pdflatex (file
/usr/local/texlive/2021/texmf-dist/fonts/truetype/public/cuprum/Cuprum-Regular.ttf):
glyph `Zdot' not found

which should not really be ignored, but I just want to initially
concentrate on the big-issues only. Here they are:

There are 539 fonts total and 377 of them process fine with pdfLaTeX and 27
that proces fine with XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX -- the rest is pure problems:


---------------------------------
2 give unique errors:

Poiret One:

!pdfTeX error: pdflatex (file PoiretOne-Bold-lf-t1--base): Font
PoiretOne-Bold-lf-t1--base at 657 not found
 ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!


Malvern:

! I can't find file `T1fmv.fd'.
l.10 \input T1fmv.fd

Poiret is reported as part of TeXLive and Malvern as not.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------
11 of them give a "Metric (TFM) file not found":

capitalbaseball.tex
computermoderngray.tex
flyspec.tex
hersheyoldenglishfont.tex
necker.tex
ocr-a.tex
pandorasinglepitch.tex
pandora.tex
segmentfont.tex
simfon.tex
slabikar.tex

Some of them are reported AS part of TeXLive and some as NOT part of
TeXLive.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------

19 of them are missing 8 style files: antiqua.sty, covfonts.sty,
emerald.sty, oesch.sty, Play.sty, pvscript.sty, twcal.sty, vicent.sty.

picturealfabet.tex
augie.tex
decadence.tex
intimacy.tex
jd.tex
movieola.tex
pookie.tex
skeetch.tex
spankysbungalow.tex
tallpaul.tex
teenspirit.tex
webster.tex         ---> All of these from a single package: {emerald}

antiqua.tex
covington.tex
oesterreichischeschulschrift.tex
petevanroosescript.tex
play.tex
twcal14.tex
vicentino.tex

Some of them are reported AS part of TeXLive and some as NOT part of
TeXLive.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------

103 of them are expected to be processed with xeLaTeX or luaLaTeX, but do
not work either because they expect the fonts to be installed, including
XITS:

asanamath.tex
eczarmedium.tex
eczarregular.tex
erewhon-math.tex
firasansmath.tex
garamondlibre.tex
lexend.tex
punknova.tex
shobhika.tex
xits.tex
And 93 fonts in the colection QualiType (QT): QTAbbie, QTAgateType,
QTAncientOlive, QTAntiquePost, QTArabian, QTArnieB, QTArtiston, QTAtchen,
QTAvanti, QTBasker, QTBeckman, QTBengal, QTBlackForest, QTBlimpo, QTBodini,
QTBodiniPoster, QTBookmann, QTBoulevard, QTBrushStroke, QTCaligulatype,
QTCanaithtype, QTCascadetype, QTCaslan, QTCaslanOpen, QTCasual,
QTChanceryType, QTChicagoland, QTClaytablet, QTCloisteredMonk,
QTCoronation, QTDeuce, QTDoghaus, QTDoghausHeavy, QTDublinIrish, QTEraType,
QTEurotype, QTFloraline, QTFlorencia, QTFraktur, QTFrank, QTFrankHeavy,
QTFrizQuad, QTFuture, QTFuturePoster, QTGaromand, QTGhoulFace, QTGraphLite,
QTGraveure, QTGreece, QTHandwriting, QTHeidelbergType, QTHelvet-Black,
QTHelvet-BoldOutline, QTHelvetCnd-Black, QTHelvetCnd, QTHoboken,
QTHowardType, QTHowardTypeFat, QTImpromptu, QTJupiter, QTKooper, QTKorrin,
QTKung-Fu, QTLautrecType, QTLetterGoth, QTLinoscroll, QTLinostroke,
QTLondonScroll, QTMagicMarker, QTMerryScript, QTMilitary, QTOKCorral,
QTOKCorral-Cnd, QTOKCorral-Ext, QTOldGoudy, QTOptimum, QTPalatine,
QTPandora, QTParisFrance, QTPeignoir, QTPeignoir-Lite, QTPiltdown,
QTPristine, QTRobotic2000, QTSanDiego, QTSchoolCentury, QTSlogantype,
QTSnowCaps, QTStoryTimeCaps, QTTechtone, QTTheatre, QTTimeOutline,
QTTumbleweed, QTUSA-Uncial, QTVagaRound, QTWeise, QTWestEnd


Error of the type:

! Package fontspec Error: The font "Asana-Math" cannot be found.

All of them are reported AS being part of TeXLive.

---------------------------------
---------------------------------

On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 8:29 AM Bob Tennent <rdtennent at gmail.com> wrote:

> Paulo:  If you have a list of "problematic" font packages (not supported
> by TeXLive or getnonfreefonts, with inadequate
> or obsolete documentation), you should send it to the maintainer of the
> Font Catalogue.  Perhaps he will mark them as
> "for experts only" or even remove them from the Catalogue.  Keep in mind
> that he is the sole maintainer and like everyone else
> in the TeX community, an unpaid volunteer.  Thank you for bringing this
> issue to our attention.
>
> Bob T.
>
> On Wed, May 5, 2021 at 2:09 AM Paulo Ney de Souza <pauloney at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, May 4, 2021 at 9:49 PM Bob Tennent <rdtennent at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> You misunderstood my question. Obviously the texlive
>>> collections are disjoint from the set of fonts supported by
>>> getnonfreefonts. But in your rant the only positive note was
>>> your praise of getnonfreefonts and I was wondering why you
>>> weren't happy with font installation in texlive.
>>>
>>> None of your examples are supported by texlive so it's not
>>> a surprise that they didn't work even in a complete texlive
>>> system.
>>>
>>
>> I want to be very clear that I am extremely happy with TerXLive.
>> TeXlive is a shiny star in the TeX eco-system. I live by it, I work
>> with it all day long.
>>
>> I am extremely unhappy with these systems that do not talk to
>> each other, like, for example, the Font Catalogue saying that
>> something should work -- while it does not on the best TeX installation
>> there is.
>>
>> So I now understand that you're unhappy with installation
>>> of font families *not* in texlive and *not* supported by
>>> getnonfreefonts.  Also not really a surprise.
>>>
>>
>> Correct. I have I have (more than one) TeX font-developer
>> that work for me, and when asked to do a font installation,
>> simply do it incorrectly.
>>
>> It is not an easy task -- just like installing TeX in mid-90's
>> was a nightmare -- and needs to be automated and made
>> transparent to users.
>>
>>
>> For example I looked at the emerald package at
>>> https://ctan.org/pkg/emerald. The licence precludes
>>> distribution in texlive. At the CTAN site one can find
>>> a link to a zipped archive of the package which can be
>>> downloaded and unzipped. As explained in the README, the
>>> subdirectories
>>>
>>
>>
>> It is not me Bob! It is thousands of people out there that would like
>> to use and are reading these outdated instruction, and have no idea
>> of what to do.
>>
>> ............
>>> The next instructions in the README are somewhat obsolete.
>>> In current texlive, one updates the file database
>>>
>>
>> You see ... this depends on people that know the history and know
>> exactly how it has evolved unde TeXlive, etc ...
>>
>>
>>>
>>>   texhash ~/texmf
>>>
>>> and then executes
>>>
>>>   updmap-user --enable Map emerald.map
>>>
>>> You should then be ready to go with examples. Unfortunately,
>>> there are no source examples in the archive, in particular
>>> for the main documentation file emerald.pdf. Here is a small
>>> example:
>>> ...........................................
>>>
>>> The command \ECFMovieola comes from emerald.sty.
>>>
>>
>> And on this situation there are some other 15 to 20 packages.
>>
>>
>> I admit this is all clumsier than one would like. The
>>> author should have supplied a TDS-compatible tree, should
>>> be keeping the README up to date, and should have supplied
>>> source examples.
>>
>>
>> Of course! But you can see that -- a newcomer cannot.
>>
>>
>>> But CTAN are not willing to enforce such requirements.
>>
>>
>> And that is too bad. We should be willing to re-package a
>> few things -- because we already do it for a number of
>> packages and for the easy of use of the fonts.
>>
>>
>>
>>> Caveat emptor. TeXLive provides dozens of high
>>> quality fonts and getnonfreefonts supports several more.
>>
>>
>> "getnonfreefonts" has a special place here. It is the best framework
>> we have for font-installation -- in general. It is capable of installing
>> the few that they "assume" and a bunch of others  that they do not
>> assume.
>>
>> You may have seen Reinhard's e-mail and what he said -- but in
>> contrast -- we use it all the time to install MTProII, MinionPro, and
>> several other ones. You just place the files in /tmp and a few mods
>> will take care of it.
>>
>> We should invest on that, even if the author has abandoned the
>> development of his package. We should list the orphan packages
>> visibly on CTAN, so people that know it could help.
>>
>> We do a LOT of patches on programs to include them om TeXLive,
>> just look at "detex". Why not do it  with fonts?
>>
>> We should make TeX easier to use and a lot of that goes back
>> to fonts.
>>
>> If you wander away from these, you'll have to learn to cope
>>> with what's available.
>>>
>>
>> My point is -- the user should not -- if that is a part of the LaTeX
>> Font Catalogue.
>>
>>
>>
>>>  >|There are both Commercial and Free versions. The Free
>>>  >|version could easily be dealt with by "getnonfreefonts".
>>>
>> If so, you should suggest it to the maintainer.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have personally talked to Reinhard about that, but I don't
>> think he recognizes the difference it can make to a TeX user.
>>
>> There is this "interpretation" that AFPL  says you are not
>> allowed to sell anything with it, including a DVD -- and that
>> is patent erroneous. AFPL forbids you from making money
>> and running a profit with it, but not for charging the cost...
>> but there is NO profit in making TeXLive DVS's.
>>
>>
>>  >|This is one of the reasons why the XeTeX/LuaTeX font
>>>  >|handling is so nice -- from the point of view of the user
>>>  >|-- it leaves your TL tree undisturbed.
>>>
>>> The texmf tree you should be disturbing is your personal
>>> tree ~/texmf, not the TeXLive dist tree.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Which is NOT what most of these installations do, including
>> the ones recommended by getnonfreefonts.
>>
>> Also not what you do if you trying to build an environment
>> to be used by several people.
>>
>>
>> Paulo Ney
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Bob T.
>>>
>>
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