[Fontinst] installing ACaslon - xdvi okay, dvipdf okay, but dvips gives blank output

david.whiting at ncl.ac.uk david.whiting at ncl.ac.uk
Sun Mar 21 12:37:07 CET 2004


Hi,

I am new to this list and new to installing new fonts.  My first
question is to ask if this is the right place to ask questions about
problems with creating postscript files using fonts installed via
fontinst.  If not, does anyone know which list is the correct one?  If
this is the right list, please read on (I'm afraid this email is a bit
long).

I am using Mandrake Linux 9.2 and I need to use two font families with
LaTeX and R (an open source implementation of the S statistical
language).  The fonts are: HelveticaNeue and Adobe Caslon.  I have
bought the regular fonts, as true type fonts.  HelveticaNeue converts
okay to postscript with ttf2pt1 and I am able to use the resulting
postscript files with fontinst.  With ACaslon the resulting files
cause fontinst to abort with an error message.  I therefore have also
bought the postscript version of ACaslon-Regular and this works fine
with fontinst.  

The version of fontinst I am using is:

Package: fontinst 1998/07/07 v1.801 fontinst installation package

I have read:

http://www.pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/unix/latex/no-bs.html
and 
http://www.tug.org/tex-archive/info/Type1fonts/fontinstallationguide.pdf

and am able to view DVI and PDF output, but not postscript.
Ultimately I also want to be able to use these fonts with R, and at
the moment I get the following error message from R (this will
probably not mean much to most people on this list):

"unknown AFM entity encountered"


So here's what I did and found:

1.  After running fontinst, I followed the steps outlined in the two
    references mentioned above and can create a dvi file and see
    text in ACaslon, complete with ligatures.

2.  dvips shows that the font is being sourced <facr8a.pfb> but when I try
    to view the postscript file using gv it is blank. 

3.  If I look at the postscript file with vi I can see that
    ACaslon-Regular is being used (according to %%DocumentFonts) and
    at the bottom of the file I can see my text (within lots of
    parentheses):

    TeXDict begin 1 0 bop 639 566 a Fa(T)-16 b(esting)35
    b(a)g(ne)r(wl)r(y)g(instal)q(led)g(fo)o(nt)g(in)g(L)r(aT)-16
    b(eX.)

4.  dvipdf produces a PDF file with ACaslon-Regular, but the ligatures
    are blank, i.e. missing.  I think this probably be because I do
    not have the expert font yet.

5.  I then copied the various files to what I think are the correct
    directories and ran texhash:
    cp -f *.pfa ~/texmf/fonts/type1/
    cp -f *.pfb ~/texmf/fonts/type1/
    cp -f *.afm ~/texmf/fonts/afm/
    cp -f *.tfm ~/texmf/fonts/tfm/
    cp -f *.vf  ~/texmf/fonts/vf/
    cp -f *.fd  ~/texmf/tex/latex/psnfss/
    cp -f *.sty ~/texmf/tex/latex/psnfss/

6. I then added the following line to ~/mypsfonts.map:
   facr8r ACaslon-Regular <8r.enc <facr8a.pfb

7. and added this line to ~/.dvipsrc:
   p +~/mypsfonts.ps

8. Next I copied test.tex to another directory and ran latex.  I can see
    that it picks up the font because it reports:

    (/home/dave/texmf/tex/latex/psnfss/t1fac.fd)

9. xdvi works fine, as before.

10. dvipdf works, except for those ligatures.  Printing the resulting
    PDF file works.

11. dvips sources the font but still produces a blank page.

	This is dvips(k) 5.92b Copyright 2002 Radical Eye Software
	(www.radicaleye.com)
	' TeX output 2004.03.21:1128' -> test.ps
	<texc.pro><8r.enc><texps.pro>. <facr8a.pfb>[1]


12. printing the ps file prints a blank page. 

13. dvips followed by ps2pdf results in a blank PDF, but if I go to
    Files->Document Properties->Fonts I see that ACaslon-Regular is
    the only font listed.

14. The same thing happens with HelveticaNeue that I converted from
    TTF to postscript using ttf2pt1.


I would be grateful for any clues as to how I can create postscript
output.  

Thanks in advance.

Dave.


-- 
David Whiting
Adult Morbidity and Mortality Project (AMMP)
PO Box 65243, Aga Khan Foundation Building - Ground Floor
Plot No 344 Urambo Street, Upanga, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Tel: +255 22 2153388, Fax: +255 22 2153385
AMMP website: www.ncl.ac.uk/ammp

Against MS attachments. Why? See for example:
http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-01-11-002-20-OP


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