Fonts &c. (was Re: [OS X TeX] Fonts included with Textures?)

[William Adams]

Adrian said:
 >Alan Hoenig, the author of TeX Unbound: LateX and TeX Strategies for 
Fonts, Graphics and More >has said that his NexT/LateX set up deals 
directly with .pfa fonts---they do not need to be >converted to .pfb.

One of the advantages of Display PostScript.

 >My thought was: given that there is a fair bit of NexT legacy in OS X, it 
should not need .pfb >outline formats either.

There's an Apple technical note which details which fonts Mac OS X can use,
  and NeXT's nifty .font bundles are _not_ a part of that. (nor are 
Multiple Master fonts)

Google's second hit on a search of ``Apple Mac OS X supported font format'
'

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn2024.html

Although Windows TrueType TTF / TTC fonts are supported, the only Type 1 
fonts which Mac OS X makes use of are Type 1 (presumably Mac-style LWFN) 
with matching bitmap font suitcases.

I'll spare everyone my rant about how this backwards compatibility has 
cost us the sensible, font Fontname entry derived names.

Naturally tetex, since it uses its own routines will find .pfa ASCII 
encoded fonts more efficient (the binary encoding is actually encrypting 
done by the eexec routine so as to copy-protect Adobe's fonts back when 
they denied anyone else the privilege of making such (everyone else had to 
make do with Type 3, and if they wanted hinting, had to roll their own in 
PostScript)) for the reasons already mentioned in the Fonts w/ Textures 
thread.

Bruce then asked:
 >Can someone (William?) recommend a good font to invest in that:

 >a) a unix idiot (me) can easily set up for use with pdftex
 >b) will be fully usable with other OS X apps (potentially InDesign, 
and/or some forthcoming >Cocoa word processor)

 >I'm thinking either Adobe Minion or Garamond (both of which I like), but 
am not sure which >version: OpenType?  Type 1 Expert?  MM?

Unfortunately Type 1 OpenType fonts don't work with pdftex, only TrueType 
based outlines do at this time, and without the nifty fonttable support to 
enable contextual ligatures &c.

As I mentioned above, Multiple Master is right out until Apple restores 
that functionality (which NeXTstep had, without effort on Adobe's part 
'cause an MM font is ``just'' a PostScript Program).

How do you feel about the eponymous Hoefler Text? Jonathan Hoefler has 
since made a Type 1 version available from his website, 
<http://www.typography.com> which should install easily in tetex (get the 
PC version with matching .afm files and no resource forks to mung this up)
, one could then use the Apple version in Mac OS X proper, and the Type 1 
in TeX (one person on this list has manually converted the Apple font, but 
that probably wouldn't sit well with Apple if a lot of people started 
doing it or passing it around :(

Has anyone else tried contacting the programmer of TeX/GX? I'd dearly love 
to see a pdftex variant on Mac OS X which could directly use ATSUI fonts 
(for those who haven't, install the Developer tools, (free with on-line 
ADC membership)) and play around with ``WorldText.app'' (nee  
GXWrite)---if you think TextEdit's automatic ligatures are nice, ``you ain'
t seen nothin' yet''

William
(who has been working on a typeface design for eight years now but hasn't 
yet finished it :(

--
William Adams, publishing specialist
voice - 717-731-6707 | Fax - 717-731-6708
www.atlis.com


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