[OS X TeX] Some Font Questions

[Bruno Voisin]

Le mardi, 5 nov 2002, à 14:41 Europe/Paris, Bob Kerstetter a écrit :

> What are the CM Super fonts? They are included as one of  Gerben's 
> ipackages. Have been through the archives, read stuff found through 
> google and read Gerben's site, but find it all confusing. What is the 
> difference between the CM and CM Super and why would someone use one 
> over the other? Can TeX use any type 1 font? Do these need to be 
> converted or something? "The TeXBook" says  TeX can use any system 
> font. Really? As in "Lucida Grande" and "Marker Felt"? That would be 
> cool. If so, how?

Quickly:

- CM fonts are the standard fonts shipped with the "original" TeX (well 
it's not entirely true, there were AM fonts first, but it's long gone 
now). They are encoded on 7 bits, hence they are inappropriate for 
languages with accents etc. This is called in LaTeX OT1 encoding. They 
were originally bitmapped fonts, PostScript versions have been created 
later by Blue Sky Research and Y & Y, these versions were then made 
public and free, they are included in standard teTeX.

- EC fonts are a new set of fonts, based on CM but encoded on 8 bits, 
to meet the needs of languages other than English. This is called T1 
encoding in LaTeX. Again they were bitmapped fonts originally, 
PostScript versions have recently been made, these are called CM-Super.

- LaTeX support files are available on CTAN archives for many 
"standard" PostScript fonts (those from the Adobe Type Library, for 
example). See the LaTeX Graphics Companion, chapter 10, and for an 
alternative Y & Y's site (I have no affiliation with them ever) about 
LY1 encoding at <http://www.yandy.com/ly1.htm>.

- As for using standard Mac fonts, I'm not aware of anything yet. 
Sadly. Textures used to offer such facility, it still does, but only in 
Classic mode so far; it's commercial software, from Blue Sky Research, 
at <http://www.bluesky.com>. An OS X version is announced for about the 
end of this year.

Bruno Voisin


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