[OS X TeX] A question about Metafont

[André Bellaïche]

Le 7 oct. 07 à 01:07, Peter Dyballa a écrit :

>
> Am 06.10.2007 um 23:48 schrieb André Bellaïche:
>
>> Did you ever try to install by yourself a new Postscript font into  
>> TeXLive or gwtex ? With the help of manuals by several people, and  
>> the personal help of Bruno Voisin on this list, it takes two days  
>> of work. And most TeX users are not able of such an achievement.
>
> Why should they? There are plenty ready to use packages around.

This not so easy. When you have the garamond package, and Adobe  
Garamond fonts in your Library/Fonts directory, there is still much  
work to do. You have to build some bridge between the fonts and  
garamond.sty.

> And, BTW, it takes much less than two days to install some  
> PostScript font in TeX with fontinst.

Well, I did that two years ago (for Linotype TimesTen).

Forget the fact that I am not so at ease with Unix and command lines  
(as most of scientists and mathematicians over 40, I did not learn  
Unix and C at school).

I had to study a paper by Bruno Voisin and the Font installation  
guide by Philip Lehmann to figure out what are all  
these .pfb, .vpl, .pl, .mtw, .vf files (for .fd and .sty, I knew  
already). Then I had to enter many command lines without being  
allowed a single error.

As things did not went well, I had to ask many questions on this list  
(I got very kind answers, thanks for them all), and Bruno gave me  
adapted versions of some commands using updmap (what was indicated in  
Bruno's and Philip Lehmann's papers did not work).

And as I needed oldstyle figures and small capitals, I had to work a  
little more.

Today, I am facing the following problem: A friend of mine, a  
mathematician, has written a rather philosophical book, maybe with  
one or two equations. The manuscript is in LaTeX, and for the present  
time, typeset in Computer Modern (rather ugly for novels and  
philosophy). The publisher is willing to accept any pdf file, and all  
the titles in the series in which the manuscript has been accepted  
are typeset in Garamond. To convert the book of my friend into a  
Garamond pdf file, I have to do the same kind of work described above  
(or is there a better way?). Fortunately, Garamond is the standard  
example in font installation guides.

Moreover, he works on a PC, so I shall not be able to put all the  
needed files (made on my Mac) into the right places. I hope that if I  
put all the files in the same directory where his files are, it will  
work.
>>
>> Moreover, it seems that when you use these font for the first  
>> time, the system make some Metafont translations of the Postscript  
>> font, in several different magnifications.
>
> Because there have been a mistake: no mapping of the TeX name to  
> the PostScript font file has been introduced.

Are you sure ? What one sees on the "console" is TeX running, then  
Metafont running.
>>
>> So, what I meant was : "What did they stick to Metafont ?".
>
> Legacy. As why you French stick to your dialect.

No other reason? My English-French dictionary tells me that many  
meanings of the verb "to stick" are * (to use in relaxed situations)  
or ** (very relaxed situations, to be handled with extreme care). I  
am sorry, I did not intend that.

Best regards,

André
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