[pdftex] Re: [tug-support] Configuring TeX to use Type 1 fonts

[Petr Sojka]

On Fri, Nov 16, 2001 at 02:35:59PM -0800, Greg Hansen wrote:
Dear Greg,

> It has come to my attention that many PDFs being created by users of the 
> TeX program are not searchable, due to TeX's use of type 3 fonts with no 
> ToUnicode table. I wanted to a) check if this is still the case, and b) ask 
> if there is a way to configure TeX to use Type 1 fonts, instead, which 
> would make the documents searchable. If so, how can we get the word out 
> about how to do this, and encourage the TeX users to do so?

TeXnically, given that Type1 versions of fonts are available,
one _can_ produce correct PostScript (via dvips) or PDF (via pdfTeX)
files. PDF created by Distiller from PostScript with embedded
Type1 fonts does work smoothly.

Possibility to set correct CMAP resource (ToUnicode)
has been added to pdfTeX only recently. I've tested it
on a small example (creating PDF with characters out of
AdobeStandardEncoding, cut & paste under Win platform worked).
There is not much macro support is available, though,
and documentation is sparse. 

The way how to proceed? Maybe changing the default setup
so that Type1 fonts are prefered over bitmaps
in main TeX distributions (TeXlive etc.), 
and support of macro and pdftex developers by Adobe.
Writing white paper would be good starter as well.
 
> Since so much of what TeX is used for is the publication of research which 
> is intended to be widely accessible over the web, it would seem to make 
> sense to figure out how to make these documents searchable by such services 
> as Google (which can now search PDFs).

Yes, sure. Glad to hear that Adobe is starting to take care of TeX users
(when TV Raman left Adobe, no support for pdftex development
at Adobe was available).
 
> Any information or pointers you can give me would be appreciated. I am new 
> to this community.

I am CCing to pdftex list (users of pdfTeX, version of TeX directly
generating PDF), and texlive list (development of most widespread
free tex distribution), too.

> Thanks!

You are welcome!

Petr Sojka, [CS]TUG
> 
> Greg Hansen
> Senior Manager
> Acrobat Engineering Group
> Adobe Systems Incorporated               ghansen at adobe.com
> 345 Park Avenue, M/S W15                 Voice (408) 536 2920
> San Jose, California 95110-2704          Fax   (408) 537 4003
> 
> 
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