[pdftex] Fonts etc.

[John Culleton]

I a drowning in the information about fonts, font files and encoding =
tables. I just want to have my thesis in helvetica instead of times. =
Using the packages helvet and pslatex together gives me a pdf document =
in times new roman. Using only helvet gives me 'CMBX' as original font =
and embedded subset, type 1 as actual font (in acrobat reader, File, =
document properties, fonts...). Is this then helvetica?=20
As far as I can see, all needed files are dispersed in the miktex tree =
on my computer, there are phvr8r.tfm  and .other files present.=20
I find all information rather confusing, I am not at all used to =
different fonts. This is the only thing that's easier in Word (I spent =
the whole afternoon on it).

Thank you for any possible information,=20
Ingele Roelens

--------------------------------------------------------------------

First, set your thesis in a serif font, and not a sans-serif like Helvetica. 
Long documents are hard to read in an SS font. 

Second, there is always the bailout procedure which works and cuts through 
all the persiflage of LaTeX, Context etc. 
--------------------------------------
\font\myfont phvr8r at 12pt 

\myfont
My thesis and its text.
-------------------------------

The downside is that you will have to define and call for each variation of
font and size you use. And the LaTeX high priests will run from the temple
screaming ``sacrilege!''  But \font is a TeX primitive and it has to work, 
under plain TeX, LaTeX, pdftex, Context or whatever. It works if the font is 
there in pfb form. If it isn't you are screwed anyhow (except for CM.) 

After you get your thesis printed, on time and on specification, then you
can fuss with all the marvelous and unpredicable font handling aids in
LaTeX or whatever. Indeed you can write a second thesis on their vagaries. 

But please, not in Hevetica (SS) , or in Times Roman (too narrow.)  Try
Palatino instead, or New Century Schoolbook, or Bookman, 
or even the Poscript versions of Computer Modern. They are all easily 
acccessible with the \font command.   

Your advisor will thank you.
 
Just my 2c. 

-- 
John Culleton
Able Indexers and Typesetters 
http://wexfordpress.com



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