[pdftex] Problem with TrueType fonts - error "Bad metric"

[Stefan Ohletz]

Hello,

I just tried to install some TrueType fonts with MikTeX 2.4 (Windows 
XP). I'm using the Context Macro package. I was able to install several 
free TrueType fonts I had downloaded, using the following commands:

ttf2afm -e 8r.enc -o artbrush.afm artbrush.ttf
texfont --en=8r --ve=truetype --co=all --makepath --install

I think I have understood how to include the generated .map files, where 
to copy the .ttf files, etc. - at least everything works for this 
particular font file and others, too.

But there are some other .ttf files I have problems with. One error 
message I'm getting is that pdftex wasn't able to open the corresponding 
.ttf file at all. (It seems to use the .tfm file, though.) When I'm 
trying to open the generated .pdf file it contains errors and Acrobat 
Reader hangs.

Another error message I'm getting with a font I downloaded from 
www.freefont.de (you can try it yourself) is "...=sheli at 11.0pt not 
loadable: Bad metric (TFM) file".

Instead of using texfont, I also tried to generate all necessary files 
myself and to use another encoding (T1-WGL4). I closely followed the 
article at

http://www.tug.org/tex-archive/info/german/MiKTeX-WinEdt-TrueType-Anleitung/ttf.htm

It didn't change much, though now I'm able to use the font when 
generating a .dvi version of my document. But I'm getting exactly the 
same error as before in case of the .pdf version.

Am I doing anything wrong or is this some known bug of pdftex? Can 
anyone reproduce this error message with the Helium font I referred to 
above? To be honest, I don't have a clue what role encodings play when 
installing font files. Could this be a source of errors, perhaps?

Of course, regarding the Helium font I could also use the Type1 version, 
which works fine on my system, but what I intended in fact was to buy 
the MegaFont XXL collection from Softmaker, which only includes TrueType 
fonts. Having all this trouble with TeX and TrueType fonts, I'm now 
beginning to doubt if such a buy would be wise.

Thanks for any help or comments in advance,
Stefan