[tex-eplain] Fwd: Re: Is there a list of fonts usable by TeX alone, or aTeX command to return names?

[terry.s at Safe-mail.net]

Hello,

After this, I will post to the "texhax" list on this topic (it's not eplain-specific), but by way of update:

1) I said in another email, upon Laurence's suggestion to update the kpathsea DB, that it reminded me I had to do that in MiKTeX. I apologize! MiKTeX uses its own script. (Undoubtedly I used kpathsea's "mktexlsr" for TeX Live 2021; I would have tested 2021/2022 side-by-side but I began clean on another computer.)

Anywho, after running this command: mktexlsr

2) ... nothing much has changed.
> > \font\1="Liberation Serif" % quotes are required
> > {\1 This is Liberation Serif.}

 a) TeX *STILL* can't find '.tfm' files for any font I try to load by name, not even the ones from the Don Knuth list posted on StackExchange.

 b) The "DSSerif" name, which previously was the *ONLY* name TeX would find, now gives the same `.tfm' error as the others. Previously, TeX found it, but dvipdfmx complained with an "inconsisent DICT" error:
> > "`dvipdfmx:fatal: CFF: Inconsistent DICT argument number.

 c) The Don Knuth list refered to is "Individual Font Families" (I sent the URL in another email). I don't know its date, but I recognize several popular, modern fonts on that list (e.g. DejaVuSans). Sorry, I use a secure/private NON-add-supported email so I have to clean things out frequently. Attached is the screenshot someone posted to StackExchange!

 d) I was reminded I had fonts in my 2021's "texmf-local" (still present as restored from personal backups), and they exhibit the same behavior: I can specify a *particular variant* by filename like \font\myCmd=filename (minus '.tfm' extension), but I can't load an *entire family* with the command as demonstrated by Karl (whether single- or multi-word, quotes or curlies ... recall my error messages indicate TeX ignores multiple words in quotes and only picks up the whole name from curlies).

3) My next step is TEST installing a couple font types (T1, OTF, TTF) with "installfont-tl" and even "fontforge" (there was a Windows .msi) AND/OR checking the documentation for "dvipdfmx".

4) I was am not quite finished with eplain (trying to get ToC working properly ... it works but has issues). However, I'll jump ahead to font information in "TeX for the Impatient" and "TeX by Topic" to see if anything there will help me. (But sectioning, ToC and other lists are pretty darned important to writing anything in plain TeX/eplain ... and I must learn TeX to transfer that knowledge to the Japanese engines, considering that I can't learn about user commands because I can't find English Documentation except the most rudimentary.)

Sincerely,
Terry S.
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