Three Crazy Fonts

[Robin Fairbairns]

> Christina said:
> > I've search my laptop (NT) for all cases of msbm*.* and find the
> > following:
> >
> >     all PFBs are in c:\psfonts
> >     all PFMs are in c:\psfonts\pfm
> >     all TFMs are in c:\yandy\fonts\tfm\nontext
>
> Ok, I went to ctan and downloaded the pfm, pfb, and tfm versions of all
> three fonts: msbm10, cmsy10, and msam10.
> I put each one in the proper file as listed above, then ran latex2e on
> $\triangleq\mathbb{R}\mathcal{R}$.

as christina explained in her later mail, that doesn't "do it" for a
winxp installation.

> No go.  It still complained of the missing fonts!

it would do.

> Soooo....<after moping around a bit>...I made a c:\windows\fonts-mine folder
> and put this line in my dviwindo.ini file:
>  "PSFONTS=C:\WINDOWS\fonts;C:\windows\fonts-mine"
> then ran latex on the above line again.
>
> No go. Fonts still missing!

aiui, dviwindo needs the fonts installed in the os font installer.
dvipsone probably doesn't, but that's no help here.

> Soooo....<still moping but determined not to give up> ...  I tried dragging
> all the above (pfm,pfb and tfms of all three fonts) into my c:\windows\fonts
> folder.  Lo and behold, I got this error message:
>
> Unable to install the font.  File "...msbm10.tfm is either invalid or
> damaged.

.tfm is a _tex_ font metric, about which windows knows nothing.  the tfm
files don't need installing, just need to be put "where tex can find
them".

> I tried each one individually and got the same message on each.  Argh, I'm
> at my wits end! Almost!

each what?

i don't trust this d r a g and drop stuff; i install fonts through
start->control panel->fonts; then file->install new font, and browse to
the directory where the pfb and pfm files are.  windows will now decide
which of the things in that directory it's interested in; select them
all (control-a, or click button) and press install.

> Here is how I downloaded the fonts from CTAN.  Please let me know if I'm
> doing this wrong.
>
> 1.  I searched, say, msbm10.tfm
> 2.  I clicked on the latest version that came up
> 3.  I shift-clicked on the ftp link and it gave me a box to choose "open" or
> "save"
> 4. I saved to c:\windows\fonts-mine
> 5. Now I'd like to go back and try saving it to c:\windows\fonts,
> or try to download the Bluesky fonts, but every time I click on a font I get
> a "This page cannot be displayed" message.  Is there a limit to the number
> of times you can download something?  I am unable to download any fonts from
> ctan at this time.
> I restarted my computer and re-connected my Internet cable box, thinking
> that could be the problem, but no go.

if the type 1 fonts you have won't install, the ctan addresses you need
are:

fonts/cm/ps-type1/bluesky/cmps-pc.zip for the cm fonts
fonts/amsfonts/ps-type1/amsps-pc.zip  for the msam/msbm fonts

what you should be interested in, in the zip files, are the .pfb and the
.pfm files (the latter in subdirectory pfmfiles.  i'ld expand the .zip
and install from the expanded directory.

you needn't worry about the .tfm files.  you _must_ have those or you
wouldn't be able to run latex.

robin