[fa.laser-lovers] UNIX, Berkeley Font Catalog

laser-lovers@uw-beaver (laser-lovers) (10/11/84)

From: Cal Jackson <CALVIN@CIT-20.ARPA>
This is an inquiry about the compatibility of Imagen printing systems
with TROFF produced documents in the UNIX environment.  Specifically,
where the type faces for the TROFF produced document were selected
from the Berkeley Font Catalog.

We use four printers: Versatec (200 dpi), Imagen (240 dpi), Imagen
(300 dpi), and HP (300 dpi).  (Also, preview devices at ~100 dpi are
used.)  We use three document composers: TeX, TROFF, and SCRIBE.  For
200 dpi print devices, we have type faces due to UNIX (TROFF), SCRIBE,
and TeX.  For other resolutions, we have only the TeX CM (AM) type
face.  We "observe" that the Imagen support software maps some of the
UNIX type styles (Hershey roman, italic, bold, and sans serif) onto
the CM fonts. (Mysteriously, the math also gets set.)

Is our observation correct?  Also, is anyone printing all (styles and
sizes) the fonts in the Berkeley Font Catalog on 240 and 300 dpi
Imagen systems?  If so, how?
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laser-lovers@uw-beaver (laser-lovers) (10/11/84)

From: hplabs!bragvax!david@Berkeley
You seem to be confused about the Imagen troff support software.  The
catdvi program reads a "catab" file to determine which glyph from which
"RST" format font file to assign to each of the 512 CAT characters.  You
can look at the "chartab.txt" file to see the exact mapping, but in
general the Roman font maps to "cmr", Italic to "cmti" and "cmi", Bold
to "cmb", and Special to "cmsy" and "cmathx".  The standard catab does
not include any sans serif characters.

In order to access other Imagen fonts from a troff document, you have to
make your own catab with the charmap utility.  Unfortunately, Imagen
refuses to provide any documentation on this process.

If you want to use the Berkeley fonts, you will have to convert them to
RST format (good luck), then make a new catab.

By the way, Imagen recommends buying ditroff and their Impress
postprocessor if you want to use other fonts.  The package costs $1K for
the postprocessor and some mysterious amount for the ditroff binary
license (or $4K for the source license from AT&T, probably less for a
school).

David DiGiacomo, BRAG Systems Inc., San Mateo CA (415) 342-3963
(...decvax!ucbvax!hplabs!bragvax!david)