edwards@dogie.edu ( Mark Edwards) (01/29/89)
This whole thing started while I was investigating how to use TeX
with an Apple Laserwriter. Using the TugBoat Journal (?) I found that
Nelson Beebe had a driver for the Apple Laserwriter for VMS. I ftp'ed
it and was quite happy to get "postscript" output from my dvi file.
As far as I know this driver uses Computer Modern fonts only. I didn't
particularily care for the output and it creates large files that contain
fonts to download to the laserwriter.
I asked comp.text for a driver that used postscript fonts and soon was
ftping around the country for various drivers. The first one I found
that seemed to be what I want was "psdvi" which I got from
june.cs.washington.edu It included the postscript tfm fonts also. I converted
the program to run under VMS and got some output. Looked great. But....
I then found out that it chokes on mathmetics. This just wouldn't do.
A driver I found at uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (dvi2ps) seems to allow usage of
both the postscript fonts and the cm fonts for math and seems to be the
best candidate to convert to VMS. (It sure would solve many problems if I
were just using a Unix machine. Oh well.)
In the above process I picked up other information and decided to write
it down before it got filed in some forgotten place. The following is
a start of something that I think will be generally useful to many people.
At the moment it is only sketchy at best and I am inviting comments,
suggestions, addition, general format changes, flames, or anything at
all to help improve the list.
I can envision lots of directions this might go off in. And as of yet
haven't ruled anything out. It also might include of lists programs
that convert from one text processing program to another. For example
troff to TeX or MS-Word to TeX. Maybe it could include the available
programs to convert dvi files to the various printer types. For instance
dvi2ps or dvi2cg (compugraphics).
Please send all correspondence to me and I will post a new updated list
every once in a while. (If enough interest develops I may even offer
various formated versions.)
Thank you
mark
edwards@vms.macc.wisc.edu
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0. Introduction
These lists are basically about font conversions. Modern computer displays
no longer use a single built in font. While it is true that many computer
terminals still use fonts that are built into the terminal's ROMs, more and
more terminals and displays give the user a choice between several fonts.
In the past only typeseting devices, more recently laser printers and dot
matrix printers had user selectable/downloadable fonts. Now the distinction
between output devices and display devices is becoming less clear. For
instance the Macintosh has several word processing packages that allow the
display of different fonts. The modern workstations now have window based
user interfaces.
Unfortunately the font definitions for many of these products are not
compatible. These lists are an attempt to bridge the compatibilities. This
effort would be worthless if programs to convert fonts from one definition
to another did not exist. However conversion programs do exist and these
lists serve to enlighten potential users and assist the naive users.
Please direct comments, suggestions, additions, and whatever else to
me (Mark Edwards), at edwards@vms.macc.wisc.edu.
1. List of formating and/or typesetting program
Program Operating System(s)
------------------------------------------------------------
TeX Most operating systems
troff (ditroff) Unix based
Scribe
Runoff VAX/VMS (??)
WordPerfect 5.0 PC Macintosh VMS
MS-Word 4.0 PC Macintosh
2. List of types of fonts
Font Description
------------------------------------------------------------
bdf - binary distribution format (Adobe Systems only ??)
gf - generic font (TeX)
hershey - stroke (vector) fonts
pk - packed
pxl - pixel
snf - server natural format (X-window)
Postscript - Adobe Systems
vfont - Versatec format (used by SunView and Berkeley (BSD 4.x))
HP LaserJet ??
MS-Windows ??
Macintosh ??
3. List of types of Font Metrics
Font Metric Description
-------------------------------------------------------------
afm - Adobe Font Metric
tfm - TeX Font Metric
4. List of programs to convert one type of font to another
Program Description
----------------------------------------------------------------
bdf2gf bdf to gf
bdf2vf bdf to vfont
bdftosnf bdf to snf (X-window Utility)
gftopk gf to pk
gftopxl gf to pxl
her2vfont hershey to vfont
mac2bdf Macintosh font to bdf
pktogf pk to gf
pktopx pk to pxl
pxtopk pxl to pk
vf2bdf vfont to bdf
5. List of programs to generate Font Metric information
Program Font Metric Description
--------------------------------------------------------------
MetaFont tfm (TeX) (also generates gf font files)
afmtopl
pltotfm
Note: ( From: "ken@cs.rochester.edu" "Ken Yap" 27-JAN-1989 18:56)
Keep in mind that font metrics are not completely divorced
from the font bitmaps or outlines. The metrics describe the ideal,
scalable dimensions, while the bitmap files have the actual pixel
widths. Metrics files are used to describe families of fonts such as
TeX and PostScript fonts. Fonts for screens generally only have pixel
widths.
6. Contributers
Ken Yap ken@cs.rochester.edu
--
edwards@vms.macc.wisc.edu
UW-Madison, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706