[comp.text.tex] font confusion

erickson@kira.msu.edu (Carl Erickson) (09/13/90)

Can someone point me to a single coherent source of information
on fonts for TeX/LaTeX?

If I want a font called "nice", do I need both "nice.mf" and "nice.tfm"?  
Is there anything else I'd need to use that font on a NeXT?

Is there a list of fonts that have been created for TeX?

Better yet, is there a list with samples of fonts?

Can someone suggest a TeX font that is close to "BerkeleyBook"?

Thanks for any info,

Carl Erickson
Michigan State University

--
erickson@frith.egr.msu.edu || uunet!frith!erickson || erickson@msuegr.bitnet

walter@hpsadle.HP.COM (Walter Coole) (09/15/90)

TeX needs the fontname.tfm file ONLY.  Most dvi drivers will require a
fontname.pk file with an appropriate resolution and aspect ratio at
the needed magnification (a fontname.gf can usually be easily conveted
or substituted).  With METAFONT, a fontname.mf can be used to produce
BOTH a .tfm and a .pk, but METAFONT is non-trivial to install for a
particular device/environment, so most people get the tfm's and pk's
from archive sites directly.  clarkson and labrea have fairly large
collections of fonts available in the common resolutions.  Most TeXing
is done using the Computer Modern family of fonts, which has enough
variety for the majority of applications.