[comp.text.tex] substituting fonts on the fly

ribet@maalox.berkeley.edu (Kenneth A. Ribet) (08/04/90)

I have a document which loads a relatively uncommon font.  I'd like to
be able to typeset this document, with a substitute font, on machines
where the desired font is not necessarily available.  Is there a simple
way to run the document so that the desired font is loaded if available,
and a substitute font is loaded if not?

Specifically, suppose that I want \a to be the font "bizarre" if it
is loadable, and cmr10 if not.  I can certainly write

    \batchmode
      \font\a=bizarre
    \errorstopmode
    \ifx\a\nullfont\font\a=cmr10 \else \fi

and get the effect that I desire.  (I don't want TeX to stop if bizarre
can't be found.)  I am assuming that no one will complain about being
put into \errorstopmode, but this is perhaps not true.  Also, I suspect
that there's a simpler way to do this.

Any hints?

Ken Ribet                         ucbvax!maalox!ribet
UC Berkeley Math Department       ribet@math.berkeley.edu