Re: Changing Fonts

[John Culleton <john@wexfordpress.com>]

On Monday 29 July 2002 11:12 am, Marc wrote:
> I apologise for my complete ignorance, but I would really
> appreciate a little help in getting going. ConTeXt seems to offer
> a great deal, but without access to one or two other fonts it's
> not going to be of much use to me, I'm afraid. So far it has been
> suggested to me to read:
http://home.salamander.com/~wmcclain/context-help.html mfonts.pdf

Ah, yes the familiar font traps for the newbie. lbr is Lucida Bright, and
that particular font must be purchased and installed. There are lots of other 
fonts available however.  

I ran into the same frustrations so I began by using the primitive TeX font
commands, which are available on any version of TeX including Context.
Here is the four step drill: 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Check for a useful font.  Search the subdirectories under
/usr/TeX/texmf/fonts/type1
for a suitable pfb file for the font. For Helvetica  the font file 
/usr/TeX/texmf/fonts/type1/urw/helvetic/uhvr8a.pfb.
is the right one.

2, Now search 
/usr/TeX/texmf/pdftex/config/psfonts.map
for the entry for this file. You will find a line like this:
uhvr8r NimbusSanL-Regu "TeXBase1Encoding ReEncodeFont" <8r.enc <uhvr8a.pfb

The first word and last words are important. The last word is the name of the
pfb file you just found and the first word is the internal TeX font name. 

(Now, why not reverse the process, and look in psfonts.map first? Well, the 
psfonts.map file lists lots of fonts that you don't have. You must have both a 
pfb file and a listing in psfonts.map. You need some other stuff too, but if 
you have the pfb and the psfonts.map listing in your tex distro chances are 
the other bits and pieces are also there.)

3. in your tex file put a statement like:
\font\myhv uhvr8r at 12pt

4. Now any time you want to use the font you can say:
 {\myhv Here is some text.}
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now this is the wrong way to use fonts in Context. But it gets you started.
The Right Way is an elaborate maypole dance involving an external
script and multiple statements within Context itself. The site cited 
previously has some good examples of external font scripts. 

There is also a separate manual on font usage ``Fonts in Context'' on the 
Context site. 
Look for the file mfonts.pdf

Another useful manual is ``Fonts in Context: Exanples of Typescripts''
look for the file showfonts.pdf.

There is yet another manual (YAFM) on loading in fonts from other sources.
Look for mtexfont.pdf

I found it useful to go to the Context site and just download every manual I 
could find. 

But to get started, just settle for Computer Modern or go through the four 
step drill above. 

Font handling is messy enough that I tend to fight my way through all the
steps for using e.g., Palatino and then just use it for everything. 

HTH

John Culleton