Virtual font tip

Virtual font tip

[Matt Gushee]

Hello, all--

After purchasing the FontSite 500 CD, I wanted to make good use of some
of the nice text fonts it contains--in particular I wanted to create
TeX virtual fonts that would add ff, ffi, and ffl ligatures and 
replace the ugly ( ;-) ) lining numerals with old-style figures.

After considerable effort I figured out how to edit the VPL files for
the desired effect. I also wrote a Python script to automate the
process, though it may well not work for anyone else. Anyway, since
I have found very little documentation on virtual fonts, I thought
others might benefit from my experience, so I wrote up the procedure
and posted in the (new) TeX Tips section of my Web site.

So, if anyone is interested in this subject, have a look at

  http://havenrock.com/textips/bookfonts.html

Please let me know if you find any errors or points that need to be
clarified.


-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee@havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)

Re: Virtual font tip

[Matt Gushee]

On Wed, Jul 07, 2004 at 08:48:14AM -0500, Bill McClain wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 18:07:39 -0600
> Matt Gushee <mgushee@havenrock.com> wrote:
> 
> > Please let me know if you find any errors or points that need to be
> > clarified.
> 
> Very nice page! I think there is a typo here:
> 
>       $ for fam in *; do
>       > texexec --ve=fontsite --co=$fam --so=$fam --ma --in \
>           --virtual --expert
>       > done
>  
> Should be "texfont" instead of "texexec"?

Oops! You're absolutely right. I'll go fix that.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee@havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)

Re: Virtual font tip

[Holger Schöner]

Hello,

On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Matt Gushee wrote:
> Hello, all--
> 
> After purchasing the FontSite 500 CD, I wanted to make good use of some
> of the nice text fonts it contains--in particular I wanted to create
> TeX virtual fonts that would add ff, ffi, and ffl ligatures and 
> replace the ugly ( ;-) ) lining numerals with old-style figures.

I do not know, whether this is exactly what you looked for. But I found a 
page by Christopher League, who created those virtual fonts (I think) for 
use in LaTeX. I had good success in using the stuff he put on his webpage as 
well for ConTeXt, and have set up a page in the Wiki, at

	http://members.ping.de:8062/context/show/FontSite

with a description and some sample typescripts.

Yours,

-- 
Holger F. Schoener	TU Berlin; Dept. IV: EE and Computer Science
hfsch@cs.tu-berlin.de	http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~hfsch/
Rooms FR2525		Tel: +49-30-314-73115, Fax: -73121
Office FR 2-1		Franklinstr. 28/29, D-10587 Berlin, Germany

Re: Virtual font tip

[Matt Gushee]

On Thu, Jul 08, 2004 at 01:03:55PM +0200, Holger Schöner wrote:
> 
> > After purchasing the FontSite 500 CD, I wanted to make good use of some
> > of the nice text fonts it contains--in particular I wanted to create
> > TeX virtual fonts that would add ff, ffi, and ffl ligatures and 
> > replace the ugly ( ;-) ) lining numerals with old-style figures.
> 
> I do not know, whether this is exactly what you looked for. But I found a 
> page by Christopher League, who created those virtual fonts (I think) for 
> use in LaTeX. I had good success in using the stuff he put on his webpage as 
> well for ConTeXt, and have set up a page in the Wiki, at

Oh, I love when people provide solutions for my problems after I've
already solved them for myself! Of course, I never asked. Maybe I should
have.

Thanks anyway.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee@havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)

Re: Virtual font tip

[Adam Lindsay]

Don't be discouraged, Matt.

I think your tool is really nifty--it's precisely one of those "if I have
time, I'll learn about VPLs" projects that I wanted to have realised at
some point. Your solution goes far beyond the FontSite500 support, as far
as I can see.

cheers,
adam

Matt Gushee said this at Thu, 8 Jul 2004 07:50:35 -0600:

>On Thu, Jul 08, 2004 at 01:03:55PM +0200, Holger Schöner wrote:
>>
>> > After purchasing the FontSite 500 CD, I wanted to make good use of some
>> > of the nice text fonts it contains--in particular I wanted to create
>> > TeX virtual fonts that would add ff, ffi, and ffl ligatures and
>> > replace the ugly ( ;-) ) lining numerals with old-style figures.
>>
>> I do not know, whether this is exactly what you looked for. But I found a
>> page by Christopher League, who created those virtual fonts (I think) for
>> use in LaTeX. I had good success in using the stuff he put on his
>webpage as
>> well for ConTeXt, and have set up a page in the Wiki, at
>
>Oh, I love when people provide solutions for my problems after I've
>already solved them for myself! Of course, I never asked. Maybe I should
>have.
>
>Thanks anyway.
>
>--
>Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
>Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
>mgushee@havenrock.com           its fields;
>http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
>                            Horses bear soldiers through
>                                its streets.
>
>                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)
>_______________________________________________
>ntg-context mailing list
>ntg-context@ntg.nl
>http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Adam T. Lindsay                      atl@comp.lancs.ac.uk
 Computing Dept, Lancaster University   +44(0)1524/594.537
 Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK             Fax:+44(0)1524/593.608
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Re: Virtual font tip

[Matt Gushee]

On Thu, Jul 08, 2004 at 03:25:03PM +0100, Adam Lindsay wrote:
> Don't be discouraged, Matt.

Oh, I wasn't really discouraged, just mildly sarcastic (as much as I
dare to be toward someone who was just trying to help ;-)

> I think your tool is really nifty--it's precisely one of those "if I have
> time, I'll learn about VPLs" projects that I wanted to have realised at
> some point. Your solution goes far beyond the FontSite500 support, as far
> as I can see.

Yes and no. Probably the technique is generally applicable, but the
specific script I used relies on:

 * The way FontSite organizes their font families (including the 
   specific code points assigned to the ligatures, which may be
   common but are probably not universal);

 * The file names generated by texfont; and

 * The organization and formatting of the VPL files that I had to
   work with. I expect these will vary depending on a number of
   circumstances, but I don't know exactly how.

I would welcome suggestions (or patches) that will help make the script
more generally useful.

Thanks for the encouragement.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee@havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)