RE: chancery font

[Idris Samawi Hamid <ishamid@lamar.colostate.edu>]

>===== Original Message From ciro@kavyata.com, mailing list for ConTeXt users 
<ntg-context@ntg.nl> =====
>My problem goes beyond fonts. What I think I need is a simple explanation
>of the TeX-like package system.  For instance:
>
>I see tetex,pdftex,contex, latex,web2c,...and so on, but I don't understand
>their interrelation/dependency.

teTeX, fpTeX, gwTeX, and MiKTeX are os-dependent distrbutions.

LaTeX and ConTeXt are os-independent macropackages.

Web2C is the Pascal-to-C translator that allows compilation of TeX on Unix, 
Windows, etc. /web2c is the directory that contains configuration files and 
os-dependent format files. But I don't know why it's called "/web2c"

>Why the livetex tree is like it is?  What is needed for a context user?

ConTeXt has become so detailed and powerful, and changes so fast, that the 
os-dependent distrbutions can't keep up. I predict that one day ConTeXt will 
be completely independent of TeXLive. Some of the problems many of us have 
been facing ultimately boil down to the growing, but not yet complete, 
independence of ConTeXt from TeXLive. Personally, I think this a good thing, 
because ConTeXt is really a stand-alone system in the final analysis. 
mswincontext.zip is _almost_ there; maybe Hans could use volunteers to build 
and maintain independent Mac and Unix packages a la mswincontext.zip. Then we 
could contribute to a test/torture suite to make sure that everything runs 
identically on all os's. Each of us may have pet issues that concern us (I 
have my aleph work for example, there are fonts, xml, etc).

>What are the steps to upgrade context with a cont-tmf.zip and a texlive2004?
>Would it be possible to create an shell script that automize all this?

I would get the tetex package from pragma, install it in its own tree, define 
your path so that your ConTeXt bin is searched BEFORE TeXLive's, and have your 
shell script initialize your tree (maybe there are instructions in the teTeX 
package). I modified my setuptex.bat so that my ConTeXt tree would search my 
TeXLive tree as well; I suppose you could do the same with setuptex.csh.

>
>Where are fonts registered/stored/mapped/encoded?

There is a document somewhere on the TeX Directory Structure (tds), I think. 
Look in /texmf/doc/tds

>
>Most books on TeX,latex, etc, only explain how to use them, but not
>the 'system administration' part, which must of us have to learn as well.

There is an old book, Making TeX Work, that aimed to do just this. But it's 11 
years old and woefully out of date.

>
>BTW, I used Idris instructions (without step4 because my texfont works)
>and I have installed three different fonts so far. Actually, I
>converted TTF fonts
>to pfb/afm, then used the Idris steps, and I am happy.

How did you convert ttf>pfb? I did this once using FontLab and I lost all my 
macron accents:-(

But texfont and pdfetex work with ttf files so there is no need to convert:-)

Now I hace to learn how
>to build typescript files, and learn where to put them,

What I did was just get one complete working typescript and model my other 
typescripts on that one. If type-ugm is working for you, just study that one. 
Five steps:

% raw fonts
%Names
%Synonyms
%maps
%typefaces

Note that you can mix and match fonts to create your own complete typefaces. I 
am enclosing a typescript I did for Times New Roman and Arial (type-tnr.tex) 
that I posted a few weeks ago.

About placing type-* files: You can put them anywhere in your TeX path; I put 
mine, along with some other private configuration files, in 
/texmf-local/tex/generic/private, but you can put them anywhere you like under 
your TeX path.

>and the mapping/encoding
>business.

I think you don't have to worry about this too much, except that texfont 
defaults to texnansi, while the fonts that come with TeXLive are mostly ec. So 
you should avoid use of \char as much as possible in your macros, and stick to 
character control sequences like \circumflex.

Best
Idris

============================
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523