Out of Date? Up to Date?

Out of Date? Up to Date?

[David Arnold]

All,

If I read:

http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/mfonts.pdf

How up to date or out of date is the information in this manual?

David

Re: Out of Date? Up to Date?

[Taco Hoekwater]

David Arnold wrote:
> All,
> 
> If I read:
> 
> http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/mfonts.pdf
> 
> How up to date or out of date is the information in this manual?

Hi David,

It looks like it is still quite up-to-date, but some of the
examples it gives may no longer be the very best and latest
way of doing things, and possibly there are some new developments
that do not get as much attention as desired (like texfont, and
the issues arising from font map files). Overall, the document
appears accurate, though.

An important thing to remember is this:

   ConTeXt does not share font metric conventions with LaTeX.

(at one point it started doing so, like supporting the Karl
Berry naming scheme and the psnfss style font family names,
but that has since been abandoned).

Another important thing is that it also does not share font
map files with LaTeX and, specifically,

   ConTeXt does not make pdfetex read pdftex.map.

(this is at the root of a great many problems reported by
users only familiar with nfss)


The preferred format for metric files in ConTeXt is

   <vendor>/<familyname>/<encoding>-<fontname>.tfm

for metrics and

   <encoding>-<vendor>-<familyname>.map

for the mapping files.

   <fontname> is usually derived from the font source (afm or ttf),
   <encoding> is a 'controlled' list,
   <vendor> and <familyname> are user-supplied (at install time).

There are ways to trick ConTeXt into using different conventions,
but if you do that you are likely to run into trouble (as you
have experienced).

Greetings,

Taco

Re: Out of Date? Up to Date?

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am 2005-11-20 um 11:27 schrieb Taco Hoekwater:

> An important thing to remember is this:
>   ConTeXt does not share font metric conventions with LaTeX.

Thank you for this summary, I just added it to the Fonts page in the  
wiki.

Grüßlis vom Hraban!
---
http://www.fiee.net/texnique/
http://contextgarden.net
http://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer)

Re: Out of Date? Up to Date?

[Thomas A. Schmitz]

Taco,

isn't this a bit too general? All the fonts I have converted with  
texfont are shared by LaTeX and ConTeXt, and I haven't had any  
trouble so far. My rule of thumb was: if the font itself (i.e. the  
tfm) works at the basic level of TeX recognizing and using it,  
everything else is just a question of a clever use of typescripts  
(ConTeXt) and font definitions (LaTeX). The only precondition: I  
gather all the relevant lines into one big mapfile which is read by  
ConTeXt at runtime (\loadmapfile[my.map]) and has to be enabled via  
updmap-sys for LaTeX. But AFAICS, the Berry-namimg scheme is not  
necessary even for LaTeX. Or am I being overoptimistic?

Best

Thomas

On Nov 20, 2005, at 11:27 AM, Taco Hoekwater wrote:

>
> An important thing to remember is this:
>
>   ConTeXt does not share font metric conventions with LaTeX.
>
> (at one point it started doing so, like supporting the Karl
> Berry naming scheme and the psnfss style font family names,
> but that has since been abandoned).
>
> Another important thing is that it also does not share font
> map files with LaTeX and, specifically,
>
>   ConTeXt does not make pdfetex read pdftex.map.
>
> (this is at the root of a great many problems reported by
> users only familiar with nfss)
>
>
> The preferred format for metric files in ConTeXt is
>
>   <vendor>/<familyname>/<encoding>-<fontname>.tfm
>
> for metrics and
>
>   <encoding>-<vendor>-<familyname>.map
>
> for the mapping files.
>
>   <fontname> is usually derived from the font source (afm or ttf),
>   <encoding> is a 'controlled' list,
>   <vendor> and <familyname> are user-supplied (at install time).
>
> There are ways to trick ConTeXt into using different conventions,
> but if you do that you are likely to run into trouble (as you
> have experienced).
>

Re: Out of Date? Up to Date?

[Taco Hoekwater]

Thomas A. Schmitz wrote:
> Taco,
> 
> isn't this a bit too general? 

Yes, I have simplified considerably, but I believe my statements
are a good guideline for users that do not have in-depth knowledge
of the workings of ConTeXt, esp. those that are used to LaTeX.

> But AFAICS, the Berry-namimg scheme is not  necessary even for LaTeX. Or 
> am I being overoptimistic?


Not quite necessary I think, but it sure makes using fontinst easier
if you do. And there is an analogous situation for the Hagen-naming
scheme and texfont ;-)

Cheers,

Taco

Re: Out of Date? Up to Date?

[Hans Hagen]

David Arnold wrote:

> All,
>
> If I read:
>
> http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/mfonts.pdf
>
> How up to date or out of date is the information in this manual?

actually i'm editing this file now, and i'll upload a newer version in a 
while


Hans

Re: Out of Date? Up to Date?

[David Arnold]

Wanna send me what you have and I'll annotate it with suggestions,  
much as we did with Metafun?

On Nov 21, 2005, at 12:58 AM, Hans Hagen wrote:

> David Arnold wrote:
>
>
>> All,
>>
>> If I read:
>>
>> http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/mfonts.pdf
>>
>> How up to date or out of date is the information in this manual?
>>
>
> actually i'm editing this file now, and i'll upload a newer version  
> in a while
>
>
> Hans
>
> _______________________________________________
> ntg-context mailing list
> ntg-context@ntg.nl
> http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
>
>

David

Re: Out of Date? Up to Date?

[Hans Hagen]

David Arnold wrote:

> Wanna send me what you have and I'll annotate it with suggestions,  
> much as we did with Metafun?

sure, suggestions (goes for all manuals) are welcome,

Hans