Re: Re: Fonts again in ConTeXt

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

At 04:43 PM 3/12/2003 +0100, Patrick Gundlach wrote:

>None that I know of. But this is IMHO irelevant: the current TeX
>practice is:
>
>1) TeX macro package (aka LaTeX ;-) asks for "Adobe Helvetica", it
>    gets the font metrics from "phv....tfm". Then, in the map files
>    the users decides whether to use the original adobe fonts or the
>    substitues.

Right, and that is why so many docs look bad! Those metrics differ. The 
same for times: adobe times metrics even differ/change over time (nelson 
beebe has done some excellent research on this; see pdftex mail archives); 
this is the main reason why i stick to urw times and palatino etc. Also, 
they go well with math times (tx) and math palatino (px).

>2) TeX macro package (aka ConTeXt ;-) asks for "URW Nimbus Sans"
>    a) on TeXlive (and perhaps any other I don't kown of) it gets the
>       metrics from "uhv....tfm". Then, in the map files the user has
>       no choice; the dvi/pdf driver should take Nimbus Sans.

well, context users should have gs on their system anyway since it's a 
great tool for previewing (in th eprocess of stylewriting).

>    b) on teTeX (+...?) with some special mappings it gets the
>       "phv....tfm" metrics. Then see above at 1).
>
>I think it is wrong behaviour to explicitly ask for the substitution
>and leave the user no choice about which variant (adobe, urw) to use.

hm, but you can of course make a typescript: berry-adobe

> > concerning the broken german ss: the polish font gurus (you'll meet
> > them at the dante meeting) have made extended versions of those urw
> > fonts, so maybe that will help. [the normal urw also don't have
> > ogoneked glyphs]
>
>Well, concerning the ss: Just install the Adobe Helvetica (free) and
>that's it (except for patching ConTeXt ;-)

well, as far as i know adobe stopped adding the famou s15 to distributions; 
also, beware: acrobat will replace helvetica etc by the system specific 
preference, which of course has different metrics (arial on windows), and 
again, is one reason why files start looking real ugly.

so, i play safe, but as said, if you provide additional typescripts ...

Hans
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