fonts from scratch: what's the way?

fonts from scratch: what's the way?

[Andrea Valle]

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Hi to all,

after some "eccentric" projects (musical notation, presentations,  
posters...) I'm starting my first "core"  project with ConTeXt.
We have a review here at the university which has been published  
until now  by a publisher. As we are having bad typography and bad  
distribution, and, more, we have to pay for these two services, we  
are moving it to the web as a series of downloadable pdfs (maybe with  
Lulu support).
Obviously I've proposed ConTeXt.

Now:
- I think I can manage the project organization as I have already  
done it for other projects following
http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Project_structure

- I think I can define style, format etc using the manuals and the  
list archive and support

But:

Fonts are really a mysterious topics. Because of this facts, I have  
always used default ones. As far as I have understood, The Mk IV  
issue should simplify the situation but (I really don't want to be  
indelicate) this is really a horror film for a newbie:
http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Mark_IV

I'm using TeXLive installation on a macosx (mactex: http:// 
www.tug.org/mactex/)
So:

- should I know something about the metrics and other trickery? In  
that case, really a picture is worth ten thousand words.
- how do I know which fonts are installed by the distro? AFAIK, it  
seems that this is a fairly complicated topic. Which seems to be  
pretty bizarre, because if they are unusable, why should they be  
installed?

Experimenting with

\enableregime[mac]
\usetypescript[berry][ec] % or [8r]
\usetypescript[palatino][ec] %
\definetypeface[bookman][rm][serif][bookman][default][encoding=ec]
\usetypescript[berry][ec] % or [8r]
\definetypeface[charter][rm][serif][charter][default][encoding=ec]

\starttext
\setupbodyfont[palatino]
çèòîàùé


\setupbodyfont[pos]
çèòîàùé


\setupbodyfont[bookman]
çèòîàùé


\setupbodyfont[charter]
çèòîàùé

\stoptext

(from http://home.salamander.com/~wmcclain/context-help.html#intro)

Seems to work but I don't know why and how...

- so, excluding "secret" pre-installed fonts, what I have to do to  
choose a (free) font ?
- and how do I install it on my machine?
- I.e.: what have I to do? Stay on mark II or switch to mark IV? This  
"mark" issue has confused me a lot more...:)

I think a real tutorial on the font subject is lacking. All the  
available infos () in some way require IMHO a relevant knowledge
So I am solemnly saying that I will wikify the discussion...

Many thanks

Best

-a-


--------------------------------------------------
Andrea Valle
--------------------------------------------------
CIRMA - DAMS
Università degli Studi di Torino
--> http://www.cirma.unito.it/andrea/
--> andrea.valle@unito.it
--------------------------------------------------


I did this interview where I just mentioned that I read Foucault. Who  
doesn't in university, right? I was in this strip club giving this  
guy a lap dance and all he wanted to do was to discuss Foucault with  
me. Well, I can stand naked and do my little dance, or I can discuss  
Foucault, but not at the same time; too much information.
(Annabel Chong)





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___________________________________________________________________________________
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maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: fonts from scratch: what's the way?

[Arthur Reutenauer]

> Fonts are really a mysterious topics.

  Fonts have always been a complicated subject indeed, but there's no
reason why they should be a mystery.

> this is really a horror film for a newbie:
> http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Mark_IV

  What exactly do you find horrible there? It's of course not a
beginner's guide to Mark IV but I think it shows you some new features,
nothing more. There's basically nothing on that page.

> - should I know something about the metrics and other trickery?

  I would say yes. It always pays off anyway. But it depends on what you
want to do. At the very least you should know what tfm files are and
where they're installed in your TeX distribution. At most ... well,
there's virtually no upper bound on that ;-)

> - how do I know which fonts are installed by the distro? AFAIK, it  
> seems that this is a fairly complicated topic.

  For ConTeXt, look at the typescript definitions in type-***.tex. These
give you high-level access to fonts. Not all are freely available; for
example, the typescripts defined in type-buy.tex need font files that,
as the name says, you should buy. But most of them are usable out of the
box.

> Experimenting with
>
> [snip]
>
> Seems to work but I don't know why and how...

  These all are defined in the default typescripts. If you only wish to
change the default fonts, this is all you need. Otherwise you have to
write the equivalent TeX code for your own fonts (not too difficult),
and install them in your distribution (this can be quite painful).

> - so, excluding "secret" pre-installed fonts, what I have to do to  
> choose a (free) font ?
> - and how do I install it on my machine?
> - I.e.: what have I to do? Stay on mark II or switch to mark IV? This  
> "mark" issue has confused me a lot more...:)

  Judging by your questions and what you say you intend to do, I don't
think you would really benefit from Mark IV. Staying with Mark II is
fine, but actually, if your main concern is about fonts, I suggest you
have a look at XeTeX; look at the wiki for instructions and examples.
ConTeXt with XeTeX is known as Mark III, although the name is much less
used.

> I think a real tutorial on the font subject is lacking. All the  
> available infos () in some way require IMHO a relevant knowledge

  True. But you do realize that your last sentence is true of any
TeX-related topic, right? So you should not be discouraged in advance.
And what about http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/mfonts.pdf for
a start?

  If you have access to the TUGboat, the last issue has a great article
by Idris that explains the whole process of installing and configuring
new fonts.

  I can answer more of your questions if you want, but you really need
to figure out what you want to do. My guess is that you only want to
find a set of matching fonts and define a typescript. Try to experiment
with more pre-defined typescripts like you did above, and look at the
code defining them (it may need some work to find and understand it, but
it's worth the trouble); then you can start defining your own
typescript and installing your own fonts. Much of this is extremely
simplified in XeTeX (both TeX macros and font installation); that's why
I recommend you have a look at it too (there, typescript aren't needed
at all actually; you can access bodyfonts directly).

	Arthur
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
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___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: fonts from scratch: what's the way?

[Andrea Valle]

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On 4 Sep 2007, at 23:00, Arthur Reutenauer wrote:
>   Fonts have always been a complicated subject indeed, but there's no
> reason why they should be a mystery.

Of course, but I have to say that I wasn't able to find an  
introductory document explaining the whole stuff from the beginning.

>   What exactly do you find horrible there?
Nothing of course :) I was joking. But as the first page of the wiki  
is the starting point for many beginner, well, I would say that the  
second paragraph is misplaced.
Starting from its title it seems to suggest that mark IV is what you  
need in order to run ConTeXt, so go and download it. I think that the  
paragraph could be placed
in http://wiki.contextgarden.net/What_is_ConTeXt, when one has  
already understood what is pdfTeX.


[thanks for all the infos]

>   Judging by your questions and what you say you intend to do, I don't
> think you would really benefit from Mark IV. Staying with Mark II is
> fine, but actually, if your main concern is about fonts, I suggest you
> have a look at XeTeX; look at the wiki for instructions and examples.
> ConTeXt with XeTeX is known as Mark III, although the name is much  
> less
> used.
>

Thanks. It is exactly what I have started doing (with success until  
now at least). You're right, I think I can go with XeTeX.

Many thanks

Best

-a-

--------------------------------------------------
Andrea Valle
--------------------------------------------------
CIRMA - DAMS
Università degli Studi di Torino
--> http://www.cirma.unito.it/andrea/
--> andrea.valle@unito.it
--------------------------------------------------


I did this interview where I just mentioned that I read Foucault. Who  
doesn't in university, right? I was in this strip club giving this  
guy a lap dance and all he wanted to do was to discuss Foucault with  
me. Well, I can stand naked and do my little dance, or I can discuss  
Foucault, but not at the same time; too much information.
(Annabel Chong)



--------------------------------------------------
Andrea Valle
--------------------------------------------------
CIRMA - DAMS
Università degli Studi di Torino
--> http://www.cirma.unito.it/andrea/
--> andrea.valle@unito.it
--------------------------------------------------


I did this interview where I just mentioned that I read Foucault. Who  
doesn't in university, right? I was in this strip club giving this  
guy a lap dance and all he wanted to do was to discuss Foucault with  
me. Well, I can stand naked and do my little dance, or I can discuss  
Foucault, but not at the same time; too much information.
(Annabel Chong)





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___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________

Re: fonts from scratch: what's the way?

[Arthur Reutenauer]

> Of course, but I have to say that I wasn't able to find an  
> introductory document explaining the whole stuff from the beginning.

  There is no such thing, because there is not one beginning. “Fonts” is
far too generic a concept anyway, and can probably not be covered within
one single document (actually it can, but then it's one thousand pages
thick).

  I still find that mfonts.pdf is a good starting point for most uses,
though.

> Nothing of course :) I was joking. But as the first page of the wiki  
> is the starting point for many beginner, well, I would say that the  
> second paragraph is misplaced.

  Feel free to modify it, then. It is a wiki.

> Starting from its title it seems to suggest that mark IV is what you  
> need in order to run ConTeXt, so go and download it.

  I think the ConTeXt community can deal with that small amount of
publicity and incentive so I don't agree; but again, this is a wiki,
every constructive contribution is welcome. The “What is ConTeXt?”
article could be enhanced a lot, anyway.

	Arthur
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
___________________________________________________________________________________