9.2. Installing Fonts for TEX

In the previous section, we described font management under TEX at every level: the user level; the level of TEX and DVI; and the level of PostScript. At this point, we shall assume that we have purchased, or downloaded from the network, some fonts that we would like to use with TEX. If they are METAFONT fonts, we need only place them in a location where METAFONT can find them, launch mktexlsr so that the TEX system knows they are there, and the mktexpf and mktexmf scripts will do everything else; there is nothing more to say on this subject. Therefore, we shall assume that we are dealing with PostScript fonts.

To adapt them for use with TEX, we have to work at the three levels that we just mentioned:

  • At the LATEX level, we have to provide one (or more) NFSS font family name(s) to the new fonts and prepare one (or more) FD file(s).

  • At the TEX/DVI level, we have to prepare TFM files for the new fonts, in both their original encoding and an encoding that TEX can use, such as T1.

  • At the PostScript level, we have to prepare virtual fonts that will make the connection between the TFM files in the TEX encoding and the TFM files in the original encoding. We must also update the configuration file for dvips, possibly with commands for converting between encodings.

Let us be a little more practical. We are starting from the assumption that we have at our disposal some PFB/PFA files (PostScript Type 1) and AFM files (PostScript Type 1 font metrics) files, that ...

Get Fonts & Encodings now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.