Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Path: utzoo!sq!lee
From: lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin)
Subject: Re: The plethora of Font formats- please please clarify
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.020145.14290@sq.sq.com>
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
References: <jmn.667765696@power.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 91 02:01:45 GMT
Lines: 53

>Just off the top of my head I can think of tfm, gf, pk, pxl, and [mf]
>(and afm- but I guess that's a printer thing). What are all these?

tfm	TeX Font Metrics
	this is where TeX stores information about the width of each
	character, kerning, and so forth.

gf	This is a simple graphis format that unfortunately is not very
	space-efficient.

pxl	for PiXeL fonts -- obsolete.  Archive and delete.  After a decade,
	delete the archive.  After 10 years and 2 weeks, wish you hadn't :-)

pk	PacKed format -- like gf, but very space efficent.  In fact,
		gftopk font10.300pk
	produces a smaller file than
		compress font10.300pk
	and has the added advantage that all of the TeX drivers these days
	understand pk fonts...!

mf	A .mf file is a program which, when interpreted by Metafont, will
	produce (if it is correct..., and if this is its intent...) a
	bitmap font in gf format.  Metafont will also produce the tfm file.
	Turn the gf file into a pk file, and copy the pk file and the tfm
	file into your TeX fonts directory, updating "fontdesc" if you're
	using Chris Torek's "mctex" package.

afm	Adobe Font metrics -- for PostScript fonts only.  Contains widths,
	encoding info and kerning.  Keep these, since there are programs
	that will make a .tfm file from them.

Moral:

If you have metafont working, you should keep tfm, afm, pk and mf.  Do not
keep gf files lying around.  Turn them into pk ones with "gftopk".

If you don't have mefatont, you can archive the .mf files, but you still
should not keep gf files around.

>Can I get xdvi to generate the fonts it wants from tfm's? Maybe by using
>MakeTeXPK (from dvips547).
No, you need the .mf files, and then it can generate (if you have the latest
version) the .pk and .tfm files from that.  But TeX will need the .tfm file
in order to create the dvi file...

Hope this helps.

Lee

-- 
Liam R. E. Quin,  lee@sq.com, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, +1 (416) 963-8337
    `A wrong that cannot be repaired must be transcended'
						Ursula K. Le Guin, in _Tehanu_
