LaTeX And TrueType Font


Table of Contents

Using a truetype font in TeX 
Using a truetype font in TeX 
Using TrueType fonts with TeX (LaTeX) and pdfTeX (pdfLaTeX) 
Before we begin (TeX) 
Creating TeX Font Metrics (tfm) 
Creating Virtual Fonts (vf) 
Installation of fonts for TeX and LaTeX 
Testing the installation in TeX 
Using new fonts in TeX 
Using new fonts in LaTeX 
Testing the installation in pdfTeX 
Using a Truetype font in Pdflatex 
Checking the Pdftex version 
Providing the font metrics files 
Setting up the Latex font 
Cleaning up the mess 
True Type to Type1 Conversion 
Printing TrueType fonts in Unix 
Conversion to Type 42 
Conversion of outlines to Type 1 or Type 3 
Conversion to bitmaps 
Plans about supporting TrueType/Type42 fonts in dvips 
The No BS Guide To TeTeX Font Installation 
Synopsis 
The No BS Guide To TeTeX Font Installation 
Converting True Type Fonts to Type1 for TeTeX / LaTeX 
Getting the Type1 fonts into TeX 
Fonts and LaTeX 
Fonts and LaTeX 
Unicode text with Pdflatex 

Using a truetype font in TeX 

> I've got a truetype font and i need to output a
> .dvi/.ps file using that font. How do i do it?

If you are using a Unix/Linux system, there is a shell-script available which will do pretty much all of the work for you: see http://lehman.virtualave.net/files/ttf2tex.tar.gz. There is good documentation with the script which explains what needs to be done to install TrueType fonts — you may want to read it even if you can't use the script. Essentially the same method (though done manually) is described at http://www.radamir.com/tex/

Note that there are two (at least) methods of using TTF's with TeX. You can convert the TTF's to Postscript Type 1 fonts, and then install and use them as you would any other Type1 font. This is the method described by the document in the /info/truetype (IIRC) directory of CTAN. The problem with this is that there is always a loss of quality in the translation --- some fonts I have tried converting this way end up looking downright nasty.

Much better (and this is how the linked documents above do it) is to use the program ttf2pk — which employs the FreeType library, available for all platforms from CTAN (and, if you run Linux, it's probably already part of your system) — which creates pk files `on the fly' directly from the .ttf file, when they are needed in the document. TTF files can also be embedded directly into a PDF document, and PDFTeX can do it; the explanations are given at the links above.

Robert

Using a truetype font in TeX 

> > TTF files can also be embedded directly into a PDF document, and
> > PDFTeX can do it; the explanations are given at the links above.
>
> Do they appear scalable or as bitmaps?

They are embedded as vector fonts if all is configured correctly. BTW: dvips can embed TrueType fonts as vector fonts, too.

Christian.