Single file version available here.
Last updated on 2008-06-21.
To discuss, comment here.
| Prev | Next | |
| Home |
http://www.nso.edu/general/computing/TeX/local/general/local-html/fonts.html
Two categories of fonts are available for use with TeX at Sac Peak. Metafont fonts are fonts specifically designed to be used with TeX. In addition to the Metafont fonts, it is also possible to use some PostScript fonts with TeX.
Metafont is used to design fonts for TeX. Each font has one or more Metafont source files which are used to create a TeX font metric (tfm) file that is used by TeX during document layout and a packed font (pk) file which is used by xdvi or DVIPS to actually render the font for previewing or for printing. Metafont fonts are usually designed to be rendered at a specific point size (this is changing for the more commonly used fonts) and the pk files are created for specific types of output devices (e.g. HP LaserJet printers).
There are a large number of Metafont fonts available. The Metafont FAQ contains a list of all currently available Metafont fonts. The names of Metafont fonts are generally composed of three parts: the family name, the type of font, and the point size of the font. The family name is typically a simple abbreviation of two or more letters. For example, cm is the abbreviation for the Computer Modern font family. The nomenclature used for the designation of the font type is much more complicated, usually being a combination of a font description along with character width and weight designations. A possibly complete listing of the font type abbreviations for the font families available at Sac Peak is below.
b bold bf bold bsy bold symbols bx bold expanded bxsl bold expanded slanted bxti bold expanded text italic csc caps and small caps sc caps and small caps d demi-bold dunh dunhill ex math extension ff funny font fi funny font italic fib Fibonacci i italic inch inch high sans serif m medium mi math italic mib math italic bold r regular sdc sans serif caps and digits ssdc sans serif caps and digits sl slanted slc slanted condensed sltt slanted typewriter ss sans serif ssbx sans serif bold extended ssi sans serif italic ssq sans serif quotation ssqi sans serif quotation slanted sy symbols tcsc TeX caps and small caps tex TeX extension ti text italic tt typewriter u upright slanted vtt variable width typewriter
Thus a font name of cmbxsl10 corresponds to Computer Modern bold extended slanted at 10 points. A brief description of the currently available font families is below.
The American Mathematical Society has compiled a large collection of fonts for use in AMS publications. A detailed description of these fonts and how to use them with TeX and LaTeX can be found in the User's Guide to AMSFonts.
The European Computer Modern Font families are 256 character Computer Modern fonts containing built in support for typesetting in many different languages and thus contain many new characters. The naming convention for these fonts are somewhat different than for the rest of the Metafont fonts. The first two letters denote the encoding of the font. The current encodings are dc (which will evolve to ec for European Computer modern within a year or so) and tc for text companion fonts. The next letters denote the family, shape and series attributes of the font, as listed below.
b bold bi bold extended italic bl bold extended slanted bm bold roman bx bold extended cc caps and small caps ci classical serif italic dh dunhill ff funny font fi funny font italic fb Fibonacci it italic typewriter r roman si sans serif inclined sl slanted so sans serif bold extended oblique (slanted) ss sans serif ssdc sans serif demi-bold condensed st slanted typewriter sq sans serif quotation qi sans serif quotation inclined sx sans serif bold extended tc typewriter caps and small caps ti text italic tt typewriter u upright slanted vt variable width typewriter
Finally, the final four digits are the design size of the font in hundredths of a point (e.g. 1440 denotes 14.40 points). More complete documentation and instructions on how to use these fonts can be found in The European Computer Modern Fonts -Documentation-.
A set of common PostScript fonts, built into most PostScript printers, are available for use with TeX and LaTeX. If you are contemplating using PostScript fonts in a LaTeX document, I recommend you read Notes on setup of PostScript fonts for LaTeX2e. The naming of the fonts and is described in excruciating detail in Filenames for fonts. A listing of the available PostScript typefaces is below. It should be noted that all of the text fonts listed here are encoded with the Cork Encoding, compatible with the font encoding of the European Computer Modern Fonts.
Last updated on 7 June 1996 Craig Gullixson
documented on: 2008-06-21
| Prev | Next | |
| Home |