This is mf2pt1.info, produced by makeinfo version 5.2 from mf2pt1.texi.

Copyright (C) 2014 Scott Pakin



   This program may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions
of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3c of this license
or (at your option) any later version.


   The latest version of this license is in:

                <http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt>

   and version 1.3c or later is part of all distributions of LaTeX
version 2006/05/20 or later.

INFO-DIR-SECTION TeX
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* mf2pt1: (mf2pt1).   PostScript Type 1 fonts from Metafont source.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

mf2pt1
******

'mf2pt1' is a tool that lets font designers design PostScript Type 1
fonts using the Metafont language.  The same source file can be used to
produce both Type 1 ('.pfb') and bitmap ('.pk') fonts.

* Menu:

* Introduction::                Introduction to mf2pt1
* Usage::                       How to use mf2pt1
* Future Work::                 Features I may one day add to mf2pt1
* Acknowledgments::             People who helped with mf2pt1


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Introduction,  Next: Usage,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Introduction
**************

Metafont is a high-level, mathematically oriented language for producing
fonts.  The Metafont interpreter produces device-dependent bitmaps,
which render well at the target resolution on the target device, but
poorly at other resolutions or on other devices.  Adobe's PostScript Type 1
font format is the de facto font standard for printers these days.  It
is a vector format, which implies that it scales better than bitmaps,
and it delegates the device- and resolution-dependent tweaking from the
font source to the target device's PostScript renderer.  However, Type 1
fonts are extremely difficult to code by hand.  Usually, one uses a
WYSIWYG program to design a Type 1 font.  Metafont, with its
font-specific programming language, is an elegant alternative.  A font
designer can write reusable subroutines for repeated features, such as
serifs and accents.  He can define a font in terms of arbitrary
parameters, such as "boldness" or "italicness", making it trivial to
produce entire families of fonts from a single source (hence the "meta"
in the name "Metafont").  Ideally, we would like to design a font using
the Metafont language, but produce PostScript Type 1 output instead of
bitmaps.

   'mf2pt1' helps bridge the gap between Metafont and Type 1 fonts.
'mf2pt1' facilitates producing PostScript Type 1 fonts from a Metafont
source file.  It is _not_, as the name may imply, an automatic converter
of arbitrary Metafont fonts to Type 1 format.  'mf2pt1' imposes a number
of restrictions on the Metafont input.  If these restrictions are met,
'mf2pt1' will produce valid Type 1 output.

* Menu:

* Requirements::                Pre-installation checklist
* Installation::                How to install mf2pt1


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Requirements,  Next: Installation,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Introduction

1.1 Requirements
================

Before using 'mf2pt1', you will need to install the following programs:

Perl
     'mf2pt1' is written in Perl.  You will need a Perl interpreter to
     run it.

MetaPost
     'mf2pt1' actually uses MetaPost, not Metafont, to produce
     PostScript output.  Specifically, you will need the 'mpost'
     executable and the 'mfplain.mp' base file.

Type 1 Utilities
     Producing properly encoded Type 1 fonts is tricky.  'mf2pt1'
     delegates the effort to the Type 1 Utilities, specifically, to the
     't1asm' program within that suite.

FontForge (optional)
     FontForge is a WYSIWYG, but scriptable, Type 1 font-editing
     program.  Although FontForge is not strictly required for 'mf2pt1'
     to produce a Type 1 font, 'mf2pt1' uses FontForge when available to
     autohint the generated Type 1 font, thereby making it look better
     especially at lower resolutions.

   Perl is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
(http://www.cpan.org); MetaPost and the Type 1 utilities are available
from the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (http://www.ctan.org); and,
FontForge is available from <http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/>.  In
addition, MetaPost's home page is
<http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/hobby/MetaPost.html>, and the Type 1
utilities' home page is <http://www.lcdf.org/type/>.

   Besides being useful for autohinting fonts, FontForge enables a font
designer to hint fonts manually for additional fine-tuning and to
convert among a variety of font formats, such as PostScript, TrueType,
and X Window fonts.  FontForge is strongly recommended as a complement
to 'mf2pt1'.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Installation,  Prev: Requirements,  Up: Introduction

1.2 Installation
================

To install 'mf2pt1', move the 'mf2pt1' executable someplace where your
operating system can find it.  If you're running Microsoft Windows, you
should rename the program to 'mf2pt1.pl', so that Windows knows it's a
Perl script.  (Alternatively, if you have 'pl2bat', use that to produce
a 'mf2pt1.bat' file, which you can run as simply 'mf2pt1'.)

   The next step is to produce a 'mf2pt1.mem' file from the supplied
'mf2pt1.mp'.  The command to do this differs from system to system but
is usually something like the following:

     mpost -progname=mpost -ini mf2pt1 \\dump

   Move the resulting 'mf2pt1.mem' file someplace where MetaPost can
find it.


   The 'mf2pt1' documentation (what you're reading now) is written in
Texinfo and can therefore easily be converted to a variety of formats:

PDF ('mf2pt1.pdf')
          texi2pdf mf2pt1.texi

PostScript ('mf2pt1.ps')
          texi2dvi mf2pt1.texi
          dvips mf2pt1.dvi -o mf2pt1.ps

HTML ('mf2pt1.html')
          makeinfo --html mf2pt1.texi

Info ('mf2pt1.info')
          makeinfo mf2pt1.texi

N.B.  The 'install-info' command is a convenient way to install
'mf2pt1.info' on your system.


   On Unix, you may also want to generate an 'mf2pt1' man page.  The man
page is embedded within the 'mf2pt1' Perl script and can be extracted
with 'pod2man':

     pod2man --center="User Commands" --date="30 April 2014" \
       --release="v2.5a" mf2pt1 > mf2pt1.1

You can then move 'mf2pt1.1' into '/usr/man/man1' or any other man page
directory.  Note that the 'mf2pt1' man page is fairly rudimentary.  It
is primarily a list of the command-line options (*note Font
information::) and a pointer to the document that you're reading now.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Usage,  Next: Future Work,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

2 Usage
*******

'mf2pt1' is fairly straightforward to use.  To process a Metafont source
file, merely specify the filename:

     mf2pt1 myfont.mf

That simple command automatically performs all of the following
operations:

  1. Read 'myfont.mf'.

  2. Use 'mpost' to convert each character to a separate Encapsulated
     PostScript (EPS) file named 'myfont.NUM'.

  3. Process and merge the EPS files into a single "disassembled" Type 1
     font called 'myfont.pt1'.

  4. Run 't1asm' from the Type 1 Utilities to convert the disassembled
     font into a true, binary Type 1 font called 'myfont.pfb'.

  5. Invoke 'fontforge' to apply rendering hints to 'myfont.pfb' and to
     attempt to remove overlapping paths.

   The external programs launched by 'mf2pt1'--'mpost', 't1asm', and
'fontforge'--can be overridden by setting the eponymous, uppercase
environment variable.  For example, invoking FontForge's predecessor,
PfaEdit, instead of FontForge is simply a matter of setting the
'FONTFORGE' environment variable to 'pfaedit' before invoking 'mf2pt1'.
As a corollary, you can inhibit an 'mf2pt1' external program from
running by setting the corresponding environment variable to the name of
a nonexistent program.

* Menu:

* Restrictions::                Restrictions imposed on the font source code
* Font information::            Specifying PostScript font characteristics
* Additional command-line options::  Options unrelated to font characteristics
* Custom font encodings::       Altering the mapping from character name to number
* Restoring mfplain defaults::  Using the original (un)filldraw and pencircle


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Restrictions,  Next: Font information,  Prev: Usage,  Up: Usage

2.1 Restrictions
================

If 'mf2pt1' sounds too good to be true, it is--somewhat.  'mf2pt1' is
not a general-purpose Metafont-to-Type 1 converter.  Rather, it can
convert only certain Metafont constructs.  This is not a showstopper for
new fonts designed with 'mf2pt1' in mind, but it is unlikely that
'mf2pt1' will work on an arbitrary Metafont source file.

   'mf2pt1''s biggest restriction is that each glyph must be drawn
entirely from closed paths, using Metafont's *fill* and *unfill*
commands.  ('mf2pt1' has limited support for *draw* and *undraw*, but
their use is currently discouraged.  *filldraw* and *unfilldraw* issue a
warning message and invoke *draw* and *undraw*, respectively.)  The Type 1
format requires that these paths be nonoverlapping.  The following are
some of the alternatives for removing path overlaps:

  1. Install FontForge.  As part of its final step in producing a Type 1
     font, 'mf2pt1' instructs FontForge to replace overlapping paths
     with nonoverlapping paths.

  2. Remove overlaps using Metafont code within the font program itself.
     A '.zip' file attachment to a 6 January 2005 article
     (http://tug.org/mailman/htdig/metapost/2005-January/000080.html) by
     Boguslaw Jackowski on the MetaPost mailing list (subject: "Re: all
     intersections between two paths") includes a MetaPost library which
     assists with that task.  The library provides a *find_outlines*
     command which can be used to define a path as the union of two
     other paths.  A number of MetaPost example programs are also
     included in the '.zip' file.

  3. Design your fonts from the beginning without using overlapping
     paths.

   A secondary restriction is that 'mf2pt1' redefines a number of Plain
Metafont commands, such as *beginchar*, *fill*, and *unfill*.  Metafont
font programs which redefine or bypass these (using Metafont primitives)
will not be convertible with 'mf2pt1'.

   A far less severe restriction is due to 'mf2pt1''s utilizing
MetaPost's Metafont interface instead of Metafont itself.  The
implication is that commands not defined by MetaPost's 'mfplain.mp'
cannot be handled by 'mf2pt1', either.  Very few fonts will have a
problem with this restriction but see the MetaPost manual for more
information.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Font information,  Next: Additional command-line options,  Prev: Restrictions,  Up: Usage

2.2 Specifying font information
===============================

Metafont fonts normally specify a set of *fontdimen*s which provide
information about a particular font that cannot otherwise be inferred.
These include features such as the font's x-height, quad width,
interword stretchability and shrinkability, and other design
characteristics that TeX makes use of.  PostScript fonts utilize a
largely different set of font parameters, such as the underline position
and thickness, font family name, and copyright notice.  'mf2pt1'
provides Metafont commands to define the PostScript font parameters in
the generated Type 1 font.  These parameters should appear in the
Metafont source file as follows:

     if known ps_output:
       ...
     fi

'ps_output' is defined by 'mf2pt1' but not by Plain Metafont.  Checking
if it is known is the recommended way to determine if the font is being
built under 'mf2pt1'.

* Menu:

* Parameters::                  Font-information commands available to Metafont
* Command-line equivalents::    Specifying font features on the command line
* Default values::              Types and default values of each parameter
* Parameter example::           Metafont example which specifies all parameters


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Parameters,  Next: Command-line equivalents,  Prev: Font information,  Up: Font information

2.2.1 Parameters
----------------

The following list presents all of the font-information commands
provided by 'mf2pt1' and describes what each command means.  Commands
marked with an asterisk are also defined by Plain Metafont and therefore
do not need to be enveloped within a test for 'ps_output'.

*font_coding_scheme*
     The mapping between character numbers and PostScript names.  If
     this is the name of a file, 'mf2pt1' expects it to contain
     PostScript code defining a font-encoding vector.  *Note Custom font
     encodings::, for an example of such a file.  If
     *font_coding_scheme* is not the name of a file, 'mf2pt1' expects it
     to be one of the literal strings 'standard' (Adobe standard
     encoding), 'isolatin1' (ISO Latin 1 encoding), 'ot1' (TeX 7-bit
     encoding), 't1' (TeX 8-bit encoding), or 'asis' (encoding
     integrated with the character programs using the *glyph_name*
     command as described in *note Custom font encodings::).  Anything
     else will generate a warning message and cause 'mf2pt1' to use
     'standard' instead.

*font_comment*
     A textual comment that will appear within the generated font.  This
     is often used for copyright notices.

*font_family*
     The family that this font belongs to.  For example, "Utopia Bold
     Italic" belongs to the 'Utopia' family.

*font_fixed_pitch*
     Whether the font is monospaced (if *true*) or or proportionally
     spaced (if *false*).

*font_identifier (*)*
     The full name of the font, e.g., 'Utopia Bold Italic'.

*font_name*
     The symbolic font name, used to load the font from a PostScript
     document.  Spaces are forbidden.  Generally, the font name is of
     the form 'FAMILY-MODIFIERS'.  For example, the font name of Utopia
     Bold Italic would be 'Utopia-BoldItalic'.

*font_size (*)*
     The font design size.  This is specified in "sharped" units within
     Metafont code or as a point size on the command line.

*font_slant (*)*
     When specified with *font_slant*, the amount of slant per point.
     When specified with '--italicangle', the angle in counterclockwise
     degrees from the vertical (i.e., zero for an upright font, negative
     for a right-slanting italic font).

*font_underline_position*
     The vertical position at which an underline should lie, specified
     in "sharped" units within Metafont code or as a number of points on
     the command line.

*font_underline_thickness*
     The thickness of an underline, specified in "sharped" units within
     Metafont code or as a number of points on the command line.

*font_unique_id*
     The unique ID for this font.  The ID should be between 0 and
     16,777,215.  If not specified, 'mf2pt1' will choose an ID at random
     from the "open" range, 4,000,000-4,999,999.  All IDs not in that
     range are allocated by contacting Adobe's UniqueID Coordinator.  (I
     don't believe a fee is involved, but I don't know for sure.)

*font_version*
     The version number of the font.  This should be of the form
     'MMM.MMM', where MMM is the major version number and MMM is the
     minor version number.

*font_weight*
     The font weight.  For example, the font weight of Utopia Bold
     Italic is 'Bold'.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Command-line equivalents,  Next: Default values,  Prev: Parameters,  Up: Font information

2.2.2 Command-line equivalents
------------------------------

Each of the font-information commands listed in *note Parameters:: has a
command-line equivalent.  Their use is discouraged but they are listed
here for completeness:

*font_coding_scheme*         '--encoding'
                             
*font_comment*               '--comment'
                             
*font_family*                '--family'
                             
*font_fixed_pitch*           '--fixedpitch'
                             
*font_identifier*            '--fullname'
                             
*font_name*                  '--name'
                             
*font_size*                  '--designsize'
                             
*font_slant*                 '--italicangle'
                             
*font_underline_position*    '--underpos'
                             
*font_underline_thickness*   '--underthick'
                             
*font_unique_id*             '--uniqueid'
                             
*font_version*               '--fontversion'
                             
*font_weight*                '--weight'

   A special case is '--fixedpitch' which does not take an argument.
Rather, you should use '--fixedpitch' as the equivalent of
'font_fixed_pitch true' and '--nofixedpitch' as the equivalent of
'font_fixed_pitch false'.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Default values,  Next: Parameter example,  Prev: Command-line equivalents,  Up: Font information

2.2.3 Default values
--------------------

The next table lists the Metafont type and default value of each of the
parameters listed in *note Parameters::.

*font_coding_scheme*         *string*    '"standard"'
                                         
*font_comment*               *string*    '"Font converted to Type 1
                                         by mf2pt1, written by
                                         Scott Pakin."'
                                         
*font_family*                *string*    (The value of
                                         *font_identifier*)
                                         
*font_fixed_pitch*           *boolean*   *false*
                                         
*font_identifier*            *string*    (The input filename,
                                         minus '.mf')
                                         
*font_name*                  *string*    (The value of
                                         *font_family*, plus an
                                         underscore, plus the
                                         value of *font_weight*,
                                         with all spaces removed)
                                         
*font_size*                  *numeric*   (Must be specified or
                                         'mf2pt1' will abort with
                                         an error message)
                                         
*font_slant*                 *numeric*   0
                                         
*font_underline_position*    *numeric*   -1
                                         
*font_underline_thickness*   *numeric*   0.5
                                         
*font_unique_id*             *string*    (Randomly generated in
                                         the range
                                         4000000-4999999)
                                         
*font_version*               *string*    '"001.000"'
                                         
*font_weight*                *string*    '"Medium"'



File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Parameter example,  Prev: Default values,  Up: Font information

2.2.4 Parameter example
-----------------------

As an example, the following Metafont code shows the usage of all of the
parameters that 'mf2pt1' accepts:

if known ps_output:
     font_coding_scheme         "ot1";
     font_comment               "Copyright (C) 2014 Scott Pakin.";
     font_family                "Kerplotz";
     font_fixed_pitch           false;
     font_identifier            "Kerplotz Light Oblique";
     font_name                  "Kerplotz-LightOblique";
     font_size                  10pt#;      % Important to include
                                this.
     font_slant                 1/6;
     font_underline_position    -1pt#;
     font_underline_thickness   1/2pt#;
     font_unique_id             "4112233";      % Better to omit
                                this.
     font_version               "002.005";
     font_weight                "Light";
fi

In the above, the *font_fixed_pitch* call could have been omitted, as it
defaults to *false*.  Also, unless you've requested a unique ID from
Adobe, it's generally better not to assign *font_unique_id*; let
'mf2pt1' choose a random value itself.

   The same parameters can also be specified on the command line as
follows:

     mf2pt1 --encoding=ot1 --comment="Copyright (C) 2014 Scott Pakin."
       --family=Kerplotz --nofixedpitch --fullname="Kerplotz Light Oblique"
       --name=Kerplotz-LightOblique --designsize=10 --italicangle=-9.5
       --underpos=-100 --underthick=50 --uniqueid=4112233 --version=002.005
       --weight=Light kerplotz.mf

Note that a Metafont font slant of 1/6 is equal to a PostScript italic
angle of approximately -9.5.  The conversion formula is slant =
-tan(angle).  In addition, the underline position and thickness must be
multiplied by 1000/*font_size* to convert from the Metafont units that
are used within the '.mf' file to the PostScript units that are used on
the command line.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Additional command-line options,  Next: Custom font encodings,  Prev: Font information,  Up: Usage

2.3 Additional command-line options
===================================

In addition to the command-line options for setting font parameters that
were presented in *note Parameters::, 'mf2pt1' supports a '--rounding'
option.  While 'mf2pt1' normally rounds all font coordinates to the
nearest integer, '--rounding' increases coordinate precision by
instructing 'mf2pt1' to round instead to the nearest multiple of a given
fractional number.  For example, '--rounding=0.25' rounds the coordinate
(7.4, 10.3) to (7.5, 10.25) while it would otherwise be rounded to the
less-precise (7, 10).

   Large glyphs can be problematic in MetaPost and therefore in
'mf2pt1'.  Unlike Metafont, MetaPost does not honor 'mag' for magnifying
dimensions.  Rather, the number of PostScript (a.k.a.  "big") points per
pixel--'bpppix'--is hardwired to 0.02 and all other dimensions ('mm',
'in', 'pt', etc.) are expressed in terms of that.  Consequently, glyphs
that multiply a large number of font units by a dimension are likely to
exceed 4096, the largest value that MetaPost can represent in its
fixed-point format.  If numerical overflow becomes a problem you can use
the '--bpppix' option to 'mf2pt1' to change the value of 'bpppix'.  For
example, specifying '--bpppix=0.2' enables a tenfold increase in maximum
glyph size (with a corresponding decrease in precision).

   After generating a Type 1 font, 'mf2pt1' runs it through FontForge to
add hinting information, remove overlaps, and otherwise clean up the
generated font.  The '--ffscript' option specifies the filename of a
FontForge script to use instead of the default script, which is listed
below:

     Open($1);
     SelectAll();
     RemoveOverlap();
     AddExtrema();
     Simplify(0, 2);
     CorrectDirection();
     Simplify(0, 2);
     RoundToInt();
     AutoHint();
     Generate($1);
     Quit(0);

See the FontForge documentation for an explanation of each of those
commands and a description of other commands made available to FontForge
scripts.  'mf2pt1' runs the script with one argument ('$1'), which is
the name of the generated '.pfb' file.

   'mf2pt1' also supports a '--help' option which summarizes all of the
program's command-line options.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Custom font encodings,  Next: Restoring mfplain defaults,  Prev: Additional command-line options,  Up: Usage

2.4 Custom font encodings
=========================

*note Parameters::, lists the font encodings currently supported by
'mf2pt1' and mentions that an alternate encoding can be specified by
providing the name of an encoding file.  To elaborate, the following
example represents the contents of an encoding file which defines
a--largely useless nowadays--EBCDIC font encoding:

     '% Sample encoding vector: EBCDIC

     % The encoding vector must have a name and be defined as a
     PostScript array.
     /ebcdic_encoding [
     /_a0 /_a1 /_a2 /_a3 /_a4 /_a5 /_a6 /_a7 /_a8 /_a9 /_a10 /_a11 /_a12
     /_a13 /_a14 /_a15 /_a16 /_a17 /_a18 /_a19 /_a20 /_a21 /_a22 /_a23
     /_a24 /_a25 /_a26 /_a27 /_a28 /_a29 /_a30 /_a31 /_a32 /_a33 /_a34
     /_a35 /_a36 /_a37 /_a38 /_a39 /_a40 /_a41 /_a42 /_a43 /_a44 /_a45
     /_a46 /_a47 /_a48 /_a49 /_a50 /_a51 /_a52 /_a53 /_a54 /_a55 /_a56
     /_a57 /_a58 /_a59 /_a60 /_a61 /_a62 /_a63 /space /_a65 /_a66 /_a67
     /_a68 /_a69 /_a70 /_a71 /_a72 /_a73 /bracketleft /period /less
     /parenleft /plus /exclam /ampersand /_a81 /_a82 /_a83 /_a84 /_a85
     /_a86 /_a87 /_a88 /_a89 /bracketright /dollar /asterisk /parenright
     /semicolon /asciicircum /hyphen /slash /_a98 /_a99 /_a100 /_a101
     /_a102 /_a103 /_a104 /_a105 /bar /comma /percent /underscore
     /greater /question /_a112 /_a113 /_a114 /_a115 /_a116 /_a117 /_a118
     /_a119 /_a120 /_a121 /colon /numbersign /at /quoteright /equal
     /quotedbl /_a128 /a /b /c /d /e /f /g /h /i /_a138 /_a139 /_a140
     /_a141 /_a142 /_a143 /_a144 /j /k /l /m /n /o /p /q /r /_a154
     /_a155 /_a156 /_a157 /_a158 /_a159 /_a160 /asciitilde /s /t /u /v
     /w /x /y /z /_a170 /_a171 /_a172 /_a173 /_a174 /_a175 /_a176 /_a177
     /_a178 /_a179 /_a180 /_a181 /_a182 /_a183 /_a184 /quoteleft /_a186
     /_a187 /_a188 /_a189 /_a190 /_a191 /braceleft /A /B /C /D /E /F /G
     /H /I /_a202 /_a203 /_a204 /_a205 /_a206 /_a207 /braceright /J /K
     /L /M /N /O /P /Q /R /_a218 /_a219 /_a220 /_a221 /_a222 /_a223
     /backslash /_a225 /S /T /U /V /W /X /Y /Z /_a234 /_a235 /_a236
     /_a237 /_a238 /_a239 /zero /one /two /three /four /five /six /seven
     /eight /nine /_a250 /_a251 /_a252 /_a253 /_a254 /_a255
     % Don't forget to end the array.
     ] def'

   All entries in the encoding vector are PostScript "names" and
therefore must be prefixed with a slash.  Unnamed characters such as
control characters are commonly named '_aNUMBER', where NUMBER is the
decimal offset into the character table.  Undefined characters are
indicated by '.notdef'.  In the EBCDIC example, the character at position 0
in the font will be named 'a0'; the character at position 1 will be
named 'a1'; the character at position 74 will be named 'bracketleft';
the character at position 129 will be named 'a'; and so forth.

   Individual characters can be mapped to an encoding either numerically
or by executing a *glyph_name* command within a character definition.
For example, the following code overrides the character position passed
to *beginchar* (i.e., 123) with whatever character position the current
encoding has designated for the 'ohungarumlaut' glyph:

     beginchar (123, cap_height#-1/2pt#, cap_height#, 0);
       if known ps_output:
         glyph_name "ohungarumlaut";
       fi
       ...
     endchar;


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Restoring mfplain defaults,  Prev: Custom font encodings,  Up: Usage

2.5 Restoring 'mfplain' defaults
================================

'mf2pt1' normally redefines *filldraw* as *fill* and *unfilldraw* and
*unfill* because Type 1 fonts don't allow overlapping curves.
Similarly, 'mf2pt1' redefines *pencircle* as a 20-gon to coerce MetaPost
into drawing it using a filled instead of a stroked PostScript path.

   If you know you'll be postprocessing your fonts using FontForge,
which can automatically convert overlapping paths to nonoverlapping
paths, then you can restore the original 'mfplain.mp' definitions of
*filldraw*, *unfilldraw*, and *pencircle* as follows:

     if known ps_output:
       pencircle := mfplain_pencircle;
       let filldraw := mfplain_filldraw;
       let unfilldraw := mfplain_unfilldraw;
     fi


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Future Work,  Next: Acknowledgments,  Prev: Usage,  Up: Top

3 Future Work
*************

One avenue for future work is to enable the font designer to specify Type 1
font hints directly in the Metafont font program.  Hinting is a way for
a font designer to specify how a font should be rendered at low
resolutions, for example, at typical monitor resolutions.  In Metafont,
this is done by controlling the way that points are mapped to pixel
locations, using commands such as *define_corrected_pixels*,
*define_blacker_pixels*, and *lowres_fix*.  Type 1 fonts are hinted in a
completely different manner.  Type 1 hints distinguish key character
features, such as stems and dots, from decorations which can be
discarded at low resolutions.  The PostScript interpreter uses that
information to determine how to map points to pixels.  Although 'mf2pt1'
employs FontForge to autohint the fonts it generates, the approach is
mechanical and unlikely to hint as well as a human can do manually.  It
would be convenient for 'mf2pt1' one day to provide Metafont commands
for *hstem*, *vstem*, *dotsection*, and the other Type 1 hints.  That
way, hints will no longer need to be re-added manually every time
'mf2pt1' regenerates a Type 1 font.

   Another future addition to 'mf2pt1' is the addition of more font
encodings.  The following are the encodings that 'mf2pt1' will most
likely accept:

'TeXMathItalicEncoding'
     Upper- and lowercase Greek and Latin letters, old-style digits, and
     a few symbols and accents.

'TeXMathSymbolEncoding'
     A variety of symbols, as well as calligraphic Latin majuscules.

'TeXMathExtensionEncoding'
     Variable-sized symbols, such as braces, integrals, and radicals.

'AdobeExpert'
     Small caps, currency symbols, old-style digits, and various
     superior and inferior letters and digits.


File: mf2pt1.info,  Node: Acknowledgments,  Prev: Future Work,  Up: Top

Acknowledgments
***************

Many thanks are owed to Werner Lemberg for writing the code underlying
the '--rounding' option; for introducing the *glyph_name* command and
'asis' encoding vector; for providing the default FontForge script
listed in *note Additional command-line options::; for fixing some
code-generation bugs in 'mf2pt1'; for finding a more robust way to dump
'mf2pt1.mem'; for directing me to the overlap-removal code mentioned in
*note Restrictions::; for supplying the _crossproduct_, _makeline_, and
_is_clockwise_ functions used by 'mf2pt1.mp'; for proposing the '--bpppix'
command-line option; and, for suggesting various features and
improvements to 'mf2pt1'.  Thanks also go to Werner Lemberg and Boguslaw
Jackowski for updating the *is_clockwise* function in 'mf2pt1.mp' to
work around a bug in MetaPost which relates to the *turningnumber*
command.  Finally, thanks go to Ralf Stubner for providing the T1
encoding vector and for pointing out a typo in the generated font
programs; to Michael Zedler for alerting me to problems with '--encoding'
and suggesting I modify that option to accept PostScript '.enc' files;
and to Michael Ummels for fixing a couple of bugs that made character
widths in the generated fonts slightly too large.



Tag Table:
Node: Top623
Node: Introduction1161
Node: Requirements2994
Node: Installation4742
Node: Usage6555
Node: Restrictions8271
Node: Font information10652
Node: Parameters12010
Node: Command-line equivalents15374
Node: Default values16855
Node: Parameter example19075
Node: Additional command-line options21084
Node: Custom font encodings23424
Node: Restoring mfplain defaults26874
Node: Future Work27733
Node: Acknowledgments29597

End Tag Table
