Re: [Groff] [Heirloom] Adding Fonts To Heirloom

[Carsten Kunze]

Hello Henry,

Henry McGilton <address@hidden> wrote:
> I have been reading and re-reading the Heirloom instructions for
> adding fonts to the collection.
> 
> Given that dpost is (apparently) a reflection of a LaserWriter II, 
> should I add new fonts to dpost, or should I create some new
> device of my own?

Have you also read the file "troff/troff.d/font/README"?  It is
the unchanged SunOS DWB 2
"lp/filter/postscript/font/README" file which tries to explain
how to add a new font.  For Heirloom this is relevant for font
descriptions in (source) directory "troff/troff.d/font/devpost"
which are used with troff option "-Tpost".

Up to now I had only used additional fonts in TTF or OTF
format, maybe someone else on the list had already added
fonts to DWB?

> When I follow the instructions to determine the InternalName(s)
> for the dpost collection, I see there are duplications, leading me to
> question whether the InternalName is actually required at all.

If in doubt I would just choose a new number (just to eliminate
one error source).

> The fonts I am adding are the Optima Family.    I am re-creating a
> device from way back in DWB 2 days, where I had built a device
> with Palatino, Optima, and Courier as the main performers, plus
> Symbol (S and SS), Z1 and Z2 for the bottom half and top half
> of Zapf Dingbats, and then ZI (Zapf Chancery Medium Italic).

Except Optima these fonts are already available with -Tpost.

But as google says these fonts are also available for free as
TTF?  In this case simply loading them with .fp would be the
easiest way.

> Back then, old ditroff could not deal with character codes greater
> than 127.

SunOS DWB had also used character codes up to 255 for
special characters.  But maybe they had been introduced later.

> For example, I see that the charset in Palatino does not have an 
> entry for the octothorpe (#) character.  Why is this?  Does it matter 
> if I leave it there in my Optima fonts, or should I make my Optima 
> charset(s) match the template of Palatino from dpost?

... maybe because this is also the comment character in these
files ;)

I would leave it in the Optima description.

Regards,
Carsten