RE: [Groff] PS printing - was Re: `Idot' vs. `Idotaccent'

[Ted Harding]

On 10-Mar-06 Michail Vidiassov wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> let us run some survey.
> Please, tell us, how do you use groff PS output.
> Do you know how other people use it?
> Is it really in use?
> Do you use fonts supplied with groff or install your own font files?
> 
> Werner is now desiding what to consider the default font set for devps.
> 
>       Sincerely, Michail

I've been watching this thread with a little concern.

Regarding Mikhail's final remark, I would like to say that,
whatever additional fonts become available with groff, the
standard Adobe fonts should remain the default. Otherwise,
too many things created in the past will break. Also, they
are de facto defaults in many other contexts outside groff,
and all PS-enabled printers etc. include them (either as
true Adobe fonts or as aliases to the manufacturer's own
versions of similar fonts).

In answer to the other questions:

1. I use groff PS output
   a) for printing to a PS printer
   b) for display (with ghostscript, ghostview, etc.)
   c) for creating PS files to be converted to PDF
   d) to create EPS files
   ...

2. "Other people" use it for all sorts of things. Basically
   for anything you can use a PS file for!

3. I'm not sure if I really understand the question, but
   if there is an implication that people don't really use
   groff PS output any more, then my emphatic ansers is
   a) YES it is really in use!
   b) NO it is not going obsolete!

4. The groff fonts are not "supplied with groff" -- all you
   get is the description files which define the metrics,
   kerns, and the groff names of the characters. The apparent
   exceptions (symbolsl.pfa, zapfdr.pfa) are simply tiny files
   which define transformations on the Symbol and Zapf Dingbats
   fonts which are presumed to be already available in the
   printer or display device, and are not supplied as fonts.

   I normally use simply the standard groff fonts (i.e. the
   same as the Adobe standard fonts plus SS and ZDR); but I
   have also installed some additional fonts (additional
   type faces corresponding to standard fonts, plus some
   additional different fints such as Cyrillic and IPA).

   I use whatever is needed by the task in hand.

   So I do both: a) use the standard fonts; b) install my own.

I'd be grateful for clarification of where people think this
discussion is heading. And why.

Best wishes to all,
Ted.

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Date: 10-Mar-06                                       Time: 22:12:32
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