Hi Branden,
Thanks a lot for the help!!! However, I am having trouble interpreting
your docs.
Please forgive me. Although I am a software engineer and have been using
nroff/troff/groff for nearly 40 years, I never really got into the details
behind fonts and their various formats. I basically know very little about
them. The basic fonts that come with nroff/troff/groff have generally met
my needs.
1. I am using PDF (not PS).
2. As I mentioned, I have .otf, .ttf, .woff, and .woff2 files. So my
question is, can I use any of those, or do I need to convert them to
another format?
2.a. If I need to convert them, which do I start with, and what am I
converting them to?
2.b. How do I convert them?
3. What do I install, and where do I install them? Is there a special
procedure besides just copying them?
4. Do I need to do something special to give them a name within an mm
context?
After all of that, doing
\f[YOURNEWFONT]Blake McBride\f[]
seems easy enough.
If I can understand this and get it working, I would be happy to produce
formal documentation for inclusion with GROFF (if desired).
Thanks!
Blake McBride
On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 10:20 AM G. Branden Robinson <
g.branden.robin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Blake,
>
> At 2023-01-30T09:28:50-0600, Blake McBride wrote:
> > I have been using the default groff fonts for many happy years.
> > However, I need to produce a document with a machine-generated
> > signature. There are plenty of adequate signature fonts out there.
> > However, I do not know how to make groff use them.
> >
> > I downloaded a font. It came with files with the .otf, .ttf, .woff,
> > and .woff2 extensions. What are the exact steps I need to use to use
> > them in a groff/mm document? (I only want one line to use the special
> > font. The rest of the document can use the regular groff fonts.)
>
> The first thing to do is to make the font visible to the output driver,
> which will probably be "ps" or "pdf".
>
> Here are some instructions from the grops(1) page in groff Git.
>
> TrueType and other font formats
> TrueType fonts can be used with grops if converted first to Type 42
> format, a PostScript wrapper equivalent to the PFA format described
> in pfbtops(1). Several methods exist to generate a Type 42 wrapper;
> some of them involve the use of a PostScript interpreter such as
> Ghostscript—see gs(1).
>
> One approach is to use FontForge, a font editor that can convert
> most outline font formats. Here’s an example of using the Roboto
> Slab Serif font with groff. Several variables are used so that you
> can more easily adapt it into your own script.
>
> MAP=/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/generate/text.map
> TTF=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/roboto/slab/RobotoSlab-Regular.ttf
> BASE=$(basename "$TTF")
> INT=${BASE%.ttf}
> PFA=$INT.pfa
> AFM=$INT.afm
> GFN=RSR
> DIR=$HOME/.local/groff/font
> mkdir -p "$DIR"/devps
> fontforge -lang=ff -c "Open(\"$TTF\");\
> Generate(\"$DIR/devps/$PFA\");"
> afmtodit "$DIR/devps/$AFM" "$MAP" "$DIR/devps/$GFN"
> printf "$BASE\t$PFA\n" >> "$DIR/devps/download"
>
> fontforge and afmtodit may generate warnings depending on the
> attributes of the font. The test procedure is simple.
>
> printf ".ft RSR\nHello, world!\n" | groff -F "$DIR" > hello.ps
>
> Once you’re satisfied that the font works, you may want to generate
> any available related styles (for instance, Roboto Slab also has
> “Bold”, “Light”, and “Thin” styles) and set up GROFF_FONT_PATH in
> your environment to include the directory you keep the generated
> fonts in so that you don’t have to use the -F option.
>
> Ensure that you do the test procedure shown, before worrying about macro
> package integration.
>
> Once this works (please reply to the list if it doesn't), the mm usage
> issue can be tackled.
>
> > I need to produce a document with a machine-generated signature.
>
> In mm this requires some context. Are you using one of the memorandum
> types ("MT") or one of the letter formats ("LT")? If so I'll have do
> some digging, because the signature line is automatically printed and
> I'll need to work up a recommendation for how to override that cleanly
> (or someone who's more of an mm expert than I am may have ideas).
>
> If not, and you're outputting the signature line like any other
> formatted text, it should be straightforward.
>
> Put in a line like this.
>
> \f[YOURNEWFONT]Blake McBride\f[]
>
> ...where YOURNEWFONT is the groff name you have given to the font you
> installed using the procedure above.
>
> Let us know if this helps, or doesn't.
>
> Regards,
> Branden
>
