On 03-May-2016 08:51:32 Ralph Corderoy wrote: > Hi, > > By default, groff uses Times Roman, as I'd expect. > > $ groff <<<'hello world!' | grep Times > %%DocumentNeededResources: font Times-Roman > %%IncludeResource: font Times-Roman > /Times-Roman@0 ENC0/Times-Roman RE > /F0 10/Times-Roman@0 SF(hello w)72 12 Q(orld!)-.1 E 0 Cg EP > $ > > But on most of our systems, that font's unavailable and another is used > in its place. > > $ fc-match Times-Roman > n021003l.pfb: "Nimbus Roman No9 L" "Regular" > $ > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimbus_Roman_No._9_L says > > Although the characters are not exactly the same, Nimbus Roman No. > 9 L has metrics almost identical to Times > > The "almost" niggles. :-) > > Running GhostScript's ps2pdf(1) embeds the Nimbus substitute, so even > those with Times won't see it. (Unless the embedded font is a fallback; > I haven't examined the PDF enough to see; `qpdf -qdf'.) > > Should I be telling groff that I want to use those Nimbus fonts so it > uses their metrics rather than the "almost identical" Times' ones? > > Cheers, Ralph.
Hi Ralph, I think it probably is advisable, though it depends on whether the font-metrics discrepancy makes a perceptible difference for the sorts of document you would be producing. Certainly, for some formatting tasks, using even slightly wrong font metrics can sometimes make a critical difference. I presume you already know well how to achieve the font-metrics change, but, just in case ... One way, of course, is simply to install Nimbus as a separate groff font-family, and alias Times to it. A more bare-hands approach would be: Locate the font-file .../font/devps/TR and, so that you can fall back to it at some later time, copy the TR file to TR.old, say. Then, using the Nimbus metrics (which I assume you have access to) edit the TR file so that the metrics for each character are changed. And I suppose one should do the same for the other files of the Times family (TB, TI, TBI). Best wishes, Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.hard...@wlandres.net> Date: 03-May-2016 Time: 10:28:11 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------
