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From: npn@cbnewsl.att.com (nils-peter.nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: what fonts allowed in troff .ft command?
Summary: How to find out names of troff fonts
Message-ID: <1990Oct30.145200.2051@cbnewsl.att.com>
Date: 30 Oct 90 14:52:00 GMT
References: <1990Oct29.200132.26513@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 30

In article <1990Oct29.200132.26513@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Scott) writes:
> Our n|troff manual says that the permissible letters for a
> .ft <font> command are R, I, B, or S; yet I have received a
> file that uses .ft C quite happily; I believe it means Courier.
> How can I find out what letters are allowed on my system for
> this command?

On most systems, /usr/lib/font is a directory organized by device
type. In DWB 3.1, /usr/lib/font/devpost contains files for the
various postscript fonts. These are readable ascii files (unlike
DWB 2.0) and the first two lines contain the short name (e.g C)
and the long name (e.g. Courier). To get all the names:
	sed '/fontname/p' /usr/lib/font/devpost/*
produces
fontname AvantGarde-Demi
fontname AvantGarde-BookOblique
fontname AvantGarde-Book
fontname AvantGarde-DemiOblique
fontname Times-Bold
fontname Times-BoldItalic
fontname Courier
fontname Courier-Bold
...
(35 in all).
If you can't find the font directory, the following gimmick will work:
$ troff    { read troff input from stdin }
.ft Q	{ load a font that doesn't exist }
troff: Can't open font file /usr/lib/font/devpost/Q; line 1, file stdin

The error message tells you where the fonts are on your system.