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From: jg@prg.ox.ac.uk (Jeremy Gibbons)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: fonts? && testing args && changing case
Message-ID: <JG.90Dec29160716@msc8.prg.ox.ac.uk>
Date: 29 Dec 90 16:07:16 GMT
References: <11087@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Sender: news@prg.ox.ac.uk
Organization: Oxford University Computing Laboratory, UK
Lines: 92
In-reply-to: jdm5548@diamond.tamu.edu's message of 28 Dec 90 08:08:03 GMT

jdm5548@diamond.tamu.edu (James Darrell McCauley) asks, among other things,

>    1.  I need a slanted, small-caps font. Does such
> MF     a font exist? I'm not a METAFONT user, so if someone could e-mail 
>        me some instructions, I'd really appreciate it.

Make a copy of cmcsc10.mf, call it cmcscsl10.mf, and change the line that says
`slant = 0' to `slant = 1/4' or to `slant=1/6' depending on whether you want
it to match with italics or slanted text (no, I don't know why they have
different slants either). Then run Metafont on it, to creat a new font. The
precise details of how you do this are system dependent; on my system (Unix) I
can say

   mf "\mode=localfont; input cmcscsl10"

which creates a .tfm and a .300gf file; I then run gftopk to turn the .300gf
into a .300pk, then put them in the correct directories. 

>    2.  [...] I need
>        a font that will cover 3 lines, or maybe instructions on how
>        to build one.

Similarly, I would say

   mf "\mode=localfont; mag=1.5*magstep 5; input cmr10"

and load it into (La)TeX by saying

   \font\dropfont = cmr10 scaled 3700

(or thereabouts)

>    5.  Similar to #4 and with regard to #2, I wish to take the first token
> TeX    after the first \section*{} and make it a larger font.  For the style
>        that I am writing, the first letter in the first section after
>        the abstract is dropped and enlarged.  I've read Ch. 7 of the 
>        TeXbook, but I'm still a little confused. Perhaps
>        \ifnum\value{section}=1
>          <drop next token>
>        \fi

On the right lines. My guess might be

   \newif\if@dropcapital

   \let\original@section\section
   \def\section{\relax
                \ifnum\value{section}=0\@dropcapitaltrue\fi
                \original@section}

(I haven't actually tested this!)



Section commands call a macro `\@afterheading' to deal with vertical skips,
penalties, paragraph indents etc. You can put something in this macro to do
the dropped capital stuff. (Here, the macro \drop picks up the first letter
of the next paragraph and does some \hangindentery with it; I'm not sure if
this is the same as the one you're using, but you should be able to figure
out how to do it from this).

> \def\@afterheading{%
>    \global\@nobreaktrue    
>    \everypar{\let\next\relax
>              \if@nobreak
>                 \global\@nobreakfalse      
>                 \clubpenalty \@M
>                 \if@dropcapital              % added dropped capital stuff
>                    \global\@dropcapitalfalse
>                    \if@afterindent \else {\setbox0=\lastbox}\fi
>                    \let\next\drop
>                 \else
>                    \if@afterindent \else {\setbox0=\lastbox}\fi
>                 \fi
>              \else 
>                 \clubpenalty \@clubpenalty
>                 \everypar{}%
>              \fi
>              \next}%
> }           


I'm afraid I can't help you with the other questions.


Hope that helps...

Jeremy

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