Xref: utzoo comp.fonts:2376 comp.text.tex:7016 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!ox-prg!culhua!Damian.Cugley From: Damian.Cugley@prg.ox.ac.uk (Damian Cugley) Newsgroups: comp.fonts,comp.text.tex Subject: Malvern (meta-)font and MFjob program now available Keywords: Malvern, MFjob, METAFONT, TeX, font, archive Message-ID: Date: 25 Apr 91 18:44:56 GMT Sender: news@prg.ox.ac.uk Distribution: comp Organization: Computing Laboratory, Oxford University, UK Lines: 77 I've acquired a little space on the Oxford archive-server for a "pre-release" version of Malvern (a sanserif METAFONT font) and MFjob (a C wrapper about METAFONT useful with families). More details below. HOW TO GET THEM. The archive server is e-mail oriented. Send a message with the line send prog mfjob-2.7-1.shar mfjob-2.7-2.shar to . Both MFjob and Malvern are divided into two parts for mail systems that can't handle files >100K. If yours is such, you will have to sent two "send prog ..." mail messages, one for each part. For Malvern, substitute "malvern-0.3" for "mfjob-2.7" and "tex" for "prog". The archive-server also understands the messages "help", "index prog" and "index tex". WHAT MFJOB IS. MFjob grew out of a UNIX shellscript I had for running METAFONT and installing the TFM and PK files. Its unique feature is that it will parse a font name "mabi10" as Malvern bold italic 10pt and run METAFONT with variables like |weight| and |italicness| set appropriately (all that is user-definable, of course). The driver file understands these and sets stem widths etc. based on them. The practical upshot of which is that I have one driver file ma.mf and a command like mfjob ma{,i,bx}{8,10,12} creates 9 fonts automagically. MFjob isn't vital but it is *very* convenient for creating fonts on the fly. So far it has been tested on SunOS only but I think its chances of running on other UNIX platforms are reasonable. Call it a beta release.:-) MFjob comes with three sample meta-fonts thrown in for free! WHAT MALVERN IS. Malvern grew out of my frustration with trying to get what I consider a pleasing sanserif font out of the CM program files. Its design is intended to be simple and elegant, a touch old-fashioned, and very different from (say) CMSS or Helvetica (I consider this its main attraction:-). It is intended to be used by itself as the main font of a document, rather than being another alphabet for mathematics! It has at least the following eccentric features: \\ rounded terminals -- like Helvetica Rounded. Not entirely unrelated to the fact that almost all the characters are drawn with a round pen. (This was a deliberate design decision, not just laziness!:-) \\ three sets of figures -- ranging, "text" (sort-of old-style) and small figures for footnotes and fractions. \\ a distinct italic face. (Looks kind of wonky, though.) \\ four alphabets -- lower case, small, medium and large caps. Medium caps can be used with a separate set of accents to make accented capital letters. \\ more currency signs and quote marks than anyone could want, including the dubious PostScript florin sign and single guillemets. \\ a raised "c" for writing names like "McDonald" (if you are feeling like being eccentric). However, Malvern is UNFINISHED -- the italic corrections and kerning table are half-done and I need to write some VF stuff to make fonts with other encodings (e.g., the TUGboat 11#4 encoding, which includes accented letters). I'm making it available now so interested people can try it out and offer advice. "share and enjoy" ---- Damian Cugley -------------------------------- pdc@prg.ox.ac.uk --- Computing Laboratory, 11 Keble Rd, Oxford OX1 3QD Great Britain ------------------------------------------------------------------------