fontname: Filenames for fonts
2 Filenames for fonts
*********************
In this scheme, names may consist of only the letters (monocase a-z),
numerals (0-9), and underscore. Having two names which differ only in
case is undesirable, since it results in clashes on common Windows
filesystems.
Here is the basic scheme (the spaces here are merely for
readability):
S TT W [V...] [N] [E] [DD]
where
S
represents the supplier of the font.
TT
represents the typeface name.
W
represents the weight.
V...
represents the variant(s), and is omitted if both it and the width
are normal. Many fonts have more than one variant.
N
represents the encoding, and is omitted if the encoding is
nonstandard. Encodings are subsumed in the section on variants
(
Variants).
E
represents the width ("expansion"), and is omitted if it is normal.
DD
represents the design size (in decimal), and is omitted if the
font is linearly scaled. Mittelbach in `TUGboat' 13(1) proposes
using hexadecimal or base-36 notation. In my opinion, the
increased range does not make up for the unreadability of the
common sizes (e.g., 10pt fonts would have a suffix `a' (in hex),
or `j' (in base 36)).
We used to try to limit font names to eight characters. This was
never completely possible, and since DOS filesystems have become rare,
it's no longer an issue.
The weight, variants, and width are probably all best taken from the
original name of the font, instead of trying to relate them to some
external standard.
Menu
Info Catalog
fontname: Introduction
fontname: Top
fontname: Long names