TL4 thoughts (fwd)

Walter Schmidt Walter Schmidt" <walter.schmidt@arcormail.de
Tue, 18 May 1999 18:49:20 +0200 (MSZ)


On Tue, 18 May 1999 16:44:20 +0000 (GMT), Sebastian Rahtz wrote:

>3. We have to reconsider all fonts mess. The recommended installation
>   put so many afm, tfm, vf, fd files for many commercial fonts. I think,
>   most users do not have them.

The problem starts with the CTAN distribution already:

macros/latex/required/psnfss/ contains a lot of stuff which is
relevant for use of commercial fonts only. 

IMHO psnfss/ should be restricted primarily to the .sty and 
.fd files for the 35 PostScript standard fonts, including
mathptm(x).sty and the related virtual fonts.

One might think about adding some stuff to support the (few)
other free PostScript fonts (mathpple, Charter, Utopia, 
any more?);  doing so would, however, require to add the 
related .tfm and .vf files to lw35nfss.zip, too.

Not to forget:  The whole thing need to be documented,
in a way which can also be understood by newbies!

This bundle (or a similar one) could really be considered 
as "basic" or "required" then.


Walter

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Walter Schmidt                                    Schornbaumstrasse 2
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