Generating Type 1 Fonts from METAFONT Sources

Nowadays most Printers demand PostScript files with scalable fonts instead of bitmapped fonts, as the later are not adequate for most cases. In addition, PDF files generated from PostScript files with embedded bitmapped fonts are poorly rendered on a computer screen. On the other hand, traditionally, PostScript files generated from TEX sources contained bitmapped fonts just because METAFONT generates bitmaps at specific resolutions. This simply implies that it is more than necessary to have scalable versions of the METAFONT sources. And here we present a simple yet effective way to generate vector fonts from METAFONT sources. 1. What is a Scalable Font? A scalable font is a type font that can be resized (enlarged or reduced) without introducing distortion. The outline of each character (the typeface) is described by equations that represent line segments and curves. The set of all such equations for a complete set of characters is called an outline font. The outline font remains essentially the same regardless of the size of the typefaces. Given a typeface definition, a scalable-font system can produce characters at any size (or scale). Aside from this, scalable fonts have an added advantage in that they make the most of an output device’s resolution. The more resolution a printer or monitor has, the better a scalable font will look. The most common scalable font formats are the PostScript Type 1 and Type 3 fonts, the TrueType fonts (PostScript Type 42 fonts are just TrueType fonts with a PostScript wrapper) and the OpenType fonts, which consist of many PostScript fonts or one TrueType font.