[OS X TeX] comprehensive font families and abbreviation?

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 28.12.2008 um 23:28 schrieb Duke:

> 1. Where can I find a comprehensive list of font families together  
> with samples AND abbreviations? I found the following list with  
> nice sample

Certainly not here:

>
> http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/allfonts.html
>
> but I dont know how I can use these fonts because there is nothing  
> about their abbreviations.

The so-called abbreviations are the stems of the TeX font names. Karl  
Berry found a reasonable scheme to map PostScript font names to TeX  
font names. On the command line do

	texdoc fontname

This will give you 331 pages.

Another option is to look up your TeX engine's MAP file. PdfTeX uses  
pdftex.map, dvips uses psfonts.map, and dvipdfm uses dvipdfm.map. On  
the command line you could invoke:

	grep -i <some font name particle> `kpsewhich <your MAP file>`

The text from < to > has to be substituted with your choice. By using  
'grep -i' the case plays no role. The 'font name particle' can be  
part of a PostScript font name (for example helve) or the TeX font  
name (for example phv). This *will* fail for Computer Modern (CM)  
fonts. In LaTeX you do not necessarily need to use their name because  
you can use commands like \textrm, \em, or textsf, etc. The same is  
also true when you substitute the CM fonts with their updated form  
"Latin Modern."

For many PostScript fonts packages are built. A \usepackage{times} in  
the preamble sets Times for the roman or serif face, Helvetica for  
sans-serif, and Courier for typewriter (monospaced).

Sometimes it works to invoke 'texdoc <package name or something  
related to the PostScript font's name>' to get the documentation.  
Again, for the "standard PostScript fonts" it will fail, 'texdoc  
psfonts' or better 'texdoc psnfss2e' will do.

>
> 2. How do I know the font I want to use is already installed in my  
> system and that I can use it?
>
> FYI, I use 10.5.6 with MacTex 2008 (full package).


Three options:

  1.) tlmgr search [possible option −−file or −−global]  
<something>
  2.) kpsewhich [possible restrictions] <something exactly TeXy>
  3.) Spotlight

--
Greetings

   Pete

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
				– Elbert Hubbard