afmtodit(1) — Linux manual page
afmtodit(1) General Commands Manual afmtodit(1)
Name
afmtodit - adapt Adobe Font Metrics files for groff PostScript
and PDF output
Synopsis
afmtodit [-ckmnsx] [-a slant] [-d device-description-file]
[-e encoding-file] [-f internal-name] [-i italic-
correction-factor] [-o output-file] [-w space-width]
afm-file map-file font-description-file
afmtodit --help
afmtodit -v
afmtodit --version
Description
afmtodit adapts an Adobe Font Metric file, afm-file, for use with
the ps and pdf output devices of troff(1). map-file associates a
groff ordinary or special character name with a PostScript glyph
name. Output is written in groff_font(5) format to font-
description-file, a file named for the intended groff font name
(but see the -o option).
map-file should contain a sequence of lines of the form
ps-glyph groff-char
where ps-glyph is the PostScript glyph name and groff-char is a
groff ordinary (if of unit length) or special (if longer)
character identifier. The same ps-glyph can occur multiple times
in the file; each groff-char must occur at most once. Lines
starting with “#” and blank lines are ignored. If the file isn't
found in the current directory, it is sought in the
devps/generate subdirectory of the default font directory.
If a PostScript glyph is not mentioned in map-file, and a groff
character name can't be deduced using the Adobe Glyph List (AGL,
built into afmtodit), then afmtodit puts the PostScript glyph
into the groff font description file as an unnamed glyph which
can only be accessed by the “\N” escape sequence in a roff
document. In particular, this is true for glyph variants named
in the form “foo.bar”; all glyph names containing one or more
periods are mapped to unnamed entities. Unless -e is specified,
the encoding defined in the AFM file (i.e., entries with non-
negative codes) is used. Refer to section “Using Symbols” in
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, the groff Texinfo manual,
or groff_char(7), which describe how groff character identifiers
are constructed.
Glyphs not encoded in the AFM file (i.e., entries indexed as
“-1”) are still available in groff; they get glyph index values
greater than 255 (or greater than the biggest code used in the
AFM file in the unlikely case that it is greater than 255) in the
groff font description file. Unencoded glyph indices don't have
a specific order; it is best to access them only via special
character identifiers.
If the font file proper (not just its metrics) is available,
listing it in the files /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/
download and /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devpdf/download
enables it to be embedded in the output produced by grops(1) and
gropdf(1), respectively.
If the -i option is used, afmtodit automatically generates an
italic correction, a left italic correction, and a subscript
correction for each glyph (the significance of these is explained
in groff_font(5)); they can be specified for individual glyphs by
adding to the afm-file lines of the form:
italicCorrection ps-glyph n
leftItalicCorrection ps-glyph n
subscriptCorrection ps-glyph n
where ps-glyph is the PostScript glyph name, and n is the desired
value of the corresponding parameter in thousandths of an em.
Such parameters are normally needed only for italic (or oblique)
fonts.
The -s option should be given if the font is “special”, meaning
that groff should search it whenever a glyph is not found in the
current font. To enable this search, font-description-file can
be listed as an argument to the fonts directive in the output
device's DESC file; alternatively, a document can designate it
with the special request. If the font is not special, there is
no need to do either, since troff(1) will automatically mount it
when it is first used.
Options
--help displays a usage message, while -v and --version show
version information; all exit afterward.
-a slant
Use slant as the slant (“angle”) parameter in the font
description file; this is used by groff in the positioning
of accents. By default afmtodit uses the negative of the
ItalicAngle specified in the AFM file; with true italic
fonts it is sometimes desirable to use a slant that is
less than this. If you find that an italic font places
accents over base glyphs too far to the right, use -a to
give it a smaller slant.
-c Include comments in the font description file identifying
the PostScript font.
-d device-description-file
The device description file is desc-file rather than the
default DESC. If not found in the current directory, the
devps subdirectory of the default font directory is
searched (this is true for both the default device
description file and a file given with option -d).
-e encoding-file
The PostScript font should be reencoded to use the
encoding described in enc-file. The format of enc-file is
described in grops(1). If not found in the current
directory, the devps subdirectory of the default font
directory is searched.
-f internal-name
The internal name of the groff font is set to name.
-i italic-correction-factor
Generate an italic correction for each glyph so that its
width plus its italic correction is equal to italic-
correction-factor thousandths of an em plus the amount by
which the right edge of the glyph's bounding box is to the
right of its origin. If this would result in a negative
italic correction, use a zero italic correction instead.
Also generate a subscript correction equal to the product
of the tangent of the slant of the font and four fifths of
the x-height of the font. If this would result in a
subscript correction greater than the italic correction,
use a subscript correction equal to the italic correction
instead.
Also generate a left italic correction for each glyph
equal to italic-correction-factor thousandths of an em
plus the amount by which the left edge of the glyph's
bounding box is to the left of its origin. The left
italic correction may be negative unless option -m is
given.
This option is normally needed only with italic (or
oblique) fonts. The font description files distributed
with groff were created using an option of -i50 for italic
fonts.
-o output-file
Write to output-file instead of font-description-file.
-k Omit any kerning data from the groff font; use only for
monospaced (constant-width) fonts.
-m Prevent negative left italic correction values. Font
description files for roman styles distributed with groff
were created with “-i0 -m” to improve spacing with eqn(1).
-n Don't output a ligatures command for this font; use with
monospaced (constant-width) fonts.
-s Add the special directive to the font description file.
-w space-width
Use space-width as the width of inter-word spaces.
-x Don't use the built-in Adobe Glyph List.
Files
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/DESC
describes the ps output device.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/F
describes the font known as F on device ps.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/download
lists fonts available for embedding within the PostScript
document (or download to the device).
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/generate/dingbats.map
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/generate/
dingbats-reversed.map
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/generate/
slanted-symbol.map
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/generate/symbol.map
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devps/generate/text.map
map names in the Adobe Glyph List to groff special
character identifiers for Zapf Dingbats (ZD), reversed
Zapf Dingbats (ZDR), slanted symbol (SS), symbol (S), and
text fonts, respectively. These map-files produce the
font description files provided with groff for the grops
output driver.
Diagnostics
AGL name 'x' already mapped to groff name 'y'; ignoring AGL name
'uniXXXX'
You can disregard these if they're in the form shown,
where the ignored AGL name contains four hexadecimal
digits XXXX. The Adobe Glyph List (AGL) has its own names
for glyphs; they are often different from groff's special
character names. afmtodit is constructing a mapping from
groff special character names to AGL names; this can be a
one-to-one or many-to-one mapping, but one-to-many will
not work, so afmtodit discards the excess mappings. For
example, if x is Delta, y is *D, and XXXX is 0394,
afmtodit is telling you that the groff font description
that it is writing cannot map the groff special character
\[*D] to AGL glyphs Delta and uni0394 at the same time.
If you get a message like this but are unhappy with which
mapping is ignored, a remedy is to craft an alternative
map-file and re-run afmtodit using it.
See also
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and
Werner Lemberg, is the primary groff manual. Section “Using
Symbols” may be of particular note. You can browse it
interactively with “info '(groff)Using Symbols'”.
groff(1), gropdf(1), grops(1), groff_font(5)
COLOPHON
This page is part of the groff (GNU troff) project. Information
about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/groff.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2024-06-10.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org