ttfm.sh(1)ttfm.sh(1)NAMEttfm.sh - TrueType Font Manager
SYNOPSISttfm.sh command [ module ] [ font1 font2 ... ]
DESCRIPTION
TTFM (TrueType Font Manager) consists of a TrueType font parser, and
several modules that help managing TrueType fonts in various applica‐
tions. Users can then use ttfm.sh (which will call those modules), to
execute simple commands like font adding, removing, list, and so on.
command can be one of the followings:
--add
Add fonts. The command accepts multiple fonts specied by the
font's filename.
--initm
Initial selected modules. (Deprecated)
--list
List installed fonts. No font arguments are needed.
--modules
List all avaiable modules. No font arguments are needed.
--remove
Remove installed fonts. Accepts multiple fonts.
--setdefault
Set the following font as the default font(Ming). Only one font
argument is allowed.
--setdefault_kai
Set the following font as default font(Kai). Only one font argu‐
ment is allowed.
AVAIABLE MODULES
Currently these modules are available:
abiword
For AbiWord 0.7.12 and above. It depends on modules of both
XFree86 and Ghostscript.
chitex
For ChiTeX, a TeX/LaTeX environment that can handle both BIG5 and
GB encodings. Broken in FreeBSD.
ghostscript6
For Aladdin Ghostscript 6.50. It can manage TrueType fonts and CID
fonts(limited functionalities). Ghostscript must be patched to use
TrueType fonts. See the following for more details.
ttf2pk
Generate pk (packed raster) and tfm (TeX font metrics) files from
TrueType fonts. These files can then be used in the CJK LaTeX
environment. Broken under FreeBSD.
xfreetype
For XFree86's freetype backend, which is Xfsft in 3.x, and freetype
module in 4.x.
xttfm-tcl
For XFree86 3.3.x X-TrueType server. Written in TCL.
xttfm
For XFree86 X-TrueType server, both 3.3.x or 4.x. Bourne shell
script.
EXAMPLESttfm.sh--modules
List all available modules in system.
ttfm.sh--add xttfm <path>/*.[TtTtCcFf]
Install all TrueType fonts in <path>, using xttfm module.
ttfm.sh--setdefault xttfm <path>/good_ming.ttf
Set <path>/good_ming.ttf as xttfm module's default font(Ming).
ttfm.sh--setdefault_kai xttfm <path>/good_kai.ttf
Set <path>/good_kai.ttf as xttfm module's default font(Kai).
ttfm.sh--list xttfm
List all fonts installed by xttfm.ttfm module.
ttfm.sh--remove xttfm.ttfm bkai00mp.ttf
Remove bkai00mp.ttf(from the above list), installed by xttfm.ttfm.
ttfm.sh--add ghostscript6 /somewhere/bsmi00lp.ttf
Install /somewhere/bsmi00lp.ttf in Ghostscript, using ghostscript6
module.
ttfm.sh--remove ghostscript6 bsmi00lp.ttf
Remove bsmi00lp.ttf, using ghostscript6 module.
ttfm.sh--remove ghostscript6 ArphicMingB5-Regular
Remove ArphicMingB5-Regular(which is equivalent to bsmi00lp.ttf
above, obtained from "ttfm.sh --list ghostscript6"), using ghost‐
script6 module.
ttfm.sh--add abiword /WIN98/FONTS/MINGLIU.TTC
Install Windows 98's MINGLIU.TTC high quality font for AbiWord.
This has the chain effect that MINGLIU.TTC will be also installed
by xttfm and ghostscript6 modules, since a fully CJK functioning
AbiWord needs both XFree86 and Ghostscript support. See the fol‐
lowing for additional details.
ttfm.sh--setdefault abiword /WIN98/FONTS/MINGLIU.TTC
Set MINGLIU.TTC as AbiWord's default font(Ming). This also has the
chain effect that MINGLIU.TTC will be also set as xttfm and ghost‐
script6 modules' default fonts(Ming). See the following for addi‐
tional details.
ttfm.sh--add <path>/*.ttf
Install <path>/*.ttf, using every module. However, usages like
"--add *.ttf" and "--remove *.ttf" are reserved only for backward
compatibility. Since the dependency between modules will become
more complex, whether "--add *.ttf" has chain effects totally
depends on individual applications. It's strongly suggested that
users specify which module to invoke explicitly, rather than doing
a global installation/removal.
HOW TO WRITE A TTFM MODULE
It's straightforward to make a new TTFM module. A TTFM module can be
in any format, ie. it could be a shell or Perl or Python script, a C
program, or even an Assembly if you like. Any program is a TTFM module
as long as it accepts the following arguments:
--add [font ...]
--list
--remove [font ...]
--setdefault [font]
--setdefault_kai [font]
The meanings should be clear by their names, and the above "DESCRIP‐
TION" section. The ttfm.sh will call a TTFM module in only one of
these forms.
Note that there's no font format involved in this requirement, meaning
that a TTFM module can have nothing to do with TrueType at all. For
example, an independent VFGhostscript's bdf manager can be used as a
TTFM module, once it accepts the above arguments(maybe as it own argu‐
ments' subset).
If a TTFM module tries to get information from a TrueType font, then
ttfinfo(1) should be used. Although it lacks some advanced features,
like CJK entries, it's far better than most programs.
SEE ALSO
AbiWord's CJK support:
http://www.hj.webprovider.com/develope/index.html, and
http://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/abiword-dev/00/Octo‐
ber/0398.html
Adobe Technical Notes:
http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/technotes.html.
This page contains many excellent technical notes, specifications,
supplements, and errata for Adobe's font technology.
ChiTeX
http://www.math.ncu.edu.tw/yih/
cwTeX
http://ceiba.cc.ntu.edu.tw/tmwu/index.htm
Ghostscript 6's TrueType patch:
http://www.aihara.co.jp/~taiji/tops/
VFlib:
http://TypeHack.aial.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/VFlib/
X-TrueType(For XFree86 3.3.x):
http://X-TT.dsl.gr.jp
Xatm(For CID fonts used in X 3.3.x):
http://www.netlab.is.tsukuba.ac.jp/~yokota/izumi/Xatm/xatm_e.html
XFree86 4.x:
See xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/README.fonts.
It contains comprehensive instructions on how to install TrueType
fonts for X-TT & X-FreeType backend, and CID fonts under XFree86
4.x.
TODO
About modules(in the order of precedence):
vfghostscript55.ttfm
For VFlib + Ghostscript 5.5.
Fix chitex.ttfm and ttf2pk.ttfm under FreeBSD.
It means making a FreeBSD port of ChiTeX, and modifying existing
CJK port. It's also possible that ChiTeX, CJK, cwTeX can all co-
exist.
cwtex.ttfm
For cwTeX, a BIG5 TeX/LaTeX system of ultra-high quality.
xcid.ttfm
Handling CID fonts under XFree86, which is Xatm in 3.3.x, built-in
in 4.x.
Clearer relationship between modules
With more and more modules, dependencies between modules will
become a problem. For example, which actions have chain effects
(like AbiWord) should be clarified.
About ttfinfo(also in the order of precedence):
Use FreeType 2.
It supports more font types like OpenType or CID.
Support CJK font entries
Although TrueType fonts can have CJK fontname entries, like in MS
Windows, TTFM cannot use this feature currently. Since many indi‐
vidual CJK TrueType fonts have bogus English vendor and face
entries(like -misc-unknown- in XLFD), users can be easily confused
with which font to use, if proper CJK font names are not given.
GUI interface
It's simple to write a X client to have basic functions, since all
the dirty work are done by ttfm.sh or modules. However, it would
not be trivial to manage CJK fonts simultaneously in a single ses‐
sion.
Support CID
When TTFM supports FreeType 2, support for CID fonts would be triv‐
ial. However, all CID fonts available now as free are released by
Adobe, so this functionality probably won't be widely tested.
L10N font face names
Currently, TTFM sets both Ming and Kai regardless the encoding of
TrueType fonts. But usually each country has its own face name
convention, eg. "Ming" in Taiwan, "Song" in China, "Mincho" in
Japan, and "Munhwa" in Korea. TTFM's "--setdefault" and "--setde‐
fault_kai" should be localized to suite users' needs.
NOTES
TODOs or BUGs that are not related to TTFM.
BIG5-encoded TrueType fonts
Many applications can only handle modern Unicode-encoded TrueType
fonts, eg. XFree86 (both 3.x and 4.x) has problems with certain
types of BIG5 TTFs, and Alladdin Ghostscript 6 can't read them at
all. Sometimes the problem may be just a wrong encoding ID, and
others are due to the lack of BIG5 tables.
The same may happen to other legacy fonts, but the author has only
BIG5 TTFs at hand. If users encounter the same problem, either
switch to newer TTFs, or contact the author would be fine.
CJK XLFD fields
XLFD (X Logical Font Description) is the standard X Window uses to
identify fonts, eg. -adobe-courier-medium-r-nor‐
mal--12-120-75-75-m-70-iso8859-1. The standard says that each
field allows ISO 8859-1 characters(except the '-' character, which
is used as field separater), so it's possible to use CJK characters
in the face field, just like in MS Windows. But it seems that X
protocol converts byte orders, maybe using the htonl() family, when
handling fonts. It will be a great challenge to modify X libraries
to support multibyte XLFD.
AUTHORS
Yuan-Chung Cheng <platin@linux.org.tw>
Main program, ttf2pk.ttfm, and xttfm-tcl.ttfm.
Chih-Wei Huang <cwhuang@linux.org.tw>
ttfm.sh, chitex.ttfm, ttf2pk.ttfm, and xttfm-tcl.ttfm. CLE main‐
tainer.
Jing-Tang Keith Jang <keith@FreeBSD.org>
abiword.ttfm, ghostscript6.ttfm, xfreetype.ttfm, and xttfm.ttfm.
FreeBSD maintainer.
ttfm.sh(1)
