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LIST 1.1.4 92/07/06 -*-text-*-
= MALVERN & MFF MAILING LIST =
WHAT THIS LIST IS FOR
This list is for announcements, bug reports and discussion of two
interrelated software packages:
* Malvern, a METAFONT font definition, and
* mff, a simple wrapper about METAFONT that makes maintaining such a
family of font files more convenient.
(mff can be used to make other fonts, but Malvern is currently the only
publically-available, "real" font written to take full advantage of
mff's features.)
Malvern is still being developed, but is made available for interested
people to try it out and offer comments and suggestions. This list
might carry occasional discussions on the design of the face as a face
as well as as computer software.
The older releases of mff were called "mfjob". I have changed the
name to reduce confusion with Eberhard Mattes' MFjob (which is part
of his emTeX distribution for MS-DOS and OS/2 computers).
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE
Send a request to me, Damian Cugley, at the address
malvern-request@prg.ox.ac.uk
HOW TO SEND MESSAGES TO THE LIST
Mail messages for everyone on the list to
malvern@prg.ox.ac.uk
HOW TO GET THE PROGRAMS
At present they are on the Oxford archive-server (Oxford now has
Internet, and future releases will be placed on a local FTP server
in the usual manner which should need no further explanation). This
program will not send files of more than 100K and will not send two
shar files in one mail message, so you have to send N requests (in
separate mail messages) to get a N-part package.
Send a message of the form
send CATEGORY FILE
to <archive-server@prg.ox.ac.uk>, where CATEGORY is either "tex" for
Malvern or "prog" for mff, and FILE is one of:
mff-1.shar ) mff 2.8.2 (a C program for UNIX
mff-2.shar ) but mostly tested on Suns).
mff-3.shar ) Includes several sample meta-fonts.
malvern-0.3-1.shar ) Malvern 0.3 (*very* obselete)
malvern-0.3-2.shar )
The server also understands the messages "help" and "index CATEGORY".
The files are sent as "shell archives" -- ".shar" files. On UNIX
systems they are unpacked by running the Bourne shell (/bin/sh) on
them. Each part of the package unpacks into a directory named after
the version number to prevent clashes. (The Malvern files are old
and are still named according to a different system to the later
ones. Sorry.)
WHAT MFF IS
mff grew out of a UNIX shellscript I had for running METAFONT and
installing the TFM and PK files. Its unique feature is that it will
parse a font name "mabi10" as "10pt Malvern bold italic" and run
METAFONT with variables like |weight| and |italicness| set appropriately
(all that is user-definable, of course). The driver file understands
these and sets stem widths etc. based on them. The practical upshot of
which is that I have *one* driver file ma.mf and a command like
mff ma{55,56,75}a{8,10,12}
creates 9 fonts automagically. mff isn't vital but it is *very*
convenient for creating fonts on the fly.
mff comes with sample meta-fonts thrown in for free!
WHAT MALVERN IS
Malvern is a METAFONT font program; it can be used with the METAFONT
program to produce a font for use with Donald E Knuth's TeX
typesetting system (and some other systems as well).
Malvern grew out of my frustration with trying to get what I consider a
pleasing sanserif font out of the CM program files. Its design is
intended to be simple and elegant, a touch old-fashioned, and very
different from (say) CMSS or Helvetica (I consider this its main
attraction:-). It is intended to be used by itself as the main font of
a document, rather than being just another alphabet for mathematics!
It has at least the following eccentric features:
* rounded terminals and corners
* three sets of figures -- ranging, "text" (sort-of old-style) and
small figures for footnotes and fractions.
* four alphabets -- lower case, small, medium and large caps. Medium
caps can be used with a separate set of marks to make capital
composite letters.
* more currency signs and quote marks than anyone could want,
including the dubious PostScript florin sign and single guillemets.
* a raised "c" for writing names like "McDonald" (if you are feeling
like being eccentric).
Because it was developed with mff, it comes in any combination of
weights and widths, with roman and italic variations.
However, Malvern is UNFINISHED -- the italic corrections and kerning
table are half-done and I need to write some VF stuff to make fonts
with other encodings (e.g., the Cork encoding (TUGboat 11#4), which
includes various national letters). I'm making it available now so
interested people can try it out and offer advice.
CURRENT STATE OF PLAY
Since Malvern release 0.3, I have started adding support for
creating fonts with the Cork encoding directly. I have support for
Karl Berry's name font system in the mff files, and my own eccentric
system which translates 12-pt Malvern 55 as ma55a12. (The names
suggested with the 0.3 distribution are obselete.)
I have revised the TeX macros that support malvern in the
process of documenting them. Experiments with "compression" (where
the chapes change cleverly when compressed rather thn just turning
into ellipses) have been discarded. Many character shapes have been
improved.
I can only work on Malvern during my scant spare time, however,
so these simple changes may take some time.
The next release will be "release 1".
I've installed mff 2.8.2 on the Oxford archive.
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