ConvertingTrueTypeFonts

How to convert TrueType? fonts (and PostScript? fonts) for use with groff. I tried this with Verdana and it did the job. Next up, the (more complex) open-source Bitstream Vera family (or the more complete DejaVu family... which we should consider adding to the groff distribution).

Convert the TrueType? family to ASCII (.pfa) PostScript?.
- Linux/*BSD: use ttf2pt1 - http://ttf2pt1.sourceforge.net/
- MacOS X: Use True Blue, a freeware converter available at http://www.stone.com/NewDownload.html (it uses tt2pt1 and fondu)
- All: FontForge? - http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/ - can open TrueType? fonts and save as PostScript? (creating both AFM and PFA files at once). Experiment with encoding (should it be Adobe Standard?) and glyph renaming if necessary.
(start here for fonts that are already PostScript?) Create AFM (font metric) files using printafm (a GhostScript? utility). For each typeface:

      printafm font-roman.pfa >font-roman.afm

Copy the text map from .../font/devps/generate/textmap into your directory.
For each typeface, create the groff metric files (XR is the name of the typeface as groff sees it, such as "TR" for Times-Roman):

      afmtodit font-roman.afm my-textmap XR

If necessary, edit the groff metric files so that the "internalname" matches the /FontName of the associated font:

      name XB
      internalname Xfont-Bold

Copy the .pfa files and the groff metric files to /usr/share/groff/site-font/devps (or the site-font directory where groff is installed -- make a site-font directory if it's not there).
Build a download file using the following awk script:

      #! /usr/bin/awk -f
      #
      # Usage: grep FontName? *.pfa | awk -f mkdownload.awk >download
      
      BEGIN {
              OFS = '\t';
              print "# downloadable fonts";
              print "#";
              print "# PostScript? name", "File name";
              print "#";
      }
      
      {
              sub( /:\/FontName/, "", $1 );
              sub( /\//, "", $2 );
      
              print $2, $1;
      }

Copy the download file to .../site-font/devps/download
Try it out!