Re: Linux man-pages PDF book

[Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>]

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Hi Branden,

On Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 09:08:22PM -0500, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> At 2024-04-16T03:02:28+0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> > > > troff:<standard input>:1649: error: cannot load font 'TINOR' to
> > > > mark it as special
> > > 
> > > Your _FONTSDIR must point to a directory which has a subdirectory
> > > called 'devpdf' which holds TINOR and UnifontM and a suitable
> > > 'download' file which gives the location of the actual .pf[ab] files
> > > (i.e. within texlive - no need to copy it). The difference,
> > > with/without, is in the number of glyphs not found messages.
> > 
> > I also need to understand what's that TINOR file, what type of file it
> > is, and how I can get it.
> 
> This, I can answer.  It is a device-independent troff font description
> file.  It is a plain text file in a format documented by Brian Kernighan
> originally in CSTR #97 in about 1982, then in the 1992 revision of CSTR
> #54, and of course also in the groff_font(5) man page.
> 
> The reason for the font description file is that traditionally digital
> fonts were (1) restrictively licensed and (2) programs that used fonts
> often didn't need the fonts themselves, but just descriptions of what
> glyphs they contained and the dimensions ("metrics") of each glyph.  It
> is a rendering device that uses a digital font.  A typesetter (or
> graphical display system[1]) needs only to know the metrics of the
> glyphs to that it can position them appropriately relative to each
> other.
> 
> This is why when PDF renderers substitute fonts, the result is often so
> terribly ugly.  The glyphs of the substituted font are placed in
> positions appropriate to a font that may have different metrics.  So
> they are crowded or spaced out weirdly, the kerning is off, and so on.

Thanks.  Althoguh this doesn't answer how I can get it in Debian.  And
now I also wonder if I really need this file.  groff(1) is reporting
warnings that it's not able to use it, and it all still works.  Maybe I
don't need it at all?

Have a lovely night!
Alex

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

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