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To: Giuseppe =?koi8-r?b?R2hpYvI=?= <ghibo@mandrakesoft.com>
Cc: CyrTeX-en@vsu.ru,  CyrTeX-ru@vsu.ru,  tex-fonts@math.utah.edu,
	  tetex@informatik.uni-hannover.de,  Paul Seelig <pseelig@debian.org>
Subject: Re: CM-Super font package v0.2.0
References: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1010924043904.18526A-100000@mandrakesoft.mandrakesoft.com>
From: Vladimir Volovich <vvv@vsu.ru>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:30:24 +0400
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 <Pine.LNX.3.96.1010924043904.18526A-100000@mandrakesoft.mandrakesoft.com>
 (Giuseppe =?koi8-r?b?R2hpYvIncw==?= message of "Mon, 24 Sep 2001 04:42:12
 -0500 (CDT)")
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"GG" == Giuseppe Ghibò writes:

 GG> BTW. Since you used TeXtrace, and FontLab, I would like to point
 GG> out about MF -> Type1 conversion. There is another tool (although
 GG> it has several restrictions) called mf2pt1 (on CTAN:support)
 GG> allowing such kind conversion (resulting is more precise than
 GG> tracing [although has overlaps] because has fewer nodes, and thus
 GG> files shorter),

yes, i know about mf2pt1, and it could not convert arbitrary METAFONT
fonts, because it uses METAPOST (which does not support some features
of METAFONT).

 GG> and there is also a freeware font editor, called PfaEdit, at
 GG> http://pfaedit.sourceforge.net, which has TWO interesting
 GG> features:

 
 GG>         - 'Simplify': simplify the fonts reducing the number of
 GG> unneeded nodes, make PFB file shorter.

 GG>         - 'Remove Overlap': remove overlaps in font paths.

i used FontLab to simplify (optimize), remove overlaps, and autohint
the fonts. i'm not sure that PfaEdit will give better results than
FontLab.

The current fonts are already quite short, e.g. they are about the
same size as commercial Type 1 EC fonts provided by Micropress, Inc.

This comparison was made on fonts which contain only glyphs from EC
fonts, because CM-Super fonts contain much more glyphs than fonts from
Micropress.

And there are possibilities to make the fonts even more short, which
will be used in next versions: move definitions of glyphs with the
same shape into subrs, and construct accented glyphs from non-accented
and accents via subrs.
 
 GG> The second question is. Is there a table about choosing the
 GG> UniqueID to be used for each of the Metafont fonts converted to
 GG> PFB? If not how about to write one?
 
I'll add such a table.

Best,
v.