Chapter 13

Font Preferences

This chapter describes how to set up face mappings for screen and PostScript fonts via preferences (see Preferences). The font-configuration system is overkill; it was designed to handle especially complex X font mappings (before fontconfig/Xft solved the problem).

An implementor for a MrEd-based program may find it easier to use the set-screen-name and set-post-script-name methods provided by the-font-name-directory. As a user of a MrEd-based program, preferences provide a mechanism for setting default mappings.

Whether a programmer or a user, see font-name-directory<%> for an overview of the font mapping system.

To find a font name for a family, MrEd looks for a preference name by concatenating "MrEd:", a dest string, a type string, a weight string, and a style string where

• dest is either "Screen" or "PostScript".

• type is either "Default", "Decorative", "Roman", "Script", "Swiss", "Modern", "System", or "Symbol" for a mapping defining the default font for a family. Otherwise, it is a face name prefixed with "@".

• weight is either "Medium", "Bold", or "Light".

• style is either "Straight", "Italic", or "Slant".

Furthermore, any of the latter three parts can be wildcarded with "_", as described below. The concatenated string is converted to a symbol (preserving case), and the associated preference value must be a string.

The value of the preference is parsed as described in font-name-directory<%> for parsing face names, except that the string can contain references and other tricks described below.

13.1  Wildcards

Building items names by concatenating dest, type, weight, and style can create a large number of preference entries, and the weight and style parts are useful only for X screen fonts. To avoid an explosion of preferences, MrEd finds preferences via a wildcarding search.

The type, weight, and style parts of a preference name can be wildcarded by using "_". Thus, to set the default font in X for all types, weights, and styles, use the following preference entry:

(|MrEd:Screen___| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")

Wildcarded preference entries are used only when un-wildcarded values cannot be found. If two preference names both match for some search, then the one with the ``earliest'' (i.e., closest to the beginning of the preference name) non-wildcarded part will prevail.

The default MrEd preferences for Windows uses wildcarding to specify the basic font mapping, as if written as:

(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "MS Sans Serif")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "Times New Roman")
(|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "Modern")
...

Wildcarding in the preference name naturally leads to references, parameterizations, and wildcarding references in the preference value. These features are described in the following few sections.

13.2  References

Suppose we define the mapping for variants of "Default", and then we want "Roman" to use this setting, too. We could copy the preference entry, as in the following example:

(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")

but the MrEd font-reading system provides a better syntax for referencing another preference entry. When a preference value contains "${x}", then the "${x}" fragment is replaced by the preference value of "x". Thus, the above can be re-written:

(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault__}")

A mini-language of "${x}" is used within the string (instead of an S-expression format) for historical reasons.

13.3  Parameterizations

Parameterization can be used with referencing to parameterize default values based on the weight and style that is needed. When a preference value contains "$[weight]", then "$[weight]" is replaced with a string for the desired font weight. Similarly, "$[style]" is replaced with the desired style. Parameterizing expressions can be embedded within referencing expressions, as in the following example:

(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-${Def$[weight]}-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:DefMedium| "medium")
(|MrEd:DefBold| "bold")
(|MrEd:DefLight| "medium")

Now, when the '|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| preference is used for different weights, it will return different values; the "${Def$[weight]}" expression will turn into "${DefMedium}" for a medium-weight lookup, or "${DefBold}" for a bold-weight lookup. These references will in turn give either "medium" or "bold".

13.4  Wildcarding References

Consider the following preference configuration:

(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBold_| "+-*-*-bold-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault__}")

The effect of this statement is probably not what was intended; when a bold version of the "Roman" font is needed, the '|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| preference references the '|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| preference, which does not specify a bold font. We could try to remedy the situation as follows:

(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBold_| "+-*-*-bold-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault$[weight]_}")

but this does not work either. It works fine for bold "Roman", now, but medium "Roman" will cause a reference to the '|MrEd:ScreenDefaultMedium_| preference, which doesn't exist. The problem is that our reference does not use wildcarding like the original medium "Roman" lookup did.

Wildcarding can be specified in a reference by separating each wildcardable field with a comma. The following preference specification does what we want:

(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBold_| "+-*-*-bold-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "${ScreenDefault,$[weight],_}")

Since "$[weight]" is between commas, it can be wildcarded if no name exactly matching "SchemeDefault$[weight]_" is found. In this case "SchemeDefault" and "_" can also be wildcarded, but this will have no effect.

The wildcarding used in references need not reflect the wildcarding MrEd initial uses for finding fonts. In other words, a number of comma-separated selects can appear between the curly braces.

13.5  Internal Preferences

The initial font setup is built into MrEd through a built-in preference table. The table is shown at the end of this section. When font information is computed, it is almost as if this table were installed into your preferences file; the difference is that preference specifications in your file override specifications in the built-in table, even when the wildcarding of your preference provides a weaker match.

When no information is available for mapping a face name to a font, MrEd falls back to the system described in font-name-directory<%>. (Since a mapping is built into MrEd for every family, information is always available for the default font of a family.)

Internal preferences for all platforms:

(|MrEd:PostScriptMediumStraight| "")
(|MrEd:PostScriptMediumItalic| "-Oblique")
(|MrEd:PostScriptMediumSlant| "-Oblique")
(|MrEd:PostScriptLightStraight| "")
(|MrEd:PostScriptLightItalic| "-Oblique")
(|MrEd:PostScriptLightSlant| "-Oblique")
(|MrEd:PostScriptBoldStraight| "-Bold")
(|MrEd:PostScriptBoldItalic| "-BoldOblique")
(|MrEd:PostScriptBoldSlant| "-BoldOblique")

(|MrEd:PostScript___| "${PostScript$[family],$[weight],$[style]}")

(|MrEd:PostScriptSystem__| "${PostScriptTimes,$[weight],$[style]}")
(|MrEd:PostScriptRoman__| "${PostScriptTimes,$[weight],$[style]}")
(|MrEd:PostScriptDecorative__| "${PostScriptTimes,$[weight],$[style]}")
(|MrEd:PostScriptScript__| "ZapfChancery-MediumItalic")

(|MrEd:PostScriptTimesMedium| "")
(|MrEd:PostScriptTimesLight| "")
(|MrEd:PostScriptTimesBold| "Bold")

(|MrEd:PostScriptTimes__| "Times${PostScript$[weight]$[style]}")
(|MrEd:PostScriptTimesMediumStraight| "Times-Roman")
(|MrEd:PostScriptTimesLightStraight| "Times-Roman")
(|MrEd:PostScriptTimes_Slant| "Times-${PostScriptTimes$[weight]}Italic")
(|MrEd:PostScriptTimes_Italic| "Times-${PostScriptTimes$[weight]}Italic")

(|MrEd:PostScriptDefault__| "Helvetica${PostScript$[weight]$[style]}")
(|MrEd:PostScriptSwiss__| "Helvetica${PostScript$[weight]$[style]}")
(|MrEd:PostScriptModern__| "Courier${PostScript$[weight]$[style]}")
(|MrEd:PostScriptSymbol__| "Symbol")

Internal preferences for X with fontconfig/Xft/RENDER only:

(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| " Sans")
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| " Sans")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| " Serif")
(|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| " Nimbus Sans L")
(|MrEd:ScreenModern__| " Monospace")
(|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| " Nimbus Sans L")
(|MrEd:ScreenScript__| " URW Chancery L")
(|MrEd:ScreenSymbolBase| " Standard Symbols L,Nimbus Sans L")

Internal preferences for X only (except those overridden for fontconfig/Xft/RENDER):

(|MrEd:ScreenMedium| "medium")
(|MrEd:ScreenBold| "bold")
(|MrEd:ScreenLight| "light")
(|MrEd:ScreenStraight| "r")
(|MrEd:ScreenItalic| "i")
(|MrEd:ScreenSlant| "o")

(|MrEd:ScreenSystemBase| "*-lucida")
(|MrEd:ScreenDefaultBase| "*-lucida")
(|MrEd:ScreenRomanBase| "*-times")
(|MrEd:ScreenDecorativeBase| "*-helvetica")
(|MrEd:ScreenModernBase| "*-courier")
(|MrEd:ScreenSwissBase| "*-lucida")
(|MrEd:ScreenScriptBase| "*-zapfchancery")
(|MrEd:ScreenSymbolBase| "*-symbol")

(|MrEd:ScreenStdSuffix| "-${Screen$[weight]}-${Screen$[style]}-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")

(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "+-${ScreenSystemBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}")
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "+-${ScreenDefaultBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "+-${ScreenRomanBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}")
(|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "+-${ScreenDecorativeBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}")
(|MrEd:ScreenModern__| "+-${ScreenModernBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}")
(|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| "+-${ScreenSwissBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}")
(|MrEd:ScreenScript__| "+-${ScreenScriptBase}${ScreenStdSuffix}")
(|MrEd:ScreenSymbol__| "+-${ScreenSymbolBase}-medium-r-normal-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*")

Internal preferences for Windows only:

(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "MS Sans Serif")
(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "MS Sans Serif")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "Times New Roman")
(|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "Arial")
(|MrEd:ScreenModern__| "Courier New")
(|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| "Arial")
(|MrEd:ScreenScript__| "Arial")
(|MrEd:ScreenSymbol__| "Symbol")

Internal preferences for Mac OS X only:

(|MrEd:ScreenDefault__| "Lucida Grande")
(|MrEd:ScreenSystem__| "Lucida Grande")
(|MrEd:ScreenRoman__| "Times")
(|MrEd:ScreenDecorative__| "Arial")
(|MrEd:ScreenModern__| "Courier New")
(|MrEd:ScreenSwiss__| "Helvetica")
(|MrEd:ScreenScript__| "Apple Chancery")
(|MrEd:ScreenSymbol__| "Symbol")

13.6  PostScript Fonts

To generate PostScript output, MrEd must be able to find an Adobe Font Metrics (AFM) file corresponding to the PostScript font. An AFM file typically uses the suffix .afm, and several AFM files are distributed with MrEd in the afm collection.

MrEd finds an AFM file by adding a .afm suffix to the PostScript name of the font, and checking all directories specified by the current-ps-afm-file-paths parameter. The initial value of this parameter is determined by the PLTAFMPATHS environment variable; the environment variable's setting is parsed with path-list-string->path-list using (list (collection-path "afm")) as the default list (see paths in MzScheme, section 11.3.2 in PLT MzScheme: Language Manual).

Depending on whether the font is CID-based (typically for the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese language families, and as indicated in the AFM file), MrEd must find additional files:

• Non-CID: In addition to an AFM file x.afm, MrEd looks for a x-glyphlist.txt file (in the same directory as the AFM file) to map glyph names in the AFM file to Unicode character values. In addition to this font-specific file, MrEd looks for a glyphlist.txt file to supply a mapping for Adobe's standard glyph names, and this mapping is used when a font-specific mapping is not supplied, or when the mapping does not cover a name found in the AFM file. MrEd looks for glyphlist.txt in the same place as AFM files. Since glyphlist.txt is large, if a glyphshortlist.txt file is available, it is read first, and then glyphlist.txt is read only if a character name must be resolved that is not in glyphshortlist.txt.

• CID: In addition to an AFM file, MrEd must find and read CMap files to convert glyph IDs for the font to Unicode characters. The character set name is used as the name of the CMap file to load, and MrEd checks all directories specified by the current-ps-cmap-file-paths parameter. The initial value of this parameter is determined by the PLTCMAPPATHS environment variable; the environment variable's setting is parsed with path-list-string->path-list using (list (collection-path "afm" "CMap")) as the default list (see paths in MzScheme, section 11.3.2 in PLT MzScheme: Language Manual). In addition to a CMap file for the font's character set, MrEd must find a UniCNS-UTF32-H CMap file to complete the mapping to Unicode. MrEd automatically adds the font's character set to the font name when producing PostScript with a CID-based font.

When drawing or measuring text using a particular PostScript font, if the font does not contain a glyph for a character (or if a relevant AFM file cannot be found for the font), then MrEd attempts to substitute another PostScript font. A substitute font is selected by checking all .afm files in the directories specified by current-ps-afm-file-paths (in order), and choosing the first discovered match.