Graphics and TeX course, 25 Oct Utrecht

The main idea: METAFONT is the lifelong friend of TeX and thus TeX users should be familiar with her. Furthermore, almost simultaneously with TeX and METAFONT, their noble cousin, PostScript, came to the world. The three of them form an unbeatable team, thus it is advisable to learn a bit about the virtual capabilities of the team.

The openness of the TeX/METAFONT system will be emphasized as one of the best its sides.

It is assumed that the listeners are well acquainted with TeX and a little bit (or not at all) with METAFONT and PostScript.

Frame schedule

Morning

  • Introduction to METAFONT
    • What are TeX fonts?
    • METAFONT as a tool for generating (missing) fonts
    • METAFONT as a tool for creating simple graphic
    • METAFONT as a font designer's tool -- a brief overview
  • Introduction to PostScript
    • What is PostScript?
    • What is EPS?
    • What are PostScript fonts?
    • Using PostScript in TeX
      • Using EPS files
      • Using PostScript fonts

Afternoon

  • Bitmaps versus outline graphic
  • TeX fonts without METAFONT
  • Links between METAFONT and PostScript
    • METAPOST
    • MFTOEPS package
    • How to produce PostScript fonts using METAFONT?
  • METAFONT versus graphic programs
  • From sketch to EPS and back to METAFONT
  • Questions

Due to a presumably high activity of participants, the schedule can be subjected to changes.

The printed stuff (the booklet ``METAFONT: practical and impractical applications'', ca. 30 pages A5) will be available during the course.