NAME
tftopl - convert TeX font metric (tfm) files to
property lists
SYNOPSIS
tftopl [
-charcode-format=format ] [ -verbose ]
tfm_name[.tfm] [ pl_name[.pl] ]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.
The complete documentation for this version of TeX can be found in
the info file or manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.
The tftopl program translates a (program-oriented) font
metric file to a (human-oriented) property list file. Thus, you can
edit the contents of the TFM files, if the font designer has not
done his or her job properly, or if you're encountering strange
difficulties, or if you're just curious. It also serves as a
TFM-file validating program, i.e., if no error messages are given,
the input file is correct.
The pl_name is extended with .pl if it lacks a
suffix. If pl_name is not given, standard output is used.
Likewise, tfm_name is extended with .tfm if it lacks
a suffix. Also, path searching is done for the .tfm file
using the environment variable TEXFONTS. If that is not set,
tftopl uses the system default.
See tex(1) for
the details of the searching.
OPTIONS
The argument format to
-charcode-format specifies how character codes are output in
the PL file. By default, only letters and digits are output using
the C integer code (i.e., in ASCII); the others are output
in octal. (Unless the font's coding scheme starts with TeX math
sy or TeX math ex, in which case all character codes are
output in octal.) If format is ascii, all character
codes that correspond to graphic characters, besides the left and
right parentheses, are output in ASCII. Finally, if format
is octal, all character codes are output in octal.
Without the -verbose option, tftopl operates
silently. With it, a banner and progress report are printed on
stdout.
SEE ALSO
pltotf(1),
Donald E. Knuth, TeX for nroffware.
Donald E. Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers
and Typesetting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
AUTHORS
Donald E. Knuth wrote the program. It was published
as part of the TeX for nroffware technical report, available
from the TeX Users Group. Howard Trickey and Pavel Curtis
originally ported it to Unix.