5.1 File format abbreviations
For the sake of brevity, we do not spell out every abbreviation
(typically of file format names) in the manual every time we use it.
This section collects and defines all the common abbreviations we use.
- The `Bezier property list' format output by BZRto and read by BPLtoBZR.
This is a transliteration of the binary BZR format into human-readable
(and -editable) text. See section 12.1 BPL files.
- The `Bezier' outline format output by Limn and read by BZRto. We
invented this format ourselves. See section 11.6 BZR files.
- The `cookie-cutter character' (er, `composite character construction')
files read by BZRto to add pre-accented and other such characters to a
font. See section 11.4 CCC files.
- The `character metric information' files read by Charspace to add side
bearings to a font. See section 9.2 CMI files.
- The `generic font' bitmap format output by Metafont (and by most of
these programs). See the sources for Metafont or one of the other
TeX font utility programs (GFtoPK, etc.) for the definition.
- The `device independent' format output by TeX, GFtoDVI, etc. Many
"DVI driver" programs have been written to translate DVI format to
something that can actually be printed or previewed. See sources for
TeX or DVItype for the definition.
- The `Encapsulated PostScript' format output by many programs, including
Imageto (see section 6.1.1 Viewing an image) and Fontconvert (see section 8.1.1 Fontconvert output options). An EPS file differs from a plain PostScript file in
that it contains information about the PostScript image it produces: its
bounding box, for example. (This information is contained in comments,
since PostScript has no good way to express such information directly.)
- The `image font information' files read by Imageto when making a font
from an image. See section 6.2 IFI files.
- The `Ghostscript font' format output by BZRto and the `bdftops'
program in the Ghostscript distribution. This is nothing more than the
Adobe Type 1 font format, unencrypted. The Adobe Type 1 format is
defined in a book published by Adobe. (Many PostScript interpreters
cannot read unencrypted Type 1 fonts, despite the fact that the
definition says encryption is not required. Ghostscript can read both
encrypted and unencrypted Type 1 fonts.)
- The `image' format used by some GEM (a window system sometimes used
under DOS) programs; specifically, by the program which drives our
- The `Meta-Font' programming language for designing typefaces invented by
Donald Knuth. His Metafontbook is the only manual written to
date (that we know of).
- The `portable bitmap' format used by the PBMplus programs,
Ghostscript, Imageto, etc. It was invented by Jef Poskanzer (we
believe), the author of PBMplus.
- The `printer font ASCII' format in which Type 1 PostScript fonts are
sometimes distributed. This format uses the ASCII hexadecimal
characters `0' to `9' and `a' to `f' (and/or
`A' to `F') to represent an
eexec-encrypted Type 1
- The `printer font binary' format in which Type 1 PostScript fonts are
sometimes distributed. This format is most commonly used on DOS
systems. (Personally, we find the existence of this format truly
despicable, as one of the major advantages of PostScript is its being
defined entirely in terms of plain text files (in Level 1 PostScript,
anyway). Having an unportable binary font format completely defeats
- The `packed font' bitmap format output by GFtoPK. PK format has (for
all practical purposes) the same information as GF format, and does a
better job of packing: typically a font in PK format will be one-half to
two-thirds of the size of the same font in GF format. It was invented
by Tom Rokicki as part of the TeX project. See the GFtoPK source for
- The `property list' format output by TFtoPL. This is a transliteration
of the binary TFM format into human-readable (and -editable) text. Some
of these programs output a PL file and call PLtoTF to make a TFM from
it. (For technical reasons it is easier to do this than to output a TFM
file directly.) See the PLtoTF source for the details.
- The `TeX font metric' format output by Metafont, PLtoTF, and other
programs, and read by TeX. TFM files include only character
dimension information (widths, heights, depths, and italic corrections),
kerns, ligatures, and font parameters; in particular, there is no
information about the character shapes. See the TeX or Metafont
source for the definition.