Install ttf and otf fonts for use with groff

groff-install-font

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# groff-install-ttf converts a TrueType (ttf) or OpenType (otf) font to a
# Printer Font ASCII (pfa) font and a groff font (ditroff) and installs them to
# groff's site-font directory.
#
# Requires fontforge.
#
# You're the best, Peter Schaffter, but contrary to the verbose and
# difficult-to-follow http://www.schaffter.ca/mom/momdoc/appendices.html#fonts,
# the t42 file doesn't seem to be necessary, at least with recent versions of
# groff. Just copy the groff font and pfa generated by fontforge to both
# site-font device directories (devps, devpdf) and update the "download" files
# with the internalname -> <pfa> mapping.
#
# Note that "groffname" needs to match groff's conventions for font styles.
# Regular should end with "R", bold with "B", etc.
set -eu

font=${1:?No font file given}; shift
groffname=${1:?No groff font name given, eg TimesR, TimesI, TimesB, etc}; shift
name=$(basename "$font" .${font##*.})

prefix=/usr/share/groff
fontdir=$prefix/current/font
textmap=$fontdir/devps/generate/textmap
sitefont=$prefix/site-font

trap cleanup EXIT
cleanup() {
    rm -f "$groffname" "$name.pfa"
}

fontforge -lang=ff -c "Open(\"$font\");Generate(\"$name.pfa\");"
afmtodit "$name.afm" "$textmap" "$groffname"

mkdir -p "$sitefont"
for dir in "$sitefont"/dev{ps,pdf}; do
    mkdir -p "$dir"
    cp "$name.pfa" "$groffname" "$dir"
done

internalname=$(awk '/^internalname/ {print $2}' "$groffname")
echo -e "$internalname\t$name.pfa" >>"$fontdir/devps/download"
echo -e "\t$internalname\t$name.pfa" >>"$fontdir/devpdf/download"

For some reason, it isn’t working for me. :-(

  ~/DPSD-beyond$ ls
  DPSDbeyond.otf  dpsdbeyond.zip  groff-install-font  SIL Open Font License.txt
  ~/DPSD-beyond$ ./groff-install-font DPSDbeyond.otf DPSDbeyond
  Copyright (c) 2000-2012 by George Williams.
   Executable based on sources from 14:57 GMT 31-Jul-2012-ML.
   Library based on sources from 14:57 GMT 31-Jul-2012.
  The requested file, DPSDbeyond.otf, does not exist
  Open: Failed to open: DPSDbeyond.otf
  Called from...
   <command-string>: line 1
  ~/DPSD-beyond$

I have the same issue: Running Arch Linux 5.6.11, Fonforge20200314

@cogburnd02 @dj-bauer: Yeah, there was a silly bug. I was changing to a temp dir so I could put the files generated by fontforge in their own place so I could clean up completely without the chance of deleting/overwriting a file that someone happened to give the same name, but then the ttf/otf filepath needed to be absolute. I've changed it so the files are generated in the working dir instead.

Thanks! Now it works like a charm :)

You're the best, Peter Schaffter, but contrary to the verbose and
difficult-to-follow http://www.schaffter.ca/mom/momdoc/appendices.html#fonts,
the t42 file doesn't seem to be necessary, at least with recent versions of
groff. Just copy the groff font and pfa generated by fontforge to both
site-font device directories (devps, devpdf) and update the "download" files
with the internalname -> mapping.

TrueType -> Type 42 conversion is lossless, TrueType -> Type 1 isn't. That's the reason why Peter's guide is using .t42 files.

@xenu ah, thanks. The PostScript fonts Wikipedia page describes various font types. Type 42 is a PostScript wrapper around TrueType.

It's probably better to use install-font.sh, referenced from the groff manual, instead of this script. install-font.sh is baroque but it deals with a bunch of issues that I'm ignorant of.

I think the shebang "/usr/bin/env bash" leads to a problem with the echo flag -e.
Reset it to /usr/bin/bash or /bin/bash (for my Ubuntu Linux).
Also I unpacked the for iteration to make it work:
for dir in "$sitefont"/devps "$sitefont"/devpdf; do
Otherwise the bash script worked well, thank you for sharing it.