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.