Modernizing Computer Modern Fonts

Alan Hoenig Department of Mathematics, John Jay College, City University of New York ahoenig@suffolk.lib.ny.us

Many TEX users know that the workhorse TEX This is a test of the TEX typesetting system. Abcd font, Computer Modern Roman (CMR; we’ll refer Efgh Ijkl Mnop Qrst Uvwx Yzab; Cdeg Ghij Klmn frequently to the Computer Modern fonts as CM), Opqr Stuv Wxyz. (0123456789!) was modelled after a real-life font called Modern 8a. Na`´ıve garc¸o¨n.˜ To name a font in this way is to invite questions: are The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy cow. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the there other members in the Modern font sequence? party. what does the suffix ‘a’ denote? I can’t claim Efficient effluent effectively fights flightiness. comprehensive answers to these questions, but I’ve kept my eyes and ears open over the years, and Do you see this Ring? have occasionally come across other members of this ’T is Rome-work, made to match font family. One of my most intriguing possessions (By Castellani’s imitative craft) is of a novel by Herman Melville set entirely in Etrurian circlets found, some happy morn, Modern fonts, namely numbers 8 (no suffix) and After a dropping April; found alive 4. Appropriately enough, the novel is called Typee ! Spark-like ’mid unearthed slope-side figtree-roots That roof old tombs at Chiusi; soft, you see, These types are extremely readable. In fact, they Yet crisp as jewel-cutting. There’s one trick, positively invite the reader to set a spell and lose (Craftsmen instruct me) one approved device themself in the volume. And but one, fits such slivers of pure gold The digital age has not been kind to this super- As this was, such mere oozings from the mine, family of fonts. As far as I can tell, only one of Virgin as oval tawny pendent tear the Modern types is available in digital form. (I At beehive-edge when ripened combs o’erfow, welcome correction on these matters.) The font in Since hammer needs must widen out the round, question is called simply Monotype Modern, and is, And file emboss it fine with lily-flowers, to my eyes, extremely handsome; see figure 1 for an Ere the stuff grow a ring-thing right to wear. extended selection . (Browning, TheRingandtheBook) Monotype Modern bears an unquestioned re- semblance to Computer Modern (or is it the other Figure 1: An extended selection set in Monotype way ’round?), but somehow the printed page using Modern. this font comes across as brighter and more inter- esting, at least to my eyes. The TEXuserquickly comes a cropper when she tries to adapt this font for use with TEX—there are no expert fonts available for Monotype Modern, so matching small caps and This is a test of the TEX typesetting the full suite of double-f ligatures appear to be system. Abcd Efgh Ijkl Mnop Qrst Uvwx unavailable. Yzab; Cdeg Ghij Klmn Opqr Stuv Wxyz. The purpose of my work in this area has been (0123456789!) to try to flesh out this font to the point where not Na`´ıve garc¸o¨n.˜ only are all ligatures and small caps are available, The quick brown fox jumps over the but matching math fonts and some others specialty lazy cow. Now is the time for all good men

fonts are available too. to come to the aid of the party.

¯ « E Æ cient e uent e ectively fights flight- A Meta-font Monotype Modern? iness. My first approach was reasonable, but misguided. I Figure 2: Monotype Modern plus meta-ligatures reasoned that if I carefully measured the dimensions in one virtual font. of the anatomy of letters in a Modern font, and then put those values in a METAFONT parameter file,

216 TUGboat, Volume 22 (2001), No. 3 — Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting Modernizing Computer Modern Fonts then METAFONT could simply generate a variant THIS ISATEST OF THE TEXTYPE- of Computer Modern which would essentially “be” SETTING SYSTEM.ABCD EFGH IJKL Monotype Modern. This approach appealed to me MNOP QRST UVWX YZAB;CDEG GHIJ for a variety of reasons. First of all, it was an KLMN OPQR STUV WXYZ. (01 23 456 excuse to mess around with METAFONT,oneofthe 789!) (THIS IS THE FAKE SMALL CAPS neater computer languages around! Second, I looked FONT.)

forward to being able to “discover” in this way a new

× e×Ø f he

and exciting typeface that lay hidden in the space T hi× I A T O T TEX

Ý ×ØeÑ bcd fg h

of all possible values of parameter values. T ÝÔe×eØØ i Ò g S .A E

ÒÓÔ Ö×Ø ÚÛÜ Þ b deg

Although this approach remained my meat- I jkÐ M Q U Y A ;C

ÐÑÒ ÔÕÖ ØÙÚ ÜÝÞ

and-potatoes approach for this project, it was far G hij K O S W .(01

i× Øhe ÔÐÙ×

from satisfactory. Basically, the letter forms of the 23 456 789!) (Thi× MM

ÅEÌAFÇÆÌ Ñ ÐÐ Ô× fÓÒØ Monotype font were often different in non-trivial -MÓdified S A CA .) ways than their meta-font cousins. The strokes were different in kind. For example, many thin strokes in Figure 3: Comparison viewing—fake small caps CM (Computer Modern) are modelled by a curved (top) versus the real thing (bottom). pen stroke: . However, the corresponding part of a MM (Monotype Modern) font did not together with the METAFONT ligatures. A specimen have the feel of a stroke: . There’s no rea- from this font appears in figure 2. METAFONT son why ’s stroke commands couldn’t Many people think that Small Caps fonts are mimicthis kind of form, but that’s not how the CM easy to create—simply use scaled-down uppercase fonts have been set up. letters as the lowercase counterparts in a small-caps I had looked forward to a meta-Monotype Mod- font. This is not a bad approximation to such a c’est la vie ern font, but . Really, though, such a font, but the proportions are not quite right, and any font would have been overkill—after all, Monotype’s hard-core TEX user rejects this solution! In figure 3, own Modern font is perfectly good enough—or is it? you see the comparison between a MM fake small Could I create proper sets of ligatures and small caps caps font, and a “real” small caps font, created with in the closest Meta-equivalent to MM, to create a uppercase characters drawn from MM and lowercase virtual font which would combine the meta-ligatures letters drawn from a METAFONT approximation to and small caps to the Monotype glyphs, and to see MM-small caps. You should see that the second how all this looks? example is better. I decided that measuring the parameters of Monotype Modern and inserting them into a META- Bold-face I’ve always found the decision to use FONT parameter file would give me the “best” ap- cmbx as the workhorse bold font in TEXtobea proximation to MM possible from the existing CM- mysterious one. To my mind, this font is far too METAFONT program files. Measuring was easy, but in-your-face. Moreover, the bold face in all Modern, a bit tedious. You can easily do this by creating non-TEX contexts never resembles these fonts, but a document with the MM font at some humongous rather the bold font that’s part of the MM suite of design size, say 500-pt. Then, you view it under fonts, which closely resembles cmb10 (at least at a Ghostscript. It’s a little-known fact, but under 10-pt design size). the ‘Edit’ pull-down menu, there’s an option called In figure 4, we see the virtual, improved version ‘Measure’. If you click on this option, you awaken of MM Bold. The strategy is the same: we begin the utility that allows you to measure distances on with font mmb10, the closest approximation we can screen between a click of the mouse and any other make to MM Bold, and then we “virtualize” a new position. Thus, it’s easy enough to measure the bold font that contains the mmb10 ligatures with the 61 parameters that go into a meta-font. The result- MM Bold glyphs. ing font, though, didn’t look much like Monotype Italic Italicfollows the same pattern. We create Modern—it still bore the look and feel of a CM font. afontmmti10, a close approximation to MM Italic, It was my hope, though, that the double-f and then we form the appropriate virtual font. This ligatures, the oldstyle numerals, and the small caps font appears in figure 5. To my eyes, this is the generated in this manner were visually compatible least successful experiment of all the ones I describe with MM. It was relatively easy to cobble together a in this article, for the CM curves are somehow less virtual font that incorporates the glyphs from MM pleasing than the MM curves.

TUGboat, Volume 22 (2001), No. 3 — Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting 217

Alan Hoenig

i× a Øe×Ø Óf Øhe

This is a test of a modified bold font. This is a Here’s some Roman. Ìhi×

Ì X ØÝÔ e×eØØiÒg ×Ý×ØeѺ Ab cd Efgh ÁjkÐ ÅÒÓÔ ÉÖ×Ø

test of the TEX typesetting system. Abcd Efgh Ijkl E

YÞab; Cdeg Ghij ÃÐÑÒ ÇÔ ÕÖ ËØÙÚ ÏÜÝÞº Mnop Qrst Uvwx Yzab; Cdeg Ghij Klmn Opqr Stuv ÍÚÛÜ

Wxyz. (0123456789!) ´¼½¾¿456789!µ

aÚe gaÖcÓ~Òº

Na´`ıve garc¸o¨n.˜ Æ

ÕÙick bÖÓÛÒ fÓÜ jÙÑÔ× ÓÚeÖ Øhe ÐaÞÝ cÓÛº

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy cow. Ìhe

Û i× Øhe ØiÑe fÓÖ aÐÐ gÓ Ó d ÑeÒ ØÓ cÓÑe ØÓ Øhe

Now is the time for all good men to come to the ÆÓ

aid Óf Øhe ÔaÖØݺ EÆcieÒØ e¯ÙeÒØ e«ecØiÚeÐÝ ¬ghØ×

¯ « aid of the party. EÆcient e uent e ectively fights

flightiness. ­ighØiÒe×׺ Here’s some Roman. Bold with roman. This is bold together with Modernized Roman. Figure 7: Modernized Modern sans serif.

Figure 4: Testing a modified bold font. depth of the descending characters is the strongest This is a test of mcmri7t, a modified italic font. contributor to this slight idiosyncrasy. This is a test of the TEX typesetting system. Abcd Efgh Ijkl Mnop Qrst Uvwx Yzab; Cdeg Ghij Klmn Math fonts Opqr Stuv Wxyz. (0123456789!) In addition to your choice of text fonts, you need Na`ıve´ garc¸o¨n.˜ three kinds of special fonts in order to typeset math- The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy cow. ematics properly. The first is the extension font,

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid cmex10, and I decided to use this unchanged for

¯ « of the party. EÆ cient e uent e ectively fights flight- “mmex10.” In the same way, we need special symbol iness. fonts, this time at three sizes, and I’ve appropriated them unchanged from CM. These have the names Figure 5: Testing a modified italicfont. cmsy10, cmsy7,andcmsy5. We also need three sizes of special math italic fonts. Although with other font families, we have Sans-serif and typewriter fonts For some rea- to somehow adapt the text italicfor math, it’s nice son, a matching sans-serif to Monotype Modern here to be able to adapt the cmmi fonts. That’s was difficult to conjure up. In the course of my because Knuth paid close attention to certain de- experiments, I stumbled upon one version, a sans tails, such as a special math italic a (compare the serifoffigure6 that has an interesting 1920’s art text italic a) that you just don’t see in these other deco flavor to it that would not be out of place for fonts. I adapted them simply by adjusting the gross the title of an Agatha Christie reprint or the cover parameters—figure height, cap height, x-height, and of the New Yorker magazine. Close scrutiny shows so on—but leaving other parameters alone. The some strokes of some types that need fixing; these resulting math italics don’t quite match the text are high on my to-do list. The best I could do for a font, but perhaps they shouldn’t. After all, math more normal sans serif appears in figure 7. is different from text. Anyway, the match is close I don’t quite know how to characterize the enough. A sample appears in figure 9,andIhope quirkiness of the mmtt10 font, although I personally you agree. like it. Take a look for yourself at figure 8 to decide how to characterize it. The proportionally greater Installing and using the fonts

Notice: Whenever you install new files or

i× a Øe×Ø Óf Øhe Ì X ØÝÔ e×eØØiÒg ×Ý×ØeѺ

Ìhi× fonts, don’t fail to update or refresh the file-

E

Efgh ÁjkÐ ÅÒÓÔ ÉÖ×Ø ÍÚÛÜ YÞab; Cdeg Ghij

Ab cd name database used by your version of TEX! ´¼½¾¿456789!µ

ÃÐÑÒ ÇÔ ÕÖ ËØÙÚ ÏÜÝÞº This filename updating is a consequence of Kpath-

aÚe gaÖcÓ~Òº

Æ sea’s file searching mechanism which has become an

ÖÓÛÒ fÓÜ jÙÑÔ× ÓÚeÖ Øhe ÐaÞÝ cÓÛº

Ìhe ÕÙick b integral component of most modern TEX’s, or so I

Û i× Øhe ØiÑe fÓÖ aÐÐ gÓÓd ÑeÒ ØÓ cÓÑe ØÓ Øhe

ÆÓ believe.

ÖØݺ EÆcieÒØ e¯ÙeÒØ e«ecØiÚeÐÝ ¬ghØ× aid Óf Øhe Ôa Let me emphasize that these fonts are no good ­ighØiÒe×׺ without the Monotype Modern fonts in hand. You need them—you need to buy them, plus you need Figure 6: Modernized Modern ‘art deco’ sans the adjunct files (.tfm, .vf, .fd, etc. files) to serif. make them usable by TEX. These additional files

218 TUGboat, Volume 22 (2001), No. 3 — Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting

Modernizing Computer Modern Fonts

i× Øhe ×ÐighØÐÝ

should be available for downloading from ctan;the Here’s some Roman. Ìhi×

ØÝÔeÛÖiØeÖ fÓÒØ ØhaØ i× ÔaÖØ Óf

fontname family name is mmo. ÕÙiÖkÝ

ÅÓdeÖÒiÞed CÓÑÔÙØeÖ ÅÓdeÖÒ faÑiÐݺ

The fonts here require ten METAFONT source Øhe

Ìhi× i× a Øe×Ø Óf Øhe Ì X ØÝÔe×eØØiÒg

files. These files have names like mmr10.mf,and E

×Ý×ØeѺ Abcd Efgh ÁjkÐ ÅÒÓÔ ÉÖ×Ø ÍÚÛÜ

Cdeg Ghij ÃÐÑÒ ÇÔÕÖ ËØÙÚ ÏÜÝÞº ´¼½ should all be placed in a directory like YÞab;

456 789!µ

texmf/fonts/source/public/modern ¾¿

aÚe gaÖcÓ~Òº

In addition, place all .tfm and .vf font files in your Æ

Ìhe ÕÙick bÖÓÛÒ fÓÜ jÙÑÔ× ÓÚeÖ Øhe

T X system in places like

cÓÛº ÆÓÛ i× Øhe ØiÑe fÓÖ aÐÐ gÓÓd

E ÐaÞÝ

ØÓ cÓÑe ØÓ Øhe aid Óf Øhe ÔaÖØݺ Ef¹

texmf/fonts/tfm/public/modern ÑeÒ

effÐÙeÒØ effecØiÚeÐÝ fighØ× fÐighع and ficieÒØ

iÒe×׺ Here’s some Roman. texmf/fonts/vf/public/modern. Finally, put the files moderniz.tex and moderniz.sty Figure 8: Modernized Modern typewriter. in texmf This is a test of the Modernized Computer Modern /tex/plain/public/modern
π √ 2

2 −x 2

e dÜ and fonts. Let’sdomath:  = 0 = φ! .This texmf/tex/latex/public/modern. doesn’tlooksobad. Let’sdosomedisplaymath! Plain documents To create documents in plain  π √ ∞

2  f

TEX, place the statement −x2 2  d 1

e dÜ f Ü

 = = ( )= = i

dÜ Ü ! \input moderniz 0 n=0 at the beginning of your source file. Thereafter, nicknames like \it and \bf use the modernized That’s all, folks! fonts. Note that this macro file provides two new commands, \sc and \sans for small caps and sans Figure 9: A snippet of modernized math, serif. To use the art deco font, place a statement together with some text fonts. like \font\deco=mmdeco10 \fontfamily{mmss}\fontseries{m} in your source, after which \deco invokes this font. \fontshape{de}\selectfont LATEXdocumentsPlace the incantation The normal math delimiters work to select the mod- \usepackage{moderniz} ernized math fonts. following the \documentclass command. In the Conclusion document, commands like \rm, \bf, \it, \sc,and ctan \tt select modernized fonts. To use sans serif fonts, This package can be obtained from .Alas,as select font family mmss with the medium and normal of this writing, the exact folder there is not known. series and shape: Please report all bugs, suggestions, or comments to the author at \fontfamily{mmss}\fontseries{m} ahoenig@suffolk.lib.ny.us \fontshape{n}\selectfont Thanks! To use the art deco font, use the de fontshape:

TUGboat, Volume 22 (2001), No. 3 — Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting 219