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Archive-name: auto/comp.text.tex/SOFTWARE-Malvern-font-family-release-1-0


			    Malvern release 1.0
			      mff release 2.9


	Malvern is a sanserif font family, written in METAFONT for use with
    (La)TeX.  After many months of silence, a semi-complete Malvern
    implementation is available at last!  It is semi-complete because I need
    some feedback from YOU the potential users before I go through the
    tedious slog of getting Malvern up to production release.

	This implies that there are bugs and design flaws throughout Malvern
    1.0, and the documentation has a few problems too (for example, the only
    installation hints in the printed documentation is section 10.2, in the
    "METAFONT wizards only" section).  The result is that this release is
    best dealt with by fairly confident METAFONT and TeX hackers.  Of
    course, the documentation for LaTeX users belongs in the Local Guide
    (hee hee).

	At present, Malvern is temporarily "installed" as a collection of
    compressed tarfiles in the directory "pub/submission" on the machine
    "fenris.claremont.edu", and can probably be retrieved via anonymous FTP.
    "malvern-10.tar.Z" is the source and is in theory the only file needed;
    "malvern-10b.tar.Z" is a collection of precompiled fonts and
    "malvern-10ps.tar.Z" is the printed manual, in PostScript form.  In due
    course they will be unpacked and moved onto "ymir.claremont.edu",
    probably in a directory called [ANONYMOUS.TEX.MF.MALVERN].  

	The source code (only) is also available from "ftp.comlab.ox.ac.uk"
    in the directory "TeXhax", or via an automatic archive-server (post the
    message "help" to "archive-server@comlab.ox.ac.uk").  Also available
    from this archive (under "Programs") is "mff" version 2.9, a small UNIX
    program that makes generation of font families like Malvern much easier.

	There is a mailing list for Malvern problems and solutions,
    "malvern@comlab.ox.ac.uk".  You can subscribe by mailing me at
    "malvern-request@comlab.ox.ac.uk". I would especially appreciate
    information on internationalization, and systematic ways to come up with
    kerning tables and the like.

	More information follows my .signature.
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  |  Damian Cugley          |                                               
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WHAT MALVERN IS

    Malvern is a METAFONT font program; it can be used with METAFONT to
    produce a font for use with Donald Knuth's TeX typesetting system (and
    some other systems as well).

    Malvern grew out of my frustration with trying to get what I consider a
    pleasing sanserif font out of the CM program files.  Its design is
    intended to be simple and elegant, a touch old-fashioned, and very
    different from (say) CMSS or Helvetica (I consider this its main
    attraction:-).  It is intended to be used by itself as the main font of
    a document, rather than being just another alphabet for mathematics!

    It has at least the following eccentric features:

      * rounded terminals and corners

      * three sets of figures -- ranging, old-style and small figures for
	footnotes and fractions.

      * four alphabets -- lower case, small, medium and large caps.  Medium
	caps can be used with a separate set of marks to make capital
	composite letters.

      * more currency signs and quote marks than anyone could want,
	including the dubious PostScript florin sign and single guillemets.

      * a raised "c" for writing names like "McDonald" (if you are feeling
	like being eccentric).

    Because it was developed with mff, it comes in any combination of
    weights and widths, with roman and italic variations.


WHAT MFF IS

    mff grew out of a UNIX shellscript I had for running METAFONT and
    installing the TFM and PK files.  Its unique feature is that it will
    parse a font name "ma76a10" as "10pt Malvern bold italic with encoding
    Malvern A" and run METAFONT with variables like "weight" and italicness"
    set appropriately (all that is user-definable, of course).  The driver
    file understands these and sets stem widths etc. based on them.  The
    practical upshot of which is that I have *one* driver file ma.mf and a
    command like

	mff ma{55,56,75}a{8,10,12}

    creates 9 fonts automagically.  mff isn't vital but it is *very*
    convenient for creating fonts on the fly.

    mff comes with sample meta-fonts thrown in for free!


CURRENT STATE OF PLAY

    I have started adding support for creating fonts with the Cork encoding
    directly.  I have support for Karl Berry's name font system in the mff
    files, and my own eccentric system which translates 12-pt Malvern 55 as
    ma55a12.  (The names suggested with the 0.3 distribution are obselete.)

    I've installed mff 2.9 on the Oxford archive.


HOW TO EXTRACT THE DOCS FROM THE BINARIES

    Assume that you have a UNIX box, the Malvern binaries distribution, and
    a printer driver capable of using 300-dpi fonts (such as xdvi), and want
    to print the manual before going any further.
	You can extract the PK and DVI files using an incantation like:

		tar xf malvern-10.tar Malvern-1.0B/{docpk,aboutmalvern.dvi}

    Then you wpould use something like

		setenv XDVIFONTS docpk:
		xdvi aboutmalvern

    Even if your printer doesn't have a 300-DPI CanonCX printing engine
    inside, a decent DVI->PostScript driver will allow you to use
    wrong-sized fonts in emergencies such as this one.



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