ps_findfont

Loads a font

Description

int ps_findfont(
    resource $psdoc,
    string $fontname,
    string $encoding,
    bool $embed = false
)

Loads a font for later use. Before text is output with a loaded font it must be set with ps_setfont. This function needs the adobe font metric file in order to calculate the space used up by the characters. A font which is loaded within a page will only be available on that page. Fonts which are to be used in the complete document have to be loaded before the first call of ps_begin_page. Calling ps_findfont between pages will make that font available for all following pages.

The name of the afm file must be fontname.afm. If the font shall be embedded the file fontname.pfb containing the font outline must be present as well.

Calling ps_findfont before the first page requires to output the postscript header which includes the BoundingBox for the whole document. Usually the BoundingBox is set with the first call of ps_begin_page which now comes after ps_findfont. Consequently the BoundingBox has not been set and a warning will be issued when ps_findfont is called. In order to prevent this situation, one should call ps_set_parameter to set the BoundingBox before ps_findfont is called.

Parameters

psdoc

Resource identifier of the postscript file as returned by ps_new.

fontname

The name of the font.

encoding

ps_findfont will try to load the file passed in the parameter encoding. Encoding files are of the same syntax as those used by dvips(1). They contain a font encoding vector (which is currently not used but must be present) and a list of extra ligatures to extend the list of ligatures derived from the afm file.

encoding can be null or the empty string if the default encoding (TeXBase1) shall be used.

If the encoding is set to builtin then there will be no reencoding and the font specific encoding will be used. This is very useful with symbol fonts.

embed

If set to a value >0 the font will be embedded into the document. This requires the font outline (.pfb file) to be present.

Return Values

Returns the identifier of the font or zero in case of an error. The identifier is a positive number.

See Also

  • ps_begin_page
  • ps_setfont