Tgif FAQ - Character Encoding

By default, the screen fonts tgif uses are iso8859-1 encoded. Non-ASCII portion of these fonts (characters with bit 7 on) maps to certain PS font characters by default. Below is a table listing character codes in decimal, character codes in octal, and the corresponding PostScript character names.

Decimal		Octal		Char Name
161		8#241		exclamdown
162		8#242		cent
163		8#243		sterling
164		8#244		currency
165		8#245		yen
166		8#246		bar
167		8#247		section
168		8#250		dieresis
169		8#251		copyright
170		8#252		ordfeminine
171		8#253		guillemotleft
172		8#254		logicalnot
173		8#255		emdash
174		8#256		registered
175		8#257		macron
176		8#260		degree
177		8#261		plusminus
178		8#262		twosuperior
179		8#263		threesuperior
180		8#264		acute
181		8#265		mu
182		8#266		paragraph
183		8#267		periodcentered
184		8#270		cedilla
185		8#271		onesuperior
186		8#272		ordmasculine
187		8#273		guillemotright
188		8#274		onequarter
189		8#275		onehalf
190		8#276		threequarters
191		8#277		questiondown
192		8#300		Agrave
193		8#301		Aacute
194		8#302		Acircumflex
195		8#303		Atilde
196		8#304		Adieresis
197		8#305		Aring
198		8#306		AE
199		8#307		Ccedilla
200		8#310		Egrave
201		8#311		Eacute
202		8#312		Ecircumflex
203		8#313		Edieresis
204		8#314		Igrave
205		8#315		Iacute
206		8#316		Icircumflex
207		8#317		Idieresis
208		8#320		Eth
209		8#321		Ntilde
210		8#322		Ograve
211		8#323		Oacute
212		8#324		Ocircumflex
213		8#325		Otilde
214		8#326		Odieresis
215		8#327		multiply
216		8#330		Oslash
217		8#331		Ugrave
218		8#332		Uacute
219		8#333		Ucircumflex
220		8#334		Udieresis
221		8#335		Yacute
222		8#336		Thorn
223		8#337		germandbls
224		8#340		agrave
225		8#341		aacute
226		8#342		acircumflex
227		8#343		atilde
228		8#344		adieresis
229		8#345		aring
230		8#346		ae
231		8#347		ccedilla
232		8#350		egrave
233		8#351		eacute
234		8#352		ecircumflex
235		8#353		edieresis
236		8#354		igrave
237		8#355		iacute
238		8#356		icircumflex
239		8#357		idieresis
240		8#360		eth
241		8#361		ntilde
242		8#362		ograve
243		8#363		oacute
244		8#364		ocircumflex
245		8#365		otilde
246		8#366		odieresis
247		8#367		divide
248		8#370		oslash
249		8#371		ugrave
250		8#372		uacute
251		8#373		ucircumflex
252		8#374		udieresis
253		8#375		yacute
254		8#376		thorn
255		8#377		ydieresis

Sometimes, different encodings of the same PostScript font is needed. This can be accomplished in two ways. One way is to use Tgif.AdditionalDontReencode (and Tgif.DontReencode). Another way is to use Tgif.PSFontCharSubs. The difference is that with Tgif.AdditionalDontReencode, a PostScript font's encoding is skipped. With Tgif.PSFontCharSubs, characters in a PostScript font can be given specific encoding.

In both cases, there is a need to introduce fake font names (place holders). For example,

Tgif.AdditionalFonts: \n\

utopia-medium-r-normal \n\

adobe-fontspecific \n\

UtopiaTmp-Regular \n\

\n\

utopia-bold-r-normal \n\

adobe-fontspecific \n\

UtopiaTmp-Bold \n\

\n\

utopia-medium-i-normal \n\

adobe-fontspecific \n\

UtopiaTmp-Italic \n\

\n\

utopia-bold-i-normal \n\

adobe-fontspecific \n\

UtopiaTmp-BoldItalic \n\

\n\

Tgif.PSFontAliases: \n\

UtopiaTmp-Regular=Utopia-Regular \n\

UtopiaTmp-Bold=Utopia-Bold \n\

UtopiaTmp-Italic=Utopia-Italic \n\

UtopiaTmp-BoldItalic=Utopia-BoldItalic

In the above example, 4 fake PostScript font names are created (all have a common "UtopiaTmp" prefix). The encoding for these fonts is adobe-fontspecific, according the X11 fonts being used. Tgif.PSFontAliases maps the fake PostScript font names to the corresponding real PostScript font names. (If Tgif.PSFontAliases is missing, non-existent PostScript font names such as UtopiaTmp-Regular will appear in a PostScript file.)

To skip a PostScript font's encoding, one can use the Tgif.AdditionalDontReencode X default. For example, if one specifies:

Tgif.AdditionalDontReencode: UtopiaTmp

characters with character codes between 161 and 255 (inclusive) will not be encoded with ISO-Latin-1 character names. For a list of characters names that are ISO-Latin-1 encoded, please see above.

To substitute characters in a PostScript font with specific encoding, please see below.

(This is only supported in tgif-4.1.45 or later.)
To substitute characters in a PostScript font with specific encoding, one can use the Tgif.PSFontNeedCharSubs and Tgif.PSCharSubs_* X defaults. (You still need Tgif.AdditionalFonts and Tgif.PSFontAliases setup as above.) Here is an example:

Tgif.PSFontNeedCharSubs: \n\

UtopiaTmp-Regular=Foo \n\

UtopiaTmp-Bold=Foo \n\

UtopiaTmp-Italic=Foo \n\

UtopiaTmp-BoldItalic=Foo

Tgif.PSCharSubs_Foo: \n\

161/Aogonek \n\

198/Cacute \n\

202/eogonek

In the above example, Tgif.PSFontNeedCharSubs specified a list of fake PostScript font names that requires character substitutions and their corresponding TOKEN names. For a fake PostScript font name that maps to TOKEN, the list of characters to be substituted is specified in the Tgif.PSCharSubs_TOKEN X default. The format for Tgif.PSCharSubs_TOKEN is a list of OLDCHARCODE/NEWCHARNAME strings where OLDCHARCODE is a character code in decimal or octal format and NEWCHARNAME must be the name of a PostScript character. In the above example, Foo was used as the TOKEN name. In real use, something like iso8895-2 may be more appropriate for a TOKEN name. Since decimal or octal codes are allowed, the following is equivalent to the above:

Tgif.PSFontNeedCharSubs: \n\

UtopiaTmp-Regular=iso8859-2 \n\

UtopiaTmp-Bold=iso8859-2 \n\

UtopiaTmp-Italic=iso8859-2 \n\

UtopiaTmp-BoldItalic=iso8859-2

Tgif.PSCharSubs_iso8859-2: \n\

8#241/Aogonek \n\

8#306/Cacute \n\

8#312/eogonek

Please note that substitution only occurs for characters with character codes between 161 and 255 (inclusive).