[R] embedding fonts in eps files
Uwe Ligges
ligges at statistik.uni-dortmund.de
Tue Jan 18 16:23:50 CET 2005
To clarify why people might want to embed fonts, I'd like to give an
example:
After I submitted my book the first time, the printing house asked me
explicitly to embed *all* fonts in graphics, or they would not be able
to print from a pdf file (generated from PostScript by certain styles
for Adobe Distiller). And sometimes discussions are simply hopeless.....
Uwe Ligges
(Ted Harding) wrote:
> On 18-Jan-05 Rudi Alberts wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I have to make eps files with fonts embedded.
>>I use the following postscript command:
>>
>>
>>postscript("fig3a.eps", width = 5.2756, height = 7.27, pointsize =
>>7,horizontal = FALSE, onefile = FALSE, paper = "special",family =
>>"Times")
>>
>>plot(...)
>>
>>dev.off()
>>
>>
>>Are fonts automatically embedded in this way?
>>How can I see that?
>>If not, how to do it?
>
>
> Well, it seems to have set Times as the working font family
> when I used your postscript(...) command above; but see further
> down. I viewed the resulting .eps file (using 'less' in Linux
> but Windows users should also have some way of looking into a
> text file).
>
> The first few lines of the file are:
>
> %!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
> %%DocumentNeededResources: font Times-Roman
> %%+ font Times-Bold
> %%+ font Times-Italic
> %%+ font Times-BoldItalic
> %%+ font Symbol
> %%Title: R Graphics Output
> ...
>
> These are so-called DSC ("Document Structuring Conventions")
> comments and are not directly executed by whatever renders
> the PostScript code. They do, however, provided useful
> information for programs which have to handle the PS file.
>
>>From the above, it can be seen that R's postscript() function
> has taken note of the 'family="Times"' option.
>
> Further down the .eps file are the lines
>
> %%IncludeResource: font Times-Roman
> /Times-Roman findfont
> dup length dict begin
> {1 index /FID ne {def} {pop pop} ifelse} forall
> /Encoding ISOLatin1Encoding def
> currentdict
> end
> /Font1 exch definefont pop
> %%IncludeResource: font Times-Bold
> /Times-Bold findfont
> dup length dict begin
> {1 index /FID ne {def} {pop pop} ifelse} forall
> /Encoding ISOLatin1Encoding def
> currentdict
> end
> /Font2 exch definefont pop
> %%IncludeResource: font Times-Italic
> /Times-Italic findfont
> dup length dict begin
> {1 index /FID ne {def} {pop pop} ifelse} forall
> /Encoding ISOLatin1Encoding def
> currentdict
> end
> /Font3 exch definefont pop
> %%IncludeResource: font Times-BoldItalic
> /Times-BoldItalic findfont
> dup length dict begin
> {1 index /FID ne {def} {pop pop} ifelse} forall
> /Encoding ISOLatin1Encoding def
> currentdict
> end
> /Font4 exch definefont pop
> %%IncludeResource: font Symbol
> /Symbol findfont
> dup length dict begin
> {1 index /FID ne {def} {pop pop} ifelse} forall
> currentdict
> end
> /Font5 exch definefont pop
>
> Apart from the "%%" DSC comments, this is executable PS
> code which calls on the interpreter to set up the Times
> fonts Times-Roman as Font1, Times-Bold as Font2,
> Times-Italic as Font3, Times-BoldItalic as Font4,
> and Symbol (not a Times font) as Font5.
>
> If, instead of 'family="Times"', you had used the option
> 'family="Helvetica"', you would have got (try it and see)
> exactly the same with "Helvetica" substituted for "Times"
> throughout.
>
> So far so good. Now comes the crunch.
>
> The above (and this is the only part of the .eps file
> which has anything to do with setting up fonts) assumes
> that the PS interpreter (i.e. the program, including
> printer firmware, which renders the PS visible) already
> has access to the PostScript definitions of these fonts.
>
> There is a default assumption (not just in R but in
> practically any software which outputs PostScript) that
> the rendering device will have built-in access to the
> "Standard Adobe Font Set" -- a set of 13 fonts comprising
> the Times, Helvetica and Courier families, and the Symbol
> font, together with the encoding vectors StandardEncoding
> and ISOLatin1Encoding; most software also assumes the
> presence of further families (typically Bookman, Palatino,
> AvantGarde, HelveticaNarrow, ZapfChanceryMediumItalic,
> ZapfDingbats). None of these are strictly required by
> the specification of the PostScript language, but they
> have been a de facto standard for decades and it is most
> unusual to find PostScript-generating software which does
> not take them for granted (at least the 13 "Standard Adobe"
> fonts).
>
> Now "built-in access" means that the rendering device
> is already equipped with the PostScript definitions of
> how to draw ("render") the characters ("glyphs") in these
> various fonts -- e.g. a PostScript printer will have the
> definitions internally stored in a ROM chip. Therefore
> when the PS definitions of "Font1" etc. as in the above
> file are encountered, the device simply hooks its own PS
> definitions into the working stack. It is not necessary
> to include the definitions in the file which is being
> interpreted.
>
> However, to "embed" a font (which is what you refer to
> in your query) means to include the PS font definition
> in the file itself. This is certainly necessary if you
> want to use a "non-standard" font, which might just be
> an arty-farty font for English characters (e.g. a fancy
> cursive script for greetings cards), or something more
> exotic like Cyrillic characters or the International
> Phonetic Alphabet. Since PS definitions of such fonts
> cannot be expected to be present in a standard PS
> rendering device, software which creates files to be
> displayed with such fonts must itself have the necessary
> resources.
>
> You say you "have to make eps files with fonts embedded."
> It would be most unusual to need to embed Times fonts.
> Are you using a "non-standard" font family?
>
> As far as I know, R has no provision to embed PS font
> definitions in an EPS file. Others may be able to correct
> this statement ...
>
> If you do need to embed a PS font, it is not exactly
> straightforward to do it "by hand". There is a lot of
> stuff that needs to be set up, and one would need to
> know more about your environment in order to give any
> specific advice.
>
> You ask how you can find out if a font has been embedded.
> You need to look through the PS file for stuff like the
> following (exemplified for the non-standard font
> AGaramond-Regular, the Roman style of Garamond):
>
> %%BeginResource: font AGaramond-Regular
> %%CreationDate: Thu Jan 16 17:32:29 1992
> %%VMusage: 41576 52468
> 11 dict begin
> /FontInfo 10 dict dup begin
> ...
> /FullName (Adobe Garamond Regular) readonly def
> /FamilyName (Adobe Garamond) readonly def
> /Weight (Regular) readonly def
> /isFixedPitch false def
> /ItalicAngle 0 def
> /UnderlinePosition -100 def
> /UnderlineThickness 50 def
> end readonly def
> /FontName /AGaramond-Regular def
> /Encoding StandardEncoding def
> /PaintType 0 def
> /FontType 1 def
> /FontMatrix [0.001 0 0 0.001 0 0] readonly def
> /UniqueID 37598 def
> /FontBBox{-183 -269 1099 851}readonly def
> currentdict end
> currentfile eexec
> 63c3dc0161e235a2106828042ed9adba0cb00296e1d7da605eb328f0654cec2c
> ...
> [1471 lines of hex-encoded stuff: the PS font definition]
> ...
> 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
> cleartomark
> %%EndResource
>
> The "eexec" instructs the rendering device to decode and
> execute the hex-encoded block, after which it then has the
> font definition stored in its working memory and available
> to be used via "findfont" etc.
>
> Hoping this helps: please supply more specific information
> of what you need to do, if you want to follow this up.
>
> Best wishes,
> Ted.
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!]
> Date: 18-Jan-05 Time: 11:48:58
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