General ⇒ Minion Pro

[nathan.stjohn]

I've heard some people say that they use the font Minion Pro in their LaTeX documents. I was curious how you would go about doing so.

[balf]

I'm one of those people. I followed the instructions contained in the readme file. One point is that (unless you bought the MinionPro family from Adobe) you'll take the basic Minion Pro which are distributed with Adobe Reader since version 7 ; they are in Open Type format (postscript flavour) and you'll have to convert them in a series of type 1 fonts, that you'll have to put into the relevant TDS directory. You also may use Myriad Pro as a sans-serif font (same Adobe Reader directory). Her's a link for Myriad Pro:
http://nablasquared.wordpress.com/2008/ ... -in-latex/
For maths, you also need the MnSymbol package.

If you want to test that, feel free to ask in case of difficulties. I join a pdf that shows what you may obtain with MinionPro.

B.A.

[nathan.stjohn]

That output is exactly what I'm looking for! I've downloaded the files from CTAN, but I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do from the readme. I do have the version of MinionPro that comes with Adobe Reader, if that changes anything. Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me through this!

[balf]

First of all, you must install the lcdf type tools. Here's a link:
http://www.lcdf.org/type/
Once installed, you have to use the script that will make the conversion of the otf files into a whole bunch ot type 1 fonts (the .pfb's), convert.sh or convert.bat according to whether you're under linux or windows. These .pfb's have to be placed in your local TeXMF directory, in .../fonts/type1/adobe/minonpro.
Then unzip
metrics-base.zip
enc-v2.000.zip
at the root of the local TeXMF directory.
Add the line
Map MinionPro.map
to your updmap.cfg. Refresh the file database and run updmap

Then, normally, you're done (don't forget to install mnsymbol, though).

I hope I was clear but if you need any further details, don't hesitate.

B.A.

[nathan.stjohn]

I tried using convert.bat, but when I do I get a series of error messages of the form:

'cfftot1' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

I have the MinionPro series of OTF files in a folder in the same directory as convert.bat. After running, a folder called "pfb" is created, but it is empty. I'm sure I'm making some stupid mistake, so forgive my ineptitude.

Also, probably another strange question, but when you talk about the TeXMF directory, you mean the folders buried in my MikTeX folder, right? I found the path fonts/type1/adobe in there, so I just assumed that it was where I would place the .pfb files once I get them. Thanks again for all the help!

[balf]

Probably (I've done that nearly two years ago) the solution is to put convert.bat in the same directory as the .exe files, and also the .otf files. Another solution would be to add the directory (and its subdirectories) where you put the lcdf type tools in the path searched by Windows.

As to where to store the .pfb's, they should be in a LocalTeXMF directory, similar to MiKTeX 2.7, and having the same structure ; it will be used to store the files that you add locally (your own style files, for instance), and will not be overwritten when updating, MiKTeX 2.7 being used only by the MiKTeX distribution.

B.A.

[nathan.stjohn]

Still no luck. I get the same messages as I did before, even when convert.bat is in the same folder as the fonts. I also downloaded the LCDF Type software, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that.

[balf]

I checked what happens. So, you have to put convert.bat in the same directory as the .exe files and the .otf files in a subdirectory that you call otf/. Then running convert.bat will create a pfb/ subdirectory, and the .pfb files will be stored in that one. Just take them and put them in the relevant subdirectory of LocalTeXMF\ as indicated.

B.A.

[nathan.stjohn]

I've got convert.bat inside the 'otf' folder along with the MinionPro otf files and now when I run it, I don't get the errors, but the resulting 'pfb' subdirectory is empty. I'm not sure what .exe files you are telling me to place in the 'otf' folder either, since I don't think I have any relevant .exe files.

Sorry this is so tedious. I'm sure that if someone more knowledgeable than I was at my computer, it would be a 10 minute job. Thanks again!

[balf]

Your error (maybe I wasn't clear enough) is that convert.bat must be in the same directory as the .exe files. So the structure would be the following : let's say the main directory is called lcdf :

lcdf/ contains:
convert.bat, cfftot1.exe, .....
and otf/ , which in turn contains :
MinionPro-Bold.otf, .....
After convert.bat is run, lcdf/ will also contain pfb/ , which will contains 8 .pfb files.

Hope I was clearer this time!


B.A.