Directory fonts/hershey

These are the sources for the xhershey tool. Most things are explained
in the man page. Here are a few notes:

Xhershey expects one character description per line in the database.
The Usenet database will have to have lines joined first. join.icn and
chk.icn are short Icon programs to join lines and check the database
for internal consistency respectively. Something similar can be cooked
up with awk or C, I'm sure.

There are a few example spec files thrown in this distribution for
Script and three styles of Gothic. The fonts are passable but of
indifferent quality. They should be balanced in size and weight a
little w.r.t.  CM or whatever font family you are using before being
released. Also I don't think it is a good idea to mix in punctuation
symbols from other styles, even though they fill holes in the Script
and Gothic map.  Some playing around with the pen specs may be a good
idea. I just didn't have the time.

Speaking of MF files, the parameter files are stolen from those for
CMR. These may not be the best. Again, have fun experimenting.

In my opinion, the Hershey fonts are good value for money (free), but I
have been consistently disappointed in my attempts to make them good
fonts for TeX and other high-quality formatters. They just lack enough
characters, that little bit of necessary character information or that
touch of polish and it would be time consuming to tune the fonts. If
you just want some strange screen fonts or previewing fonts for vector
displays, Hershey may be ok for you.

I'd be interested in any bug reports or improvements, but I doubt if I
will have much time to respond appropriately. In other words, this
software is provided as is and you are on your own.

	Ken Yap
	November 1988