[NTG-pdftex] Extensions to \font syntax ?

[Taco Hoekwater]

Hi Phil!

Philip TAYLOR (Ret'd) wrote:
> Dear Reinhard / Thanh -- Many thanks for your comments.
> I'm sorry that "adding new features to pdftex is not
> desired now", but I guess if it's good enough for
> Don, then it's good enough for Thanh :-)

As for the original problem, I expect Thanh would use a Vietnamese
font to typeset Vietnamese names.

> Reinhard's closing observation :
> 
>>> And changing the matrix isn't sufficient.  You'll certainly have to
>>> adapt the .tfm files.  
> 
> I can't see why this is the case : once PdfTeX has read
> the TFM file, is it not sufficient "simply" to manipulate
> its internal version thereof, 

The "" marks are the key. ;-)

Side note: in luatex you can already do things like this by creating
a virtual font or even a single virtual character on the fly, using
a lua table to define the virtual commands.

Best wishes,
Taco