TrueType Font in pdfTeX - IV

create ‘.tfm’ (TeX font metric)

First, we need to specify the encoding file, that

  • defines the mapping between character codes within your LaTeX text and the corresponding character shapes (glyphs) contained within the font file.(From [4]^{[4]})
  • specifies an ordering of glyphs called the font-encoding vector(From [1]^{[1]}).

If we use the T1 encoding – ec.enc:

1
ttf2tfm IBMPlexSans-Regular.ttf -T ec.enc T1-IBMPlexSans.tfm

there will be warnings:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `macron'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `cwm'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `perthousandzero'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `dotlessj'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `ff'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `ffi'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `ffl'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `visiblespace'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Character `hyphen' encoded twice in input encoding
         (positions 2d and 7f; the latter is ignored).
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `Ohungarumlaut'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `Uhungarumlaut'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `Zdotaccent'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `Idotaccent'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `dcroat'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `ohungarumlaut'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `uhungarumlaut'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `zdotaccent'
         specified in input encoding.

if we use:

1
ttf2tfm IBMPlexSans-Regular.ttf -T T1-WGL4.enc T1-IBMPlexSans.tfm

there will be less warnings:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `macron'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `compwordmark'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `perthousandzero'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `dotlessj'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `ff'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `ffi'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `ffl'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Cannot find character `visualspace'
         specified in input encoding.
ttf2tfm: WARNING: Character `hyphen' encoded twice in input encoding
         (positions 2d and 7f; the latter is ignored).

REMEBER: TeX just need to know the font metric, characters’ glyph in font is not essential to TeX.

create ‘.fd’ (font description)

Create a file named t1ibmplexsans.fd:

1
2
3
4
5
6
\ProvidesFile{t1ibmplex.fd}[2025/08/10 scalable font definitions for T1/IBMPlex.]

\DeclareFontFamily{T1}{IBMPlex}{\hyphenchar\font=-1}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{IBMPlex}{m}{sf}{
  <-> T1-IBMPlexSans
}{}

test font

Use the following code:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\pdfmapline{+T1-IBMPlexSans < T1-WGL4.enc < IBMPlexSans-Regular.ttf}


\begin{document}
\fontfamily{IBMPlex}\fontshape{sf}\selectfont\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

‘.map’ file

Font map files provide the connection between TeX TFM font files and outline font file names(from The pdfTeX user manual). Instead of using the above command - \pdfmapline, we can make a *.map file to make use this font more convenient.

An example .map file looks like:

1
2
cmr10 CMR10 <cmr10.pfb
ptmr8y NimbusRomNo9L-Regu " TeXnANSIEncoding ReEncodeFont " <texnansi.enc <utmr8a.pfb

Syntax of the *.map file:

1
<tfmname> [psname] [font flags] "special" <encoding file> <font file>

Some remarks:

  • fields in <> are mandatory, fields in [] or "" are optional.
  • tfmname: TFM file name.
  • psname: PostScript font name(highly recommended to use).
  • fontflags: specifies various characteristics of the font.
  • special: use SlantFont or ExtendFont.
  • encoding file: must have the extension .enc, may be omit if the font resource has the correct built-in encoding.
  • font file: the most prominent use of the *.map file, must be Type 1(*.pfb) or TrueType(*.ttf or *.otf) font file.

Now, we can write our own map file – ibmplex.map:

1
T1-IBMPlexSans < T1-WGL4.enc < IBMPlexSans-Regular.ttf

then we can use \pdfmapfile to load this file:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\pdfmapfile{+ibmplex.map}

\begin{document}
\fontfamily{IBMPlex}\fontshape{sf}\selectfont\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

Before you can actually use this font, you (usually) also have to add a dvips/pdftex map file entry for it, otherwise these programs will believe you have created a completely new metafont font.(Copy from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/1848/294585) Copy this mapping into file pdftex.map.

make more fonts

Use these commands:

1
2
3
4
ttf2tfm IBMPlexSerif-Regular.ttf -q -T T1-WGL4.enc T1-IBMPlexSerif-Regular.tfm
ttf2tfm IBMPlexSerif-Bold.ttf -q -T T1-WGL4.enc T1-IBMPlexSerif-Bold.tfm
ttf2tfm IBMPlexSerif-Italic.ttf -q -T T1-WGL4.enc T1-IBMPlexSerif-Italic.tfm
ttf2tfm IBMPlexSerif-BoldItalic.ttf -q -T T1-WGL4.enc T1-IBMPlexSerif-BoldItalic.tfm

file – ibmplex.fd as follows:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
\ProvidesFile{t1ibmplex.fd}[2025/08/10 scalable font definitions for T1/IBMPlex.]

\DeclareFontFamily{T1}{IBMPlex}{\hyphenchar\font=-1}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{IBMPlex}{m}{n}{
  <-> T1-IBMPlexSerif-Regular
}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{IBMPlex}{b}{n}{
  <-> T1-IBMPlexSerif-Bold
}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{IBMPlex}{m}{it}{
  <-> T1-IBMPlexSerif-Italic
}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{IBMPlex}{b}{it}{
  <-> T1-IBMPlexSerif-BoldItalic
}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{IBMPlex}{m}{sf}{
  <-> T1-IBMPlexSans
}{}

file – ibmplex.map as follows:

1
2
3
4
5
T1-IBMPlexSans < T1-WGL4.enc < IBMPlexSans-Regular.ttf
T1-IBMPlexSerif-Regular < T1-WGL4.enc < IBMPlexSerif-Regular.ttf
T1-IBMPlexSerif-Italic < T1-WGL4.enc < IBMPlexSerif-Italic.ttf
T1-IBMPlexSerif-Bold < T1-WGL4.enc < IBMPlexSerif-Bold.ttf
T1-IBMPlexSerif-BoldItalic < T1-WGL4.enc < IBMPlexSerif-BoldItalic.ttf

An example mwe:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\pdfmapfile{+ibmplex.map}
\DeclareTextFontCommand{\IBMPlex}{\fontfamily{IBMPlex}\selectfont}
\DeclareTextFontCommand{\IBMPlexbf}{\fontfamily{IBMPlex}\fontseries{b}\selectfont}
\DeclareTextFontCommand{\IBMPlexit}{\fontfamily{IBMPlex}\fontshape{it}\selectfont}
\DeclareTextFontCommand{\IBMPlexsf}{\fontfamily{IBMPlex}\fontshape{sf}\selectfont}


\begin{document}
\section{TEST IBMplex}
{\fontfamily{IBMPlex}\selectfont\lipsum[1][1-3]}
\par\noindent\dotfill\par

\IBMPlex{\lipsum[1][1-3]}

\IBMPlexbf{\lipsum[1][1-3]}

\IBMPlexit{\lipsum[1][1-3]}

\IBMPlexsf{\lipsum[1][1-3]}

\IBMPlexbf{\IBMPlexit{\lipsum[1][1-3]}}


\section{ligature}
\IBMPlex{ff, fi, fj, abc--def}
\end{document}

The output PDF looks like:

IBMPlex Font Example

Note

  • If no \pdfmapfile primitive is given, the default map file pdftex.map will be read by pdfTEX, thus we can add this config to pdftex.map.
  • pdfTeX can NOT utilize more than 256 characters per font.

TODO

  • ligature, kerning and dash converting.
  • handle the missing characters.
  • use these fonts in XeTeX and LuaTeX.

In LuaTeX, you should put these following commands in your preamble:

1
2
3
\ifcsname directlua\endcsname
  \protected\def\pdfmapline {\pdfextension mapline }
\fi

reference

  1. https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb27-2/tb87owens.pdf
  2. https://texdoc.org/serve/pdftex-a.pdf/0
  3. https://github.com/IBM/plex
  4. https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Questions/I_have_a_custom_font_I'd_like_to_load_to_my_document._How_can_I_do_this%3F
  5. https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SMS/texdoc/ttf2pk.pdf
  6. https://latex.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6481
LaTeX
#font
TrueType Font in pdfTeX - IV
https://zongpingding.github.io/2025/08/14/pdftex_ttf_iv/
Author
Eureka
Posted on
August 14, 2025
Licensed under