---
myst:
  html_meta:
    keywords: LaTeX,usage,choisir une police,choisir une fonte, polices T1, polices Type 1,fontes PostScript"
---
# Finding "8-bit" Type 1 fonts

Elsewhere, answers to these FAQs recommend that you use an "8-bit" font to permit [accentuation of inflected languages](/3_composition/langues/cesure/coupures_de_mots_accentues), and also recommend the use of Type 1 fonts to ensure that you get [good quality PDF](/5_fichiers/fontes/mon_document_est_flou_a_cause_des_fontes_t3). These recommendations used to be contradictory : one could not just "switch" from the free CM fonts to free Cork- (or similarly) encoded Type 1 fonts. The first approach that started to alleviate these problems, was the development of virtual fonts that make a good approach to the Cork encoding (see below). Now, however, we have "true" Type 1 fonts available : as always, we have an embarrassment of riches with three free alternatives, and one commercial and one shareware version.

- <ctanpkg:CM-super> is an auto-traced set which encompasses all of the T1 and TS1 encodings as well as the T2\* series (the family of encodings that cover languages based on Cyrillic alphabets). These fonts are pretty easy to install (the installation instructions are clear), but they are huge : don't try to install them if you're short of disc space.
- <ctanpkg:CM-LGC> is a similar "super-font" set, but of much more modest size; it covers T1, TS1 and T2A encodings (as does <ctanpkg:CM-super>, and also covers the LGR encoding (for typesetting Greek, based on Claudio Beccari's MetaFont sources). <ctanpkg:CM-LGC> manages to be small by going to the opposite extreme from <ctanpkg:CM-super>, which includes fonts at all the sizes supported by the original EC (a huge range); <ctanpkg:CM-LGC> has one font per font shape, getting other sizes by scaling. There is an inevitable loss of quality inherent in this approach, but for the disc-space-challenged machine, <ctanpkg:CM-LGC> is an obvious choice.
- <ctanpkg:Tt2001> is a simple scan of the EC and TC fonts, and has some virtues --- it's noticeably smaller than <ctanpkg:CM-super> while being less stark than <ctanpkg:CM-LGC>.
- [Latin Modern](ctanpkg:lm) is produced using the program [MetaType1](/5_fichiers/fontes/tracer_les_contours_d_une_police_metafont). The [Latin Modern](ctanpkg:lm) set comes with T1, TS1 LY1 encoded variants (as well as a variant using the Polish QX encoding); for the glyph set it covers, its outlines seem rather cleaner than those of <ctanpkg:CM-super>. [Latin Modern](ctanpkg:lm) is more modest in its disc space demands than is <ctanpkg:CM-super>, while not being nearly as stark in its range of design sizes as is <ctanpkg:CM-LGC> --- [Latin Modern](ctanpkg:lm)'s fonts are offered in the same set of sizes as the original <ctanpkg:CM> fonts. It's hard to argue with the choice : Knuth's range of sizes has stood the test of time, and is one of the bases on which the excellence of the TeX system rests.
- [Virtual fonts](/5_fichiers/fontes/que_sont_les_fontes_virtuelles) help us deal with the problem, since they allow us to map "bits of DVI file" to single characters in the virtual font; so we can create an "é" character by recreating the DVI commands that would result from the code `\'e`. However, since this involves two characters being selected from a font, the arrangement is sufficient to fool *Acrobat Reader* : you can't use the program's facilities for searching for text that contains inflected characters, and if you *cut* text from a window that contains such a character, you'll find something unexpected (typically the accent and the "base" characters separated by a space) when you "paste" the result. However, if you can live with this difficulty, virtual fonts are a useful and straightforward solution to the problem.
- There are two virtual-font offerings of CM-based 8-bit fonts --- the <ctanpkg:ae> ("almost EC") and <ctanpkg:zefonts> sets; the <ctanpkg:zefonts> set has wider coverage (though the <ctanpkg:ae> set may be extended to offer guillemets by use of the <ctanpkg:aeguill> package). Neither offers characters such as `eth` and `thorn` (used in, for example, in Icelandic), but the [aecompl](ctanpkg:ae) package works with the <ctanpkg:ae> fonts to provide the missing characters from the EC fonts (i.e., as bitmaps).

The sole remaining commercial CM-like 8-bit font comes from Micropress, who offer the complete EC set in Type 1 format, as part of their range of outline versions of fonts that were originally distributed in MetaFont format. See [commercial distributions](/6_distributions/implementations_commerciales)".

The shareware [BaKoMa TeX distribution](/6_distributions/trouver_les_sources_pour_les_differents_systemes_d_exploitation2) offers a set of Type 1 EC fonts, as an extra shareware option. (As far as the present author can tell, these fonts are *only* available to users of BaKoMa TeX : they are stored in an archive format that seems not to be publicly available.)

- Finally, you can use one of the myriad text fonts available in Type 1 format (with appropriate PSNFSS metrics for T1 encoding, or metrics for some other 8-bit encoding such as LY1). However, if you use someone else's text font (even something as simple as Adobe's Times family) you have to find a matching family of mathematical fonts, which is a non-trivial undertaking --- see [choice of scalable fonts](/5_fichiers/fontes/fontes_t1_pour_les_mathematiques)".

:::{sources}
[Finding "8-bit Type 1 fonts](faquk:FAQ-type1T1)
:::