Synthesizing of italic fonts

[ckeil]

Hi,

i would like to produce italic versions of a regular font if  the 
corresponding italic TrueType  file isn't available.
I know that slanting can be done with a transformation of glyph outlines 
under FreeType.
One of my questions is: What is the amount of slanting, should be done on a 
specific regular font ?

Note: The "vertical header table" provides three values caret_Slope_Rise, 
caret_Slope_Run and caret_Offset to determine the slope of a  caret.
Another value is the italic angle in the truetype files's "postscript 
table".
These values are not given for regular fonts, but for truetype files which 
already contain an italic font.

Has anybodyexperience in synthesizing fonts ?.

Claudia