[ft-devel] Understanding Type1 fonts

[Donn]

Hello,
 Not sure if this is the right list to ask this on, but I am pretty confused 
about Type1 fonts in general and have to start somewhere.

I'm developing a small app called Fonty Python and have made some assumptions 
based on the files I found on my Kubuntu system and on (scrappy) web 
searches.

Here's my basic approach to 'installing' fonts, any comments would be 
appreciated:

.PFB files
I assume these to contain actual glyphs, i.e. they can be drawn. If it's just 
a lone .PFB file, it gets linked into ~/.fonts
.PFM files
When I find one in the same folder, with the same name as a .PFB (sans 
extension), I couple it together with the .PFB and place both files into 
~/.fonts
I ignore all .PFM files that do not have a matching .PFB partner.

.PFA files
These are a new twist, just found one today. I do not know if they also get 
matched with some metric file. I see many .AFM files around and in one 
folder:
/usr/share/enscript/afm/ I found a font 'matrix.pfa' which also 
has 'matrix.afm'. 
So, am I right to do the same for the .PFA & .AFM partnership?

Essentially: Is an AFM or a PFM file needed *at all*? Can I simply focus on 
PFB and PFA files and link then into ~/.fonts and call that font 'installed"? 
I suspect that libs like freetype get other data from the 'surrounding' files 
to better draw the glyphs and I want to match the correct files together.

Any help would be splendid.
\d

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