Fonts & Encodings

9.1. Using Fonts in T_EX

Up to now we have examined operating systems: Mac OS, Windows, Unix. Is T_EX also an operating system? No. But what is T_EX, then? Born in 1978 at the prestigious Stanford University, brainchild of Donald Knuth, one of the greatest computer scientists of the twentieth century, T_EX is, all in all, several things at once: a free software system for type-setting, a programming language, a syntax for writing mathematical formulae, a state of mind that often approaches religion. . .^[9-1]

^[9-1] A religion with, among other things, initiation rites, first and foremost being the correct pronunciation of "T_EX", which varies from language to language. In fact, the T_EX logo is deceiving: it actually consists of the Greek letters tau, epsilon, chi, the first letters of the word τχνη which means "art" and "technique" in classical Greek. For this reason, the pronunciation of T_EX depends on the pronunciation of classical Greek in the language being used, which differs dramatically among speakers of English, French, German, Japanese, and, yes, modern Greek. In English, T_EX rhymes with "blecchhh", as explained by Knuth in [217].

There is no shortage of word processors or desktop publishing software. How does T_EX differ from the pack, to the point of deserving two whole chapters in this book?

Well, T_EX is an outsider among word-processing systems and desktop publishing software, ...