Install ETH Fonts for LaTeX on Mac OS X

Alec Jacobson

February 07, 2013

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This turned out to be quite difficult. I installed TexLive using macports. If you download the ETH letter LaTeX templates and try to compile you will get an error like:

! I can't find file `letr8t'.
<*> ...:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input letr8t
                                                  
Please type another input file name
! Emergency stop.
<*> ...:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input letr8t
                                                  
Transcript written on mfput.log.
grep: letr8t.log: No such file or directory
mktextfm: `mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input letr8t' failed to make letr8t.tfm.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
! Font \xiiiv=letr8t at 8.5pt not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found.
 
                   \relax 
l.112 \newfont{\xiiiv}{letr8t at 8.5pt}

This is complaining that you don't have the ETH fonts installed. These are a pain to install. Unzip into your macports texmf folder:

sudo unzip ETHLfnts.zip -d /opt/local/share/texmf/

Create a hash for the new files:

sudo texhash

If you try to compile brief2.tex now you will get an error:

kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi 600 letb8r
mktexpk: don't know how to create bitmap font for letb8r.
mktexpk: perhaps letb8r is missing from the map file.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
(see the transcript file for additional information)
!pdfTeX error: pdflatex (file letb8r): Font letb8r at 600 not found
 ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

Open and append:

p +let.map

Now compiling should give you the error:

gsftopk: fatal: map file `let.map' not found.
mktexpk: don't know how to create bitmap font for letb8r.
mktexpk: perhaps letb8r is missing from the map file.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
(see the transcript file for additional information)
!pdfTeX error: pdflatex (file letb8r): Font letb8r at 600 not found
 ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

Create the file /opt/local/etc/texmf/ethfonts.cfg and add the line:

Map let.map

Update maps listing:

sudo updmap-sys

Now if you should get an error like:

ERROR:  The following map file(s) couldn't be found:
	let.map (in /opt/local/var/db/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg)

If you try to compile brief2.tex you'll get an error like:

gsftopk: fatal: map file `let.map' not found.
mktexpk: don't know how to create bitmap font for letb8r.
mktexpk: perhaps letb8r is missing from the map file.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
(see the transcript file for additional information)
!pdfTeX error: pdflatex (file letb8r): Font letb8r at 600 not found
 ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!

So, copy let.map to your local texlive directory:

mkdir -p ~/.texlive2012/texmf-var/fonts/map/dvips/updmap/
cp /opt/local/share/texmf/maps/let.map ~/.texlive2012/texmf-var/fonts/map/dvips/updmap/

Update maps listing:

sudo updmap-sys

Now you should be able to successfully build:

pdflatex brief2