vftovp(1) General Commands Manual vftovp(1)
NAME
vftovp - convert TeX virtual font (vf) files to virtual property lists
(vpl)
SYNOPSIS
vftovp [options] vf_file[.vf] [tfm_file[.tfm] [vpl_file[.vpl]]]
DESCRIPTION
The vftovp program translates a (binary) virtual font file and its
accompanying TeX font metric file to a (plain text) property list file.
Thus, the virtual font can be edited, and its exact contents can be
displayed mnemonically. It also serves as a vf-file validating program,
i.e., if no error messages are given, the input files are correct.
The filenames are extended with the appropriate extension if necessary.
TeX's virtual font format supports composing new characters from
characters from any number of existing fonts, and also using rules in
characters. This allows, for example, re-encoding with a mixture of
characters from different fonts. These vf fonts are entirely unrelated
to the variable fonts that can be created with OpenType, which also
conventionally use the .vf extension.
OPTIONS
See tex(1) for details of command-line parsing.
-charcode-format=format
The argument format specifies how character codes are output in
the vpl file. By default (the historical behavior), ASCII
letters and digits are output using the "C" code (i.e., as
themselves), and other characters are output in octal; unless
the font's coding scheme starts with "TeX math sy" or "TeX math
ex", in which case all character codes are output in octal.
If format is ascii, all character codes that correspond to
graphic characters, besides the left and right parentheses, are
output in ASCII.
Finally, if format is octal, all character codes are output in
octal. (This option is the same as in tftopl.)
-verbose
By default, the program operates silently. With this option,
some reports are written to stdout.
The standard -help and -version options are also supported.
ENVIRONMENT
The program looks for vf_file using the environment variable VFFONTS,
and tfm_file using the environment variable TFMFONTS. If either is not
set, it then checks the variable TEXFONTS. If that is not set, it uses
the system default. See the Kpathsea manual at https://tug.org/kpathsea
for the details of the searching.
SEE ALSO
pltotf(1), tftopl(1), vptovf(1).
Brief description of virtual fonts, and additional references:
https://tug.org/texinfohtml/dvips.html#Virtual-fonts
Knuth's original message introducing virtual fonts:
https://mirror.ctan.org/info/virtual-fonts.knuth
Font utility topic on CTAN: https://ctan.org/topic/font-util
Package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/vftovp
Section in the Web2c manual:
https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#vftovp-invocation
Typeset source code, including the vf file format description:
https://ctan.org/pkg/knuth-pdf
AUTHORS
Donald E. Knuth wrote the program, based in part on an idea of David
Fuchs, starting with the code for tftopl(1). Karl Berry adapted it for
compilation with web2c.
Public discussion list and bug reports: https://lists.tug.org/tex-k
Web2C 2026 30 January 2026 vftovp(1)
texlive-bin 2026.78235 - Generated Thu Mar 5 16:08:10 CST 2026