On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 11:42:48 +0000, Ben Crowell > method A:
Write a little Perl script to convert Vera-9 to Vera-7.64, and Vera-10 to Vera-8.50. Output to EPS with the fonts converted to outlines.
- accomplishes 1, 2, 4, 7
- doesn't accomplish 3, 5, and 6, because the outlined fonts render badly in PDF viewers and on printers
They may look bad in a PDF viewer if it does not antialias graphics, but they will look the same in Inkscape (which antialiases everything) and on a high-res printer. In Acrobat there's an option to turn antialiasing on for "line art" as they term it.
method C Buy a proprietary Helvetica screen font for Linux.
- accomplishes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Helvetica is one of the basic 13 fonts supported by all PDF viewers and PS printers.)
You don't need to buy anything, Ghostscript comes with a set of free fonts that closely match standard PS fonts though they are named differently. I think you should install and use these.
I don't think you need to convert anything to curves either. I recently tested and fixed many bugs in Inkscape's EPS output without converting text to curves, and it seems to work. Let me know if you run into problems.
And as for ps2pdf from Ghostscript, it will embed any fonts if you tell it to. In my experience it produces quite decent PDF, though admittedly I haven't run it through a print shop.