[Tex/LaTex] How to install a specialist package of metafonts on TeX Live

fontsinstallingmetafontpackages

I'm new on LaTeX, can you tell me how to install byzfonts ("Byzantine Music Font") on TeX Live? I've downloaded it from CTAN, but there is no installation manual for it.

[ADDED by cfr]

I started trying to answer this but I can't understand the package well enough.

There are a lot of files here and the file names don't make sense to me. For example, the .sty files are certainly not LaTeX packages. So they are 'style' files in some other sense I'm not familiar with. Moreover, there do not seem to be any .fd files to support the use of the fonts with LaTeX, although there is certainly support for LaTeX in .tex files defining new commands.

Are these meant to be installed as fonts at all? Or are they meant to be used in some other way?

Best Answer

What worked for me on MacOSX (you didn't specify your own platform yet):

Install the STY and Defs directories into the tex directory of your personal TEXMF directory (here on MacOSX in ~/Library/texmf/tex/byzfonts, arborescence to be created if needed, on other Unixes it would be probably ~/texmf/tex/byzfonts);
Install the Alphabet folder, the XAP folders and the byyf.mf, byzf.mf, bzal.mf files in the ~/Library/texmf/fonts/source/byzfonts directory (also create this arborescence if needed);

Note: ~ stands for your personal HOME directory, that is /Users/<your_username> on MacOSX.

You can choose to install those files in you local texmf directory instead, /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local on MacOSX (and other Unixes as well it seems), but then you'll have to enter, after the previous steps, the mktexlsr or texhash instruction on the command line, as a "super user" (in MacOSX, sudo mktexlsr).

If I compile the file tst.tex I get this:

enter image description here

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[Tex/LaTex] How to manually install a package on MiKTeX (Windows)

Firstly, check README files, available documentation of the package, perhaps the beginning of the .dtx file to get installation information.

Installing a package available as dtx/ins bundle:

Download the content of the package directory. dtx is the extension of a documented source file, ins is the extension of an installation file. Put this in a temporary directory.
If there's nothing differently written in a README file run LaTeX (or TeX) on the .ins file. This is best done using the command prompt (latex packagename.ins), but you may use your TeX editor in LaTeX/DVI-LaTeX mode or what it is called there. This would usually produce one or more files ending with .sty, perhaps some additional files. As you now have cls or sty files or the like, the remaining steps are the same like in the next alternative way:

Installing sty or cls files:

Create a new directory with the package name in your local texmf directory structure, see also Create a local texmf tree in MiKTeX. Why not to choose the main MiKTeX texmf tree see in Purpose of local texmf trees.
Copy the package files (*.sty, *.cls etc.) into this directory.
Make the new package known to MiKTeX: refresh the MiKTeX filename database. To do this, click "Start/ Programs/ MiKTeX 2.x/ Maintenance/ Settings" (or similar) to get to the MiKTeX options, click the button "Refresh FNDB". The installation is complete.
If you did not download the documentation already, you could get it by running pdfLaTeX or LaTeX on the .dtx file. Compile twice to get correct references.

Obtaining and installing packaged universal archives:

Perhaps you could get a file with the extension .tds.zip. Such files are archives fitting to your TeX directory structure. Open it, check the content structure. You could extract it to the right place. Also here, as after any installation, refresh the MiKTeX filename database.

Installing a font package

Installing a font package, especially for Type1 fonts, requires additonal steps. See Manual font installation.

Links with further information:

Integrating Local Additions on MiKTeX.org
What are documented LaTeX sources (.dtx files) in the UK TeX FAQ
Installing things on a (La)TeX system with detailed general instructions in the UK TeX FAQ
Downloading and Installing Packages by Nicola L. C. Talbot
The dtx format by Joseph Wright

A different and very effective way, using a local repository:

^{(works only for all in the MiKTeX package repository available packages)}

Use the MiKTeX net installer to download the complete MiKTeX repository to a USB drive.
On a MiKTeX system, choose this directory as the local package repository in the package manager.
Use this local repository for installation and updates.
You may update that local repository later using the net installer: it loads the database from the server, compares and downloads new or updated packages.

[Tex/LaTex] install fonts from CTAN using TeX Live Utility

You can't use tlmgr (or its front-end TeX Live Utility). There is a script called getnonfreefonts at http://www.tug.org/fonts/getnonfreefonts/ that you have to download with the Terminal command

curl -O http://tug.org/fonts/getnonfreefonts/install-getnonfreefonts

and then install with

sudo texlua install-getnonfreefonts

Then you can get direction on its use by

getnonfreefonts --help

For example, in order to install URW Garamond for all users you do

sudo getnonfreefonts-sys garamond

Installing fonts for one user only is not recommended.

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Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to manually install a package on MiKTeX (Windows)

[Tex/LaTex] install fonts from CTAN using TeX Live Utility

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