How do I use TrueType fonts with LaTeX

If you want to stick to LaTeX, you can generally try these steps:

1. Create the TeX font metrics (tfm), the font description (fd) and the font mapping (map).
   • Using ttf2tfm to generate .vpl, then vptovf to create .tfm.
2. Put the files (ttf, tfm, fd, map) into the proper directories in the local texmf tree.
3. Update the TeX filename database.
   • Using texhash
4. Register the mapping.
   • Using updmap-sys

It seems rather straightforward, but there are many traps regarding the font description and mapping, as well as the naming scheme for the output files.

There are a lot of scripts and howtos which didn’t work for me. So I wrote this tool to help me use ttf fonts with LaTeX: http://devnotcorp.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/use-truetype-font-with-pdflatex/.