This page is a simple holding-ground for ConTeXt-related tips and tricks. My efforts to date have concentrated on stretching the font capabilities within ConTeXt.

The following PDF's, in the form of ConTeXt magazines, attempt to augment the possibilities of this TeX macro package. The accompanying linked files are there for users to install the supporting files on their own systems.

Demo and usage guide: Zapf Dingbats as Unicode symbols

(PDF, 23Kb - 1 Apr 2004)

This is a cut-down version of the below Unicode Symbols package, designed to be simple and usable with any pdfTeX-centric ConTeXt installation. Little installation, minimal usage effort, and you gain over a hundred symbols for use in ConTeXt. The PDF file documents how to use the PDF native ZapfDingbats font along with a catalogue of the available symbols, and the zip file includes all that's necessary for an installation, including a modified encoding, a tfm file, and a ConTeXt support file. No Unicode knowledge necessary.

symb-uni-zapf.zip (Support files, ZIP, 7Kb - 1 Apr 2004)

Mac Way: Apple Symbols

(PDF, 232Kb - Updated 16 Jan 2004)

This Mac-specific My Way documents some fonts available exclusively on MacOSX 10.3, "Panther," and makes them available to Mac users with fairly minimal installation effort. I do not distribute the fonts themselves. These include Mac-specific support files for the below Unicode Symbols package.

symb-mac.tar.gz (Support file and font installation, GZipped-TAR, 68Kb - Updated 3 Feb 2004 for both Java 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 fonts)

Unicode Symbols

(PDF, 168Kb - Updated 3 Feb 2004)

The Unicode standard includes a number of signs, symbols, dingbats, bullets, arrows, graphical elements, and other miscellaneous glyphs. Prompted by finding a font dedicated to many such Unicode symbols on MacOSX systems, this magazine documents some ways of enabling these symbols on your own system.

UnicodeSymbolDemo.pdf (Visualisation and demonstration of the different symbol sets, PDF, 217Kb - Updated 16 Jan 2004)

symb-uni.zip (Support file and scripts, ZIP, 20Kb - Updated 3 Feb 2004)

OpenType in ConTeXt

(PDF, 783Kb)

This is a summary of issues encountered and solutions implemented in order to support some advanced OpenType features in ConTeXt. This article describes an accompanying package that addresses installation (using TeXFont), accommodating extended opticals families, and some "pro" font features. The extended character set afforded by pro fonts enables support for comprehensive small caps, old-style figures, and the use of greek glyphs to give workable math fonts. Although the typescripts and commands are described together, certain features (like variant encodings for TeXFont and the idiosyncratic method for creating new math fonts) can be used independently of the other features described.

OpenType.zip (Support files, ZIP, 25Kb)

A Beginner's Adventures with TeXFont

(PDF, 112Kb)

I tried to install TeXFont versions of my fonts from TeXLive. It was harder than expected, but it turned out okay. I describe a few "gotchas" that are not obvious from the docs or other hints currently available.

type-tmf-more.dat (TeXFont batch file, text, 2Kb)

Euler in ConTeXt

(PDF, 524Kb)

The Euler math font was designed by Hermann Zapf. ConTeXt support was limited until now. We show how to use the Eulervm LaTeX package in combination with some new math definitions and typescripts to give a more informal look to your equations.

EulerContext.zip (Support files, ZIP, 2Kb)

SciTE for Mac OS X 10.3

(GZipped TAR file, 7.1 MB)

Here is a quick port of the SciTE text editor to X11 on Mac OS X 10.3. It requires Apple's X11 library, and was built on Mac OS X 10.3.3. It is presented without warranty or support of any kind. To install, download (Safari will un-gzip the file automatically), and
cd /usr/local
sudo tar xf pathToDownloadFolder/scite-macosx.tar
Launch X11.app, and launch SciTE with
/usr/local/bin/SciTE
I mostly did this for my own education and curiosity, and thought other Mac users might be similarly curious. I'm not an expert on this program, I just wanted to see what it was like.

Build notes on GTK+2 (PDF, 48Kb)

Here is a mirror of Berend de Boer's useful introduction, LaTeX in proper ConTeXt. (PDF, 124Kb)