2.4 Font Directories

The GNU troff formatter and groff’s output drivers read device and font description files that detail the output device and the typefaces available to it, including their glyph repertoires and the metrics (dimensions) of each glyph. This information permits the formatter to accurately place glyphs with respect to each other. The device description file is always named DESC; fonts are typically described in files with short names like TR, CR, HBI, or S.10

Device and font description files are kept in font directories, which together constitute the font path. The search procedure always appends the directory devname, where name is the name of the output device. Assuming TeX DVI output, and /foo/bar as a font directory, the description files for grodvi must be in /foo/bar/devdvi. Each directory in the font path is searched in the following order until the desired description file is found or the list is exhausted.