OVP2OVF(1)

🦋 OVP2OVF(1) — the ovp2ovf glow-up ✨

okay so bestie, real talk: ovp2ovf is a little utility from the Web2C corner of the TeX universe (a General Commands Manual page, if we're being official about it) and it's about to become your new fave converter. she takes your readable lil virtual property list files and turns them into the actual font files your system can load. it's giving "translator bestie who speaks both human and machine." 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

ovp2ovf — converts Omega and TeX virtual property list (ovp) files into virtual font metric (ovf) files. literally her whole personality. no cap. 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ovp2ovf [options] ovpfile[.ovp] [ovffile[.ovf] [ofmfile[.ofm]]]

so you call her with some options (or don't, she's chill), then your input file, and optionally where you want the outputs to land. the square brackets are the "if you want" brackets. iconic behavior. 🎀

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so here's the tea: ovp2ovf translates a human-readable virtual property list (.ovp) file — that's your ovpfile — and turns it into a virtual font (.ovf) file, ovffile, plus its companion font metric (.ofm) file, ofmfile. two for the price of one, we love a multitasker. 🦋

and the plot twist? she also works with TeX virtual property list (.vpl) files, producing TeX virtual fonts (.vf and .tfm). so she's bilingual. she contains multitudes. main character energy fr fr. 👑

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⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

• -help — spills the help message and dips. that's it, that's the whole thing. 💅
• -verbose — makes her narrate her progress reports, like a vlogger but for font conversion. "hey besties, we're converting" energy. 🌈
• -version — drops the version info and exits. she's not being mysterious, she's just telling you who she is. 🎀

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• OFMFILE — the Omega Font Metric file. the metric bestie.
• OVFFILE — the Omega Virtual Font file. the virtual font bestie.
• OVPFILE — the Omega Virtual Property List file. the input bestie, the one you actually write.

three besties, one pipeline. slay. 💜

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💀 BUGS 💀

found a bug? 😭 don't suffer in silence — email bug reports via https://lists.tug.org/tex-k (that's the mailing list, iykyk). and real talk: it's good to check if the same bug is present in vptovf(1), because sometimes the same gremlin is hanging out over there too. 🙈

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

omega(1), ofm2opl(1), ovf2ovp(1), pltotf(1), tftopl(1), vftovp(1), vptovf(1)

the whole friend group. go say hi. ✨

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

according to the WEB documentation, and i'm quoting the lore here:

VPtoVF is an extended version of the program PLtoTF, which is part of the standard TeXware library. OVP2OVF is an extended version of VPtoVF that allows much larger fonts. The idea of a virtual font was inspired by the work of David R. Fuchs who designed a similar set of conventions in 1984 while developing a device driver for ArborText, Inc. He wrote a somewhat similar program called PLFONT.

so basically the family tree is: PLtoTF → VPtoVF → OVP2OVF, each one leveling up and allowing much larger fonts. and the virtual font concept itself? inspired by David R. Fuchs, who cooked up a similar set of conventions back in 1984 while building a device driver for ArborText, Inc. — he wrote a somewhat similar program called PLFONT. a true pioneer, we stan. 🫶

the primary authors of Omega were John Plaice and Yannis Haralambous. Omega (and Aleph) are now maintained as part of TeX Live. 💚

and this manual page? written by C.M. Connelly for the Debian GNU/Linux system. both the program and the man page are now maintained as part of TeX Live. full circle, gorgeous. 🎀

bug reports and general discussion: https://lists.tug.org/omega — the group chat is open, come through. 💅

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💖 that's the whole page bestie, no crumbs left behind. every flag, every file, every author, every link — all present and accounted for. ✨

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and that's the sign-off: this is the Web2C 2026 version, dated 30 January 2026, and she ate. periodt. 💅🦋🎀