### 2.5 Widths ¶

The width of a font specifies the compression or expansion of the font. Arranged from narrowest to widest (more or less):

    ultra compressed, extra condensed, compressed, condensed, narrow
    regular
    semiextended, extended, expanded, wide

Expansion or compression of fonts is sometimes done automatically (as by the PostScript `scale` operator), and sometimes done by humans. In the latter case, the human will also presumably choose a font name which includes ‘Extended’ or ‘Expanded’ or ‘Condensed’ or ‘Narrow’ or whatever according to their own preferences; the abbreviation can follow along. When creating a new synthetically expanded or compressed font for use with TeX, e.g., with Afm2tfm or `fontinst`, use ‘`n`’ and ‘`e`’.

Here is the table, from the file `width.map`. It is organized alphabetically by abbreviation. Each line consists of an abbreviation and any parts of a PostScript ‘`FontName`’ which use that abbreviation.

    c Condensed Cond
    e Expanded
    n Narrow Semicondensed
    o UltraCondensed
    p Compressed Compact
    q ExtraCompressed ExtraCondensed
    r Normal Medium Regular (usually omitted)
    t Thin
    u UltraCompressed
    v ExtraExpanded more than Expanded, less than Wide
    w Wide
    x Extended Elongated
    y Semiexpanded