[Fontforge-users] small "r" script or calligraphic glyph: bold and light faces (weights) under Latex

[Mauricio O. C. <or...@if...>]

Dear Sirs,

I need a small (minuscule) letter "r" glyph from a script- or 
calligraphic-like font,
in two weights: a light-face and a bold-face one; this will be used in a 
Latex document
of mine. I have found something partially appropriate at CTAN, viz., the 
Calligra font.
The problem is that it only has bold glyphs, in particular for the 
letter "r", and I ended
up not being able to print a light-face version...

My questions then are:

(1) is it possible, easy to modify the corresponding small "r" glyph so 
as to produce a lighter version?
I only need this for the "r" glyph! Could anyone here give me some 
directions to that or, even
better, produce this glyph so that Latex is able to "understand" it??? I 
guess this should not be that difficult since the necessary files (.tfm 
and the like) must already exist under the Calligra package.

(2) is there any other option of script or calligraphic small fonts in 
light-face and bold-face ready to be used under Latex?

(3) do commercial Opentype fonts (from Adobe, for instance) work under 
Latex in a Linux machine? I have
heard that one would have to use XeTex instead of pdftex, which is what 
I usually do; is that really
necessary? Is it difficult to get used to?

Any help is greatly appreciated! I have been struggling with this for 
quite some months now and would feel
much obliged for any suggestions!!

-- 
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Prof. Mauricio Ortiz Calvao
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Institute of Physics, P O Box 68528
CEP 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Brazil

Email: or...@if...
Phone: (55)(21)25627483
Homepage: http://www.if.ufrj.br/~orca
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