[comp.text.tex] Loading font file

cao@ee.su.oz.au (Longjian Cao) (03/05/91)

In article <1991Feb25.181542.1@euler.claremont.edu>, Don Hosek wrote:

> A suggestion to all those using TeX on PCs or any other place
> where disk space might be tight. Start with cmr10 at 10pt and
> NOTHING else. Run the emTeX drivers in batch mode so that they
> simply display missing font messages. Then use MF to generate
> fonts as you need them.  ... ...

I use emTeX for my work. I tried above suggestion since disk space is tight.
I generated .pk fonts needed for my LaTeX file. When I preview my 
.dvi file on the screen, I found it is much slower to load .pk files than
to load font from .fli files. Is this my problem or it is a problem?
BTW, I use a 286 with an EGA.

Thanks.

L CAO

mike@prg.ox.ac.uk (Mike Spivey) (03/05/91)

Like Longjian Cao, I use emTeX and generate fonts as they are needed,
but I use dvitype to list the fonts that are used in a document, put
the output through a GNU awk script to generate an mfjob script, then
run mfjob on that to build only the fonts that aren't already built.
That this can be made to work on a PC is a tribute to Eberhard
Matthes' skill in building robust tools.

The disadvantage is that my stock of fonts has to be kept in .pk
files, as mfjob is unable to look inside .fli files.  Does this really
cost much speed?  It certainly costs a lot of space, with all those
little files having ~1/2 block wasted space each.

Send mail if you'd like the scripts;  they're short, but I don't have
them here at present.

-- Mike Spivey

garym@cognos.uucp@uunet.uu.net (Gary Murphy) (03/06/91)

I'm a little confused about this .fli/.pk stuff.  Like most PC users,
my disk-space is at such a premium that I have all of the .pk files in
an automatically-compressed pseudo-disk (Squish-Disk) and still have
troubles with room.  This idea of starting with one font and only
adding those I really use sounds great, and I assume once I know what
I need, I can (somehow) collect them all into a library and get at
least a smaller sectors-to-files ratio.

But what about the .tfm files?  Is is possible to have the .pk's for
different resolutions on separate floppies and just pop them into the
drive when needed?  Are the .tfm's only needed at TeX-time or are they
used only when rendering a .dvi?  Do I really _need_ so many different
resolutions or do I only need the ones for screen and printer
resolutions?

Any emTeX pro's with tight disk-space care to tap-in a short tutorial
or a map of their set-up?

--
o| Gary Murphy                                                            |o
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