kroe@sbcs.sunysb.edu (KiYun Roe) (12/08/90)
I recently downloaded the excellent emTeX system. The only thing I dislike is that when I preview things on the screen, I have to scale the printer fonts down to see the width of the page. The scaled fonts are ugly and difficult to read. My understanding of the TeX font system is very sketchy, but I suspect that if I had fonts whose resolution more closely matched the actual resolution of the screen, I would not have to scale. I am wondering now if somebody has made such a set of screen fonts for emTeX. The other possibility is to use a set of screen fonts from a different DVI package, but I am not sure how to do this or whether it will even work (the documentation mentions something about the .TFM files needing to match the font files). Finally, I suppose I could download the MetaFont part of emTeX, but I don't know how to use MetaFont, and I would think it would take a very long time to generate the fonts (I only have an 8086-based computer). I looked in the FAQ list, but this issue does not seem to have been addressed. Could someone provide some assistance? -- KiYun Roe kroe@sbcs.sunysb.edu Department of Computer Science SUNY at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794-4400 (516) 632-7675
terry@julia.math.ucla.edu (Terence J. McKiernan) (12/09/90)
*** apology at the top for the length of this posting ... *** In article <1990Dec8.150409.6938@sbcs.sunysb.edu> kroe@sbcs.sunysb.edu (KiYun Roe) writes: >I recently downloaded the excellent emTeX system. The only thing I >dislike is that when I preview things on the screen, I have to scale >the printer fonts down to see the width of the page. The scaled fonts >are ugly and difficult to read. My understanding of the TeX font >system is very sketchy, but I suspect that if I had fonts whose >resolution more closely matched the actual resolution of the screen, I >would not have to scale. I am wondering now if somebody has made such >a set of screen fonts for emTeX. The other possibility is to use a set >of screen fonts from a different DVI package, but I am not sure how to >do this or whether it will even work (the documentation mentions >something about the .TFM files needing to match the font files). >Finally, I suppose I could download the MetaFont part of emTeX, but I >don't know how to use MetaFont, and I would think it would take a very >long time to generate the fonts (I only have an 8086-based computer). >I looked in the FAQ list, but this issue does not seem to have been >addressed. Could someone provide some assistance? >-- >KiYun Roe kroe@sbcs.sunysb.edu >Department of Computer Science >SUNY at Stony Brook >Stony Brook, NY 11794-4400 (516) 632-7675 Kiyun, I am also interested in generating screen fonts for a PC; I would appreciate it if you would send me copies of the responses you get. I am installing TeX (SB30TEX) on a bunch of PS/2s with 12" color VGA screens, so the resolution is around 70-72 dpi. We also have TeX installed on a UNIX network of Sun 3 and SPARC machines. On the UNIX side, we have the font generation info for literally hundreds of fonts, but they are all generated for 300 dpi (laser printers). The local TeX expert showed me the process for generating fonts with Metafont. You're right; it would take a long time on a PC. Roughly speaking, here is what you need: metafont mode defs for your output device font generation info The mode defs specify things like the dpi and how "black" to make the "pens" that draw the characters. The font generation info actually specifies what the characters look like, and are independent of the mode defs. With these in hand, you could make (say, for the cmr10 font at 70dpi, not magnified): cmr10.tfm cmr10.70gf The .tfm file is a font metric file; it describes how much space each character takes up -- the size of its box. The 70gf file is a bitmapped (?) image of the characters in the font. You convert it to the faster/neater/more useful pk format (cmr10.70pk) with a program called gftopk. Why am I telling you all this? Well, two reasons: 1. I posted news asking for mode defs for VGA. Twice. No response, except for people who wanted the same information. Why is this information so hard to find? 2. I discovered that the .tfm files are device and resolution independent -- the .tfm files for 300 dpi on a Sun are the same as for, say, 118 dpi (Hercules card) on a PC. TeX only requires the .tfm files to produce a .dvi file -- what we are doing right now is using TeX on the PCs to produce all the .dvi files, then uploading them to the Suns for .dvi processing, like printing out on high-speed laser printers. The .dvi converters on the Sun system have all the pk files (font images). One thing our TeX expert pointed out was that the resolution of the PC screen is so low, the images are not really good, and you are unlikely to notice if a squiggle is a little off here of there. As long as the font resolution is CLOSE, you should be in good shape. So ... Metafont comes with a bunch of mode defs for all kinds output devices (except VGA, damnit). Look in .mf files. In the file waits.mf, you will find mode defs for something called the DataDisc (mode DD), which is a 70 dpi device. I generated some fonts using the DD format, and, y'know, they look pretty damn good on a VGA screen. So, my advice is that you use those mode defs, or anything that looks close, and generate your fonts on some other machines / get them from an archive site. One other good points, credit again to our TeX expert: Many previewers will let you select the dpi of the font files. For example, our SPARCStation screens aren't 300 dpi, but their previewer (xdvi) uses the same font files as the dvi driver for the 300 dpi printers. The previewer simply subsamples the font image -- if the image is at 300 dpi, and the screen only does 100 or so, it shows every 3rd dot. You can tell it to use 70 dpi of 10000000 dpi or whatever. So, check your previewer -- maybe it has this capability. Enough blathering by me -- it's someone else's turn 8-). (glasses). Can anyone throw any more light on this subject? Thanks! >>> terry <<<
mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) (12/09/90)
In article <864@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> terry@math.ucla.edu (Terence J. McKiernan) writes: >*** apology at the top for the length of this posting ... *** > >In article <1990Dec8.150409.6938@sbcs.sunysb.edu> kroe@sbcs.sunysb.edu (KiYun Roe) writes: >>I recently downloaded the excellent emTeX system. The only thing I >>dislike is that when I preview things on the screen, I have to scale >>the printer fonts down to see the width of the page. The scaled fonts >>are ugly and difficult to read. > >Kiyun, > >I am also interested in generating screen fonts for a PC; I would >appreciate it if you would send me copies of the responses you get. > >I am installing TeX (SB30TEX) on a bunch of PS/2s with 12" color VGA >screens, so the resolution is around 70-72 dpi. We also have TeX installed >on a UNIX network of Sun 3 and SPARC machines. On the UNIX side, we have >the font generation info for literally hundreds of fonts, but they are all >generated for 300 dpi (laser printers). > > >Why am I telling you all this? Well, two reasons: > > 1. I posted news asking for mode defs for VGA. Twice. No >response, except for people who wanted the same information. Why is this >information so hard to find? > >One thing our TeX expert pointed out was that the resolution of the PC screen >is so low, the images are not really good, and you are unlikely to notice >if a squiggle is a little off here of there. As long as the font >resolution is CLOSE, you should be in good shape. So ... > >I generated some fonts using the DD format, and, y'know, they >look pretty damn good on a VGA screen. So, my advice is that you use those >mode defs, or anything that looks close, and generate your fonts on some >other machines / get them from an archive site. That is right. Best, however, just to get them already made. My DVIVGA previewer comes with a set of fonts selected especially for use at screen resolution on, you guessed it, a VGA. It is on simtel20.army.mil, all the dvivga? files except the first or last, which are the previewer itself and the source code. They will work for sure with the Emtex previewer as well as dvivga and dvimswin, about other previewers I don't know. > >One other good points, credit again to our TeX expert: Many previewers >will let you select the dpi of the font files. Dvivga, (for PC with VGA or EGA), Dvimswin (for Microsoft Windows) and the Emtex previewer let you chose the dpi you want. The first two (mine) allow you to change the d.p.i. while running. The output from any of these three previewers is very readable indeed on a VGA. In my personal opinion the other previewers I have seen for the PC are not as good as these. If you are using somethine else, you should try one of these three. Emtex will downsize 300 d.p.i. fonts to the screen in gray scale and the results look wonderful. But it is slow when it does all that work. Better just use screen size fonts. Doug McDonald