hgbokhor@cs.ruu.nl (Henk van Bokhorst) (05/06/91)
Is there a way to convert .TFM fonts into .PK240 fonts or to convert .PK300 fonts to .PK240 fonts? I use a STAR NL-10 printer, which is Epson-FX compatible, I have all the .TFM fonts TeX needs, but I don't have all the .PK240 fonts DVIPrint needs, and many styles use some of these fonts ( for example, BRIEF.STY, used for Dutch letters, uses some fonts which I don't have ). I have all the fonts .PK300, but the printer doesn't use these fonts, if there is no way to convert .TFM fonts, can you convert these to .PK240 fonts? If there is no way to solve this problem, does anyone know where I can find .FM fonts which I can use with MetaFont and how I can make .PK fonts with MetaFont for my printer? Please E-mail me the answers ( there are some holidays and after some time unread articles disappear from the news, not from mail ), thanks a lot in advance. Henk van Bokhorst.
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (05/07/91)
hgbokhor@cs.ruu.nl (Henk van Bokhorst) writes: >Is there a way to convert .TFM fonts into .PK240 fonts or to convert >.PK300 fonts to .PK240 fonts? I use a STAR NL-10 printer, which is NO! .tfm files are not exactly fonts. They are "TeX font metrics" files that tell TeX (not the DVIPrint or ShowDVI programs) how big each character of each font is. Only one .tfm file is required for all the, say, cmr10 fonts in all different resolutions you use. The .pk files are packed bitmaps in particular resolutions, and you typically need several of the: one set for previewer, one or more for printer. Each set must be in several sizes to handle your invoking the font at different point sizes ("cmr10 at 12pt" or "cmr10 at 18.67pt") or for different magsteps. And VirTeX does not need .pk files: only the .dvi driver (ShowDVI or DVIPrint) need them. TeX only allocates space for the letters; it's up to the driver to actually put the letter there. >Epson-FX compatible, I have all the .TFM fonts TeX needs, but I don't >have all the .PK240 fonts DVIPrint needs, and many styles use some of >these fonts ( for example, BRIEF.STY, used for Dutch letters, uses some >fonts which I don't have ). I have all the fonts .PK300, but the printer >doesn't use these fonts, if there is no way to convert .TFM fonts, can you >convert these to .PK240 fonts? Maybe if you have a smart enough program; but that's what MetaFont does. But I think you can find an FTP site in Europe or UK that has lots of .pk fonts already made up. The .pk fonts are (as far as I know) computer independent (though not strictly printer independent, but often pretty close), so if you can find them on a U*IX machine, you should be able to use them. I _believe_ all the cmxxx fonts are freely useable, since they are available in MetaFont format via FTP from Stanford... (of course I may be quite wrong about that ;-) > >If there is no way to solve this problem, does anyone know where I can find >.FM fonts which I can use with MetaFont and how I can make .PK fonts with >MetaFont for my printer? I think you probably don't want to do that unless you have lots of time. I haven't actually tried it yet, but I hear MetaFont takes quite a long time to run, and has a bit of a learning curve.