and Metafont
All the dialog boxes used to print or view a DVI file have a check box
called ``Make missing PK fonts'' (only available in System 7 or later).
The state of the check box is remembered when quits.
If ``Make missing PK fonts'' is checked and detects a missing PK font
when printing or previewing a DVI file, then
will be called to
build the required PK file.
does not call
directly. Instead it starts up MakeTeXPK,
another of Tom's programs. The very first time this happens, will
ask you to find and select the MakeTeXPK application.
The selected application is remembered for future use.
MakeTeXPK calls
to build a GF (Generic Font) file, then it
calls GFtoPK to convert the GF file into a PK file. uses the new
PK file to continue previewing or printing.
Note that the PK file is created in the PK-files folder. You can either
keep the PK file there or move it into an appropriate sub-folder.
A PK file called foo.999pk should be stored in a sub-folder called 999.
If no such sub-folder exists then create one.
It is possible that the font creation process will fail. For example,
might not find the required .mf input file. Or you might decide
to cancel the process. In such cases will report a missing PK font
and append a line of information to a file called missfont.log in the
PK-files folder.
If ``Make missing PK fonts'' is not checked then won't attempt to
create a missing PK font, but it will append a line to missfont.log.
The missfont.log file can be used later by MakeTeXPK to build all the
listed PK fonts. For many people this might be more convenient than
having build PK fonts on the fly — it can take quite a while for
to create a font.
Unless you have a Power Mac (and Tom's native PPC version of
),
I recommend leaving ``Make missing PK fonts'' unchecked, at least initially.
Preview all your DVI files and select ``Page Info'' from the View menu.
If there are any missing PK fonts, will create a missfont.log file.
Edit this file and remove any duplicate lines.
Start up MakeTeXPK, open missfont.log, select Run and go to bed! When you
wake up, all the PK files should have been created in the PK-files folder.
It is a good idea to delete (or rename) missfont.log after using it to
build PK files. simply appends missing font info to missfont.log without
checking to see if that info already exists, and MakeTeXPK simply
builds all the listed PK files, even if they already exist.
(Tom and I might do something smarter one day, although it is quite easy
to remove duplicate lines from missfont.log with a good text editor.)
If you preview a DVI file and select the ``Ignore missing fonts'' check box
then the ``Make missing PK fonts'' setting is ignored. If a missing PK font
is detected then won't attempt to call MakeTeXPK, nor will it append
any information to missfont.log. This feature is useful when previewing
certain DVI files (like trip.dvi) where you know there are missing fonts
but you have no desire to create them.
Subsections