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 {\logo METAFONT\null} will be called to build the required PK file. does not call {\logo METAFONT\null} 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 {\logo METAFONT\null} 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, {\logo METAFONT\null} 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 {\logo METAFONT\null} to create a font. Unless you have a Power Mac (and Tom's native PPC version of {\logo METAFONT\null}), 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.

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