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- ==============================================================================
- HELP.ENG (emTeX DISTRIBUTION) VERSION: 25-Sep-1990
- ==============================================================================
- With modifications of 10-Jun-1992
-
- This file contains the frequently asked questions about emTeX and their
- answers. If you have a question which is not here and you cannot find the
- answer in the documentation (or it is very difficult to find), please let
- me know. In the following, Q: starts the question and A: starts the answer.
-
-
- FONTS
- =====
-
- Q: What are FLI files (files with extension .fli)?
-
- A: These are "font libraries". A single file contains several font files (PK
- or PXL). Further information can be found in fontlib.doc.
-
-
- Q: I have other printer drivers which cannot use font libraries; does this
- mean that I have to keep both the font library and the font files on the
- disk?
-
- A: No. The files in the font library can be unpacked with fontlib, that is,
- split up into single files again. The dvidrv printer drivers work both
- with font libraries and with single files. After unpacking, the font
- libraries are no longer needed. The font library file does, however,
- make a good backup as backing up many small files is inefficient.
- See fontlib.doc and dvidrv.doc (/pf*). The batch files ilf_*.cmd (rename
- ilf_*.bat under DOS) can be used for unpacking the font library files.
-
-
- Q: What is the difference between "cmr10 scaled 1200" (that is, "cmr10 at
- 12pt" and "cmr12"? Removing duplicate fonts would save quite a bit of
- space on the disk!
-
- A: The answer is given in The TeXbook, page 16. Each font is designed for a
- particular size, magnified fonts are just that, magnified: the stroke
- widths, height, width and spacing must be changed for the new size, they
- are not simply in proportion. Using a magnified font is a last resort for
- use when the correct font is not available -- unless, of course, the page
- is to be reduced after printing. There are parameter files (from John
- Sauter) to generate cm fonts in unusual sizes (other than 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
- 10, 12, 17pt) but these are not yet in general use.
-
-
- Q: I already have a set of TeX fonts, do I need the FLI files mentioned in
- README.ENG?
-
- A: You can use your fonts as long as they are PK files (with ID 89) or PXL
- files (with ID 1001 or 1002). Fonts in GF format cannot be used
- (GFtoPK.exe will convert them).
-
-
- Q: I would like to generate my own fonts, how do I do this?
-
- A: Read the documentation for MFJob (mfjob.doc). An example:
-
- mfjob /i all m=lj
- mfjob /i latex m=lj
- mfjob /i emsy m=lj
-
- A couple of hours or days later you will find the fonts, as PK files,
- in the directory c:\newfonts. IMPORTANT: The more available memory,
- the faster! If you've loaded too many unnecessary programs and drivers,
- generating fonts may take days instead of hours. You should use minimal
- config.sys and autoexec.bat files. The GFtoDVI requires some additional
- fonts which are currently only available for LJ and FX and can be created
- by
-
- mfjob gftodvi
-
- If you're using big characters in SliTeX, you'll need additional fonts:
-
- mfjob slitex m=lj
-
- The batch files fli_*.cmd (rename fli_*.bat under DOS) can be used for
- copying the fonts into font libraries.
-
-
- Q: Why can't GF files be used?
-
- A: They use a great deal of disk space and the routines to read GF files
- would make the drivers even larger. Apart from this, GF files can easily
- be converted into PK files. For these reasons I have decided not to
- support GF files in the drivers.
-
-
- Q: I would like to print using 180dpi fonts for draft as well as 360dpi fonts
- for final copy but I haven't enough room on my disk for both the P6L and
- the P6H fonts.
-
- A: The drivers can reduce the size of the fonts they use. For instance, you
- can have the P6H fonts on your disk which the driver can reduce to 180dpi -
- though the result is not as good as using the P6L fonts. Fonts can be
- reduced by the factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 - fractional values are
- not possible. You can, however, have different horizontal and vertical
- factors.
-
-
- Q: What is a virtual font?
-
- A: While we used cm fonts and 7 bit characters, everything was simple. But
- increasingly, built in font sets (PostScript!) were being used too. This
- caused difficulties when a document was to be previewed on the screen, or
- printed on a device which did not contain these fonts. Virtual fonts come
- to the rescue here: they consist of a TFM file (which contains information
- on ligatures and character widths) and a VF file. The VF file tells the
- printer driver how the different characters of the font are to be
- generated. For instance, whether the characters can be replaced by another
- font (e.g. cm font) or made up from two other characters. If we have an
- 8 bit virtual font in which the characters from 0 to 127 correspond to a
- cm font and the rest are accented characters, then the VF information for
- these accented characters can show that they are to be made from existing
- ones, for instance, letter and accent.
-
-
- Q: I am using another printer driver (or font) and the character spacing is
- wrong.
-
- A: The fonts should have corresponding TFM files and these do not match those
- provided with emTeX. Replace the emTeX TFM files with those matching the
- fonts you have and recreate the FMT files (using fmt.bat/cmd,
- gfmt.bat/cmd). The DVI files then generated will not work perfectly with
- the emTeX fonts. Really all TFM files (for the same font) should be
- identical but, over time, METAFONT and the cm sources have changed and, as
- a result, TFM files differ.
-
-
- Q: The drivers cannot find the fonts circle10, circlew1, lcircle1, or
- lcirclew. What can I do?
-
- A: The fonts containing circles, quarter circles, and discs have been renamed
- from circle* to lcircle*. You can make the dvidrv drivers change the names
- (circle* -> lcircle* or lcircle* -> circle*) by using the font substitution
- files
-
- newfonts.sub circle -> lcircle (old -> new)
- oldfonts.sub lcircle -> circle (new -> old)
-
- with the /ps* option. If you're using an old dvi file (circle* not found)
- with new fonts, you should specify /ps:\emtex\newfonts; if you're using a
- new dvi file (lcircle* not found) with old fonts, you should give the
- option /ps:\emtex\oldfonts.
-
-
-
- DVIDRV
- ======
-
- General
- -------
-
- Q: I have a PostScript printer but emTeX does not have a suitable driver.
- Where can I find a suitable driver?
-
- A: There are two very good (and free!) PostScript drivers: dvips by
- Tomas Rokicki and dvitops by James Clark. Both can be found on the
- net (ftp.uni-stuttgart.de and others). dvips 5.47 or later can be
- used with fli files.
-
-
- Q: My printer is connected to the serial port and prints nonsense.
-
- A: You should turn on the XON-XOFF protocol with the /ox+ parameter giving
- the port name as COM1, COM2, COM3 or COM4.
-
-
- Q: I am using a DVI driver which cannot use FLI files, do I have to have both
- the fonts and a font library on my disk?
-
- A: No - see the answer to this question in "Fonts" above.
-
-
- Q: The driver writes a DLG file (transcript) every time, how can I
- suppress it?
-
- A: Use the command line option /pt (without a filename).
-
-
- Q: I have a PCX file (or MSP file) which doesn't work with \special{em:graph}.
-
- A: Please send the file (and a correct hardcopy) to the emTeX author.
- Consider using bm2font.
-
-
- Q: I have inserted a picture using \special{em:graph} exactly as the
- documentation says but it appears too far to the right (or too low).
-
- A: The reason is that many pictures have an empty left or upper margin. To
- overcome this you can use the following trick - pass these commands through
- TeX:
-
- \noindent\special{em:graph xxx}\bye
-
- where xxx is the name of the graphics file. Then convert the DVI file into
- an MSP file with dvimsp /om. The /om option removes the empty margins. You
- can now use the resulting MSP file in your document.
-
-
- Q: Graphics inserted with \special{em:graph} appear too small (or too large).
-
- A: The driver copies the picture without altering its size - if this
- size is wrong then you must use a suitable program to adjust it. If
- you have written such a program, or you know of a public domain
- one, please send it to the emTeX author so that he can include it
- with emTeX. Consider using bm2font.
-
-
- Q: What's bm2font?
-
- A: It's a program written by Friedhelm Sowa which converts bitmaps
- (many formats) into PK fonts. It features scaling and dithering.
- bm2font is available for anonymous ftp on ftp.uni-stuttgart.de,
- directory soft/tex/utilities/bm2font.
-
-
- Q: dvihplj prints a black line at the right margin of PCX graphic files.
-
- A: It's a dvidrv bug. Get the beta test release from
- ftp.uni-stuttgart.de, directory soft/tex/machines/pc/emtex/betatest.
-
-
- Q: What does the error message
-
- [cannot open dvidrv.err]
-
- mean?
-
- A: Driver error messages are read from a file called dvidrv.err. This file
- must exist in one of the directories listed in the PATH environment
- variable. If this file cannot be found then you will get the number of the
- error or warning and you can look up the text in dvidrv.doc or the driver
- manual.
-
-
- Q: When I use a driver from a batch file (for example, prthplj) I get the
- error message:
-
- Warning 1004: missing path name
-
- A: You haven't set the environment variables DVIDRVFONTS, DVIDRVGRAPH and
- DVIDRVINPUT. See README.ENG.
-
-
- Q: I use the \special commands for drawing lines and the driver aborts
- with error message 2000 or 3001.
-
- A: The drivers can handle up to about 2730 lines per sheet (you have to
- use bigTeX for defining such a great number of lines).
-
-
- Q: The driver issues fatal error 2003 if I try to let it print directly
- to a device such as PRN.
-
- A: This failure is due to a bug in DR-Dos 5.0. DR-Dos 5.0 cannot send a
- Ctrl-Z character to any device because the IOCTL system call which
- is used to enable output of Ctrl-Z to devices seems to be ignored
- by DR-Dos 5.0. Even printing to a file and copying that file to the
- device using "copy /b" does not work. It is reported that there is
- a new version of DR-Dos 5.0 with that bug fixed. Remedy: Obtain that
- new version or use OS/2, MS-DOS or PC-DOS.
-
-
- Q: The drivers cannot find the fonts circle10, circlew1, lcircle1, or
- lcirclew. What can I do?
-
- A: See the answer to this question in "Fonts" above.
-
-
- Q: I get the error message
-
- A numeric coprocessor exception occured and a numeric coprocessor
- exception handler was not registered
-
- with all drivers but dviscrs (note the `s' at the end) and dvivik.
-
- A: This problem should disappear when you remove the (n)nansi.sys driver from
- config.sys. Currently, I don't know any other remedy.
-
-
- Q: I get the error message
-
- A program started an invalid instruction without registering an
- invalid opcode exception handler
-
- with all drivers but dviscrs (note the `s' at the end) and dvivik.
-
- A: There seems to be a problem with old RAM disk drivers, which use neither
- XMS nor EMS.
-
-
- Q: I get the error message
-
- Fatal error 2100: DVI file corrupted (undefined font).
-
- A: It's a dvidrv bug. Get the beta test release from
- ftp.uni-stuttgart.de, directory soft/tex/machines/pc/emtex/betatest.
-
-
- dviscr
- ------
-
- Q: I have a video adapter which is not supported by dviscr. What can I do?
-
- A: Send me the hardware and software documentation. If it is not too
- difficult, then there is a good chance that I will extend dviscr.
-
-
-
- dvimsp
- ------
-
- Q: A program refuses to use an MSP file which has been generated with dvimsp.
-
- A: Many programs can only use MSP files which have been generated by dvimsp
- with the option /o:1 and/or /ow+.
-
-
-
- dvihplj
- -------
-
- Q: How can I stop dvihplj from deleting preloaded soft fonts in an HP
- LaserJet+?
-
- A: dvihplj deletes all fonts designated temporary. You should preload the
- fonts as permanent. You may still get problems due to the font numbers
- assigned to the cm fonts loaded by the driver duplicating those of the
- soft fonts. To avoid this use the /of# option: by setting /of:1000 the
- driver will use 1000 to 1031 for the fonts it downloads.
-
-
- Q: Characters go missing at the edges of the page.
-
- A: Set the correct page size with /h# and /w#.
-
-
- Q: My HP LaserJet II produces an interesting, but undesired, pattern in the
- middle of the page.
-
- A: This sometimes happens when the page height set with /h# is larger than
- the printer permits.
-
-
- Q: How can I include a PCL file (a print file for the LaserJet+ produced by
- another program) in a TeX document?
-
- A: If the file contains only graphics (no text) than you can convert it into
- a PCL file with PCLtoMSP and then include it with \special{em:graph}.
-
-
- Q: dvihplj doesn't work with my HP LaserJet+ compatible printer.
-
- A: Try the following commands:
-
- prthplj /!200
- prthplj /od/!a00
-
- Some printers may work with /oc1.
-
-
- dvidot
- ------
-
- Q: Why is the printed output so bad? Sometimes lines overprint one another and
- at other times characters are cut by this horizontal lines. Sometimes lines
- are reduced in height.
-
- A: The fault is usually the printer's. To print correctly even the smallest
- paper movement must be executed exactly. You could try experimenting with
- tractor feed and sheet feed. This problem occurs more frequently with
- printers from some manufacturers than others but I am not going to name
- names. Remedy: Use 360x180 DPI instead of 360x360 DPI.
-
-
- Q: How can I make sure that the margin from the perforation is correct; I am
- using fanfold paper?
-
- A: Always feed an empty sheet through first and adjust the paper so that the
- margin is correct. The empty first page is necessary as many printers
- cannot start printing right at the top of the first page.
-
-
- Q: The output has `shadows' or the left margin is jagged.
-
- A: Create a new DOT file with empty BLANK_WIDTH or switch the printer
- to 10 CPI.
-
-
- TeX
- ===
-
- Q: Has emTeX passed the trip test?
-
- A: Yes.
-
-
- Q: I have seen emTeX described as very fast but I find that abcTeX is much
- faster processing the file xyz.tex! Why is that?
-
- A: emTeX's speed depends heavily on the amount of memory available. If there
- is not much spare memory then it can happen that another TeX, which cannot
- run the large TeX files that emTeX can, will be faster.
-
-
- Q: There is no INITEX with emTeX, what can I do?
-
- A: INITEX *is* there, use "tex /i" (you should have read texware.doc).
-
-
- Q: TeX displays the error message
-
- ! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [buffer size=2048].
-
- A: Some text processing packages write complete paragraphs as one
- line to the text file. If a paragraph contains, say, 3000 characters,
- the line will contain 3000 characters, without regard to the appearance
- of the paragraph on the display. Remedy: Most of those text processing
- packages offer an option for writing the file formatted, i.e., line
- by line.
-
-
- Q: TeX crashes (I am using a somewhat unusual memory card).
-
- A: Use the /D option when running TeX.
-
-
- Q: Why can emTeX not use the FMT files created by other versions of TeX?
-
- A: FMT files are implementation dependent, for instance, the sizes of the
- different memory areas, hash size &c. You are very unlikely to find two
- implementations which can use the same FMT files!
-
-
- Q: When I try and print DVI files generated by emTeX on another machine, the
- printer driver says they are invalid.
-
- A: This usually arises from corruption while transferring the data -
- uuencode/uudecode or xxencode/xxdecode will solve the problem.
-
-
- Q: I would like to run my text through a spelling checker (style checker).
-
- A: Get dvispell from ftp.uni-stuttgart.de, directory
- soft/tex/machines/pc/emtex/betatest.
-
-
- Q: emTeX generates a DVI file which differs from that produced by another
- implementation though the input file was the same.
-
- A: That may be expected. The optimization of position changes depends on the
- size of the DVI file buffer - and it need not be done at all. In addition,
- in some places, floating point arithmetic is allowed and used (\leaders).
- Floating point precision differs from machine to machine.
-
-
- Q: TeX breaks words after the first letter, for instance, T-est!
-
- A: You are using a macro package which is not written for TeX 3.0. You should
- recreate the FMT file and this time enter "\input 3.tex" as well.
-
-
- Q: TeX displays the following message (when run under DOS):
-
- Please insert diskette containing TEX.EXE into drive x
- press any key to continue
-
- A: This problem has not been analyzed yet. Copy tex.exe into the current
- working directory.
-
-
- F: I want to use SliTeX (for making slides).
-
- A: You have to create a fmt file. This is done by the batch files
- slifmt.bat/cmd or gslifmt.bat/cmd (German hyphenation patterns).
- You should switch to the \emtex\texfmts directory (or \emtex\btexfmts
- for bigTeX) before calling the batch file. If you need big characters
- and don't have fonts for SliTeX (these are contained in lj_sli.fli, for
- example), you have to create the fonts with
-
- mfjob slitex m=lj
-
- (replace lj with the mode required for your printer, see modes.mfj). Then
- the fonts must be available for the drivers: use fontlib and /pl* (see
- fli_*.cmd) or use /pf*. (Yes, this should be described in the Local Guide
- (local.dvi); but I haven't done this yet.)
-
-
- Q: How can I preload a TeX format, i.e., create an EXE file containing
- a FMT file?
-
- A: That isn't supported by emTeX because it isn't useful in my opinion.
-
-
- Q: Where's german.tex?
-
- A: Use german.sty.
-
-
- METAFONT
- ========
-
-
- Q: Has emTeX's METAFONT passed the trap test?
-
- A: Yes.
-
-
- Q: Why doesn't METAFONT display a picture on my screen?
-
- A: METAFONT works only with the following adapters: CGA, EGA and VGA. In
- particular, if you have a Hercules compatible card then you will not get
- any graphic output.
-
-
- Q: emTeX does not have INIMF. What shall I do?
-
- A: INIMF is there, simply call METAFONT with "mf /i" (see also mfware.doc).
-
-
- Q: METAFONT displays error messages for some fonts or creates wrong TFM
- files.
-
- A: MF files, that don't contain a line similar to
-
- if unknown cmbase: input cmbase fi
-
- should usually be processed with plain.bas, not with cm.bas. Examples
- are the line and lcircle fonts.
-
-
- Q: METAFONT crashes (I have a rather unusual memory card).
-
- A: Use the /D option with METAFONT or MFJob.
-
-
- Q: I call METAFONT with the command line
-
- mf &cm \smode="mymode"; input cmr10
-
- but the quotes disappear.
-
- A: You should use
-
- mf &cm \smode=\"mymode\"; input cmr10
-
- instead, see mfware.doc.
-
-
- Q: Why does METAFONT not switch back into text mode when it is finished?
-
- A: Because that would clear the screen, removing the messages there.
-
-
- Q: Why does METAFONT overwrite the graphics with text?
-
- A: I was too lazy to put it right, besides it is not easy. The problem has
- been solved for OS/2.
-
-
- Q: METAFONT overwrites the graphics with blanks.
-
- A: Some versions of ansi.sys (and replacements) seem to cause this problem.
- Try without ANSI driver.
-
-
- Q: METAFONT displays the error message
-
- ! METAFONT capacity exceeded, sorry [buffer size=500]
-
- followed by ^^?^^?^^?...
-
- A: That's a bug in emTeX's METAFONT: The last line of a file should
- be terminated with CR, LF or Ctrl-Z. Remedy: Load the file into
- an editor, hit <Return> at the end of the last line and save the
- file.
-
-
- Q: The METAFONT that comes with emTeX is too slow.
-
- A: Use Wayne Sullivan's sbmf. Note that the speed of emTeX's METAFONT
- depends on the amount of available (conventional) memory: The more
- memory, the faster.
-
-
- GFtoDVI
- =======
-
-
- Q: GFtoDVI cannot find gray.tfm or slant.tfm or black.tfm.
-
- A: See mfware.doc.
-
-
- Miscellaneous
- =============
-
-
- Q: Will emTeX use a coprocessor if present? If not, would it run faster with
- coprocessor support?
-
- A: No. No.
-
-
- Q: I have only a 360Kb (or 720Kb) drive in my machine, how can I get emTeX on
- suitable disks?
-
- A: Find somebody with a machine which has both a 1200 MB (or 1440 MB)
- drive and one which can write the disks your machine requires. Copy
- the files from the emTeX disk on to your disks - all emTeX zip
- files have been made to fit on a 360Kb disk. The fonts, however,
- are rather more difficult as some files are larger than 360 KB.
- Copy the fonts on to a hard disk, if one is available, and then
- make a backup copy that your machine can read (for example, with
- BACKUP). You can also use BACKUP directly to copy one disk on to
- many, if you have two drives in the machine. This backup copy can
- then be restored to your machine (for example, with RESTORE). You
- can also use the SLICE program, if can find it somewhere.
-
-
- Q: The emTeX documentation is rubbish, I can write better!
-
- A: Please do so and then send it to me so I can include it with emTeX.
-
-
- Q: Where can I find an exact description of VFtoVP, VPtoVF, TFtoPL and PLtoTF?
-
- A: The English version of these are only to be found in the files vftovp.web,
- vptovf.web, tftopl.web and pltotf.web and they are not included with emTeX.
- If you write an introduction to these programs, I would be very interested
- in getting a copy so I can send it out with emTeX.
-
-
- Q: Where can I find a description of PiCTeX?
-
- A: You will find the answer in README.ENG.
-
-
- Q: Are there any convenient user interfaces for emTeX?
-
- A: Yes, there are many. A very simple one is contained in the TEXCAD
- package: gh.bat. The best one (in my opinion) has been written by
- Juergen Schlegelmilch and is available for anonymous ftp from
- ftp.uni-stuttgart.de [129.69.1.12], directory
- soft/tex/machines/pc/emtex-texshell.
-
-
- Q: I've problems with rusvm1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de.
-
- A: The correct name is rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MV!) or
- rusinfo.rus.uni-stuttgart.de or ftp.uni-stuttgart.de.
-
-
- Q: Will there be emTeX etc. for other operating systems?
-
- A: No, that's not planned. A version for OS/2 2.0 is in beta test
- (ftp.uni-stuttgart.de, directory soft/tex/machines/pc/emtex/betatest).
-
-
- Q: How can I support the emTeX author?
-
- A: Unfortunately, this is the most rarely asked question. Ask the author.
-
-
- -------- End of HELP.ENG -------------
-