[tex-live] PK fonts characters left blank by "dvips -P pdf" on windows

[Zdenek Wagner]

2010/11/16 Robin Fairbairns <Robin.Fairbairns at cl.cam.ac.uk>:
>>
>> OK, but then what is the purpose of config.pdf included in the
>> distribution? Are the blank characters intentional?
>
> config.pdf supports people who continue to use this mechanism.
>
It says what fonts have to be used in outline form if it is not set as default.

>> > it has never (ime) worked for documents that required bitmap fonts --
>> > since there has never been a metafont mode for a 8000dpi printer.
>>
>> dpdfezzz is used on Linux.
>
> what linux?  (it's not available on mine, that i can see.)
>
>> > so what you observe is nothing directly to do with tl -- i first noticed
>> > it with an early tetex, i think.
>>
>> Right, the sames happens when using TeX installed with my Linux distro
>> (CentOS 5.5). But the Windows version of mktexpk from TeX Live just
>> silently ignores --dpi, which is not OK, I think.
>
> ah.  that's a bug, i would imagine.
>
MF mode says what resolution should be used. Remember that the glyph
size is limited. If you try to generate PK fonts at 8000 dpi, you
might exceed the limit. --dpi is used to transform the page. Some RIPs
have bugs in floating point arithmetics, thus dpi is used to convert
all calculation to integers, i.e. everything will be in pixels, not in
points. Are you sure that the resolution of your RIP is really 8000
dpi? If so, you have to design your own MF mode and set all parameters
required for proper hinting.

>> > if your system is daft enough not to use outline fonts by default for
>> > computer modern, etc., there are other ways to solve the problem.
>>
>> The font is bbm (I doubt there is a PostScript ouline version).
>
> not on ctan, anyway.  there aren't many blackboard bold fonts available
> in outline format -- apart from the default msbm, there's only
> doublestroke, i think.  istr doublestroke isn't well thought of: perhaps
> the gust font people can be persuaded to convert bbm, too.
>
>



-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz