Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!strath-cs!nott-cs!clan!cczdao From: cczdao@clan.clan.nott.ac.uk (David Osborne) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: TeX,InitTeX,TFM files Summary: you need METAFONT Keywords: TeX,InitTeX,TFM files Message-ID: <8001@robin.cs.nott.ac.uk> Date: 27 Sep 89 10:52:57 GMT References: <251D440F.1E2C@marob.masa.com> <2538@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> Sender: mmdf@cs.nott.ac.uk Reply-To: cczdao@clan.UUCP (David Osborne) Organization: Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham, UK Lines: 57 In article <2538@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> oplinger@crd.ge.com (B. S. Oplinger) writes: > [...] >this is exactly my problem (on an Atari): >\bigtenrm=cmr10 scaled\magstep2 > >and the error: > >Font \bigtenrm=cmr10 scaled 1440 not loadable: Metric (TFM) file >not found. > [...] >What I would like is: the missing TFM (.tfm?) files I need. > [...] >I seem to guess I requires using initex and plain.tex, >but I'm lost as what to do. Brian says he only has the TeXbook to work from. if he were to have the METAFONTbook (also by Don Knuth, also publ. Addison-Wesley), all would be revealed. when TeX formats a document, it needs to know the dimensions of the characters it sets. these dimensions for each character in a font are held in a TFM (TeX Font Metric) file and you need one such TFM file for each font. TeX doesn't need the font files at all, since all it needs are the TFM's for each font you use in your document. this means you can format a document on a machine without any font files, then move the DVI file to another system with font files for printing, since they are read by the DVI driver programs. it also means that TeX can't set characters from a font for which it doesn't have the TFM file, since it doesn't know the sizes of the characters. however, the TFM file is generated, not by TeX, but by the companion program, METAFONT, which is used to build the font files. METAFONT reads a set of .mf files describing the characters in a font and writes a GF (Generic Font) file and a TFM file for the font (analogous to TeX reading a .tex file and writing a .dvi file). the GF contains the bitmaps of the characters and is usually translated into a PK ("packed") font file by a utility program called GFtoPK. if you have a set of PK files, you should have been supplied with the matching set of TFM's. if not, you'll need to get them from some other system, or run METAFONT to generate them. for the latter, you'll need the set of .mf files which describe the Computer Modern family of fonts which are usually used with TeX. there is a METAFONT for the Atari which is in the public domain. i think a copy will be held in the Atari archive on terminator.cc.umich.edu [35.1.33.8] for anonymous ftp, or ask in one of the Atari newsgroups. copies might also be available in various TeX archives worldwide, like the Aston archive here in the UK. (you might find a set of TFM files in the archives, which would save having to run METAFONT yourself). dave (Aston TeX archive maintainers group) -- David Osborne | JANET: d.osborne@uk.ac.nott.clan Cripps Computing Centre | BITNET: d.osborne%uk.ac.nott.clan@ukacrl.bitnet University of Nottingham |Internet: d.osborne%uk.ac.nott.clan@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK | (Phone: +44 602 484848 x2064) David Osborne