TeXhax Digest Wednesday, May 27, 1987 Volume 87 : Issue 41 [SCORE.STANFORD.EDU]TEXHAX41.87 Editor: Malcolm Brown Today's Topics: mf source for am fonts... Metafont previewing Re: thoughts on typefaces $$math mode$$ question Re: $$math mode$$ question Bug in CMR fonts, the lowres digit 8 Hebrew Fonts hyphenation exception debates HP LaserJet+ Device Driver Wanted for VAX/VMS Differences in file format between TeX 1.0 and TeX 2.0 for VM/CMS Help with grouping figures and tables LaTeX Notes (TeXhax Digest V87 #38) Epson dvi driver / RT previever wanted Script font request Are there device drivers which use pk format? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 19-May-87 12:27:33-PDT,993;000000000000 Date: Tue, 19 May 87 11:06:42 PDT From: To: TEXHAX@score.stanford.edu Subject: mf source for am fonts... From: "Don Hosek, Editor, TeXMaG" Comment: The above address is temporary and will not be valid after Aug. 28. Mail may be sent to DHOSEK@HMCVAX all year, however. Does anybody have mf source for the almost modern fonts? I need to build some font files for the am series, and our only copies of the fonts are in Xerox format on our 8700. Thanks, -Don Hosek ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 13:39:46 PDT From: pjs%grouch.span@Jpl-VLSI.ARPA Subject: Metafont previewing To: texhax@score.stanford.edu X-ST-Vmsmail-To: JPLLSI::"texhax@score.stanford.edu" I'm about to embark on learning Metafont and expect to do some heavy crunching. Does anyone know of a preview program that lets you see the results of your work on a graphics terminal? Or is that a stupid question for reasons I don't know about? Peter Scott (pjs@grouch.span.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 13:12:55 CDT From: William LeFebvre Subject: Re: thoughts on typefaces To: Karl Berry Karl Berry writes: > It is my opinion that outlines don't hold enough information to give > truly superior results, no matter how good your scan conversion is. One > major problem is that outlines are analog---they have to be converted > to a specific pixel grid. This gives them device independence... but > the outlines won't adapt very well to any *particular* grid. Chapter 24 of The METAFONTBook ("Discreteness and Discretion") does an excellent job of addressing this problem in the context of METAFONT. METAFONT is versatile and precise enough to make it possible to write a description for a character such that will be rendered well even at medium-low resolutions. Natually, no font below 12 point is going to do well at 92 dpi (i.e.: a Sun screen), but fonts down to 5 point look good at 300. Care must be taken, however, when writing the mathematical description to make sure that critical parts of the letter (horizontal and vertical strokes and tangents) fall exactly on pixel boundaries. This is a good example of an "analog" description working well when converted to a digital medium. > Incidentally, to those people who think Computer Modern is badly > designed: you don't know what you're talking about. I have two more things to say: (1) I don't find it all that unappealing---it is ceratinly better than what Imagen passes off for "cmr"; (2) I don't see anyone producing a METAFONT design for something better. "Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." (wasn't that Mark Twain?) William LeFebvre Department of Computer Science Rice University ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 May 87 17:16:08 pdt From: darrell%beowulf@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Darrell Long) To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: $$math mode$$ question I'm producing a paper for a conference and the narrow columns that go along with that. I am having problems fitting some of my formulae within the column width. What I would like would be a macro \smaller that would shrink the point size and allow it to fit (shades of troff!) I'm using plain. I cannot break up the expression resonably (partial fraction decomposition is possible, but I'd like to avoid it). I'm using \magnification to set the paper in 12pt. Thanks, DL ------------------------------ Mail-From: BEETON created at 19-May-87 21:42:58 Date: Tue 19 May 87 21:42:58-PDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Re: $$math mode$$ question To: darrell%beowulf@SDCSVAX.UCSD.EDU take a look at the texbook, appendix e, page 415. the definition for \eightpoint should include everything you need to make a \smaller . then \let\smaller=\eightpoint and {\smaller $$ ... display to be smallified ... $$ }% end \smaller i'm pretty sure that \smaller has to be invoked {\sl before} going into display math mode, hence the grouping to segregate it from the surrounding text. note that this will suppress the niceties of spacing around displays, but it's still better than overfull boxes. -- barbara beeton ------------------------------ Date: Wed 20 May 87 00:50:39-EDT From: Barbara Beeton Subject: Bug in CMR fonts, the lowres digit 8 To: texhax@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU In 87 TeXhax, issue 18, Chuck Lane pointed out a possible MF/CMR bug: > There appears to be a problem with some of the '8's produced by Metafont > in certain sizes....there is a gap in the upper right loop. This bug has been confirmed by Don Knuth, and the following correction posted to the file CM85.BUG: @x in ROMAND [this fixes the `disappearing hairline' in some lowres 8's] lower_side=hround(.5[hair,stem]+stem_corr); @y lower_side=hround(.5[hair,stem]+stem_corr); if lower_side>1.2upper_side: upper_side:=lower_side; fi @z % Note: the SAME change should also be made in files ITALD and OLDDIG It appears that potentially many fonts should be regenerated: numerals occur in cmr, cmti, cmmi, cmbx, cmtt, cmss*, etc. This problem seems to be significant mainly at small sizes (8pt and smaller). At Score.Stanford the problem fonts will be regenerated as necessary; however, other TeX font distributors may wish to attack this head-on, and get it over with. If anyone undertakes an exhaustive check, and can say which fonts are changed by the new code, please let me know, so that the information can be published in TUGboat. -- Barbara Beeton (bnb@xx.lcs.mit.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 May 87 07:55:29 IST From: "Jacques J. Goldberg" Subject: Hebrew Fonts To: TEXHAX@score.stanford.edu A set of Hebrew fonts suitable for Office work has recently been developped here by a team of students working under my direction. The set is completely parametrized so that magnification and aspect can easily be varied. The team is now working on book-like fonts (modern Hebrew typeface). Those sets are standard MetaFont input and were processed on a VAX under VMS, and tested with a DEC-LN03 printer. At this time no real Hebrew document was produced yet. Because sources for a TeX running on a PC are not available, I cannot apply the elegant method presented by Knuth and McKay in the last issue of TuGBoat. I have not solved yet the mirroring of Hebrew text (which I am trying to perform thru an additional DVI-to-DVI step, sacrificing line breaking problems to modularity and transportability). An other problem is that I have not obtained any funding yet to cover the (very low) salary which I owe to those students who worked for me. I may thus need to ask for a small contribution to distribute those fonts, which will go thru the University accounting; because of that charge it would be an abuse to use Bitnet to distribute the fonts,etc,etc... It is my hope that I will convince people here that it will cost more money to organize commercial-like distribution, than to simply pay those students hours, and distribute the Technion Hebrew fonts for free. If and when the fonts become freely available I will post a notice in Texhax. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 May 87 02:20:58 PDT From: Jonathan_Thornburg%UBC.MAILNET@MIT-Multics.ARPA To: texhax@score.stanford.edu Subject: hyphenation exception Here's two more... \hyphenation{mol-e-cule mol-e-cules} ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 May 87 13:12:17 n To: TEXHAX@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU From: Subject: debates a brief note to a recent contributor who seemed to be concerned by the prospect of a *real, live debate* on TeXHaX - why worry ?? These listings are a marvelous use of networks, but they don't only have to be a means of passing on that latest macro or pleas for help. The world glistens as a result of our non-uniformity of opinion, and I think that TeXHaX (and the others) are much improved for a decent bit of opinionated cause-selling. Where else can you find such expert criticism of an idea ? So lets step up the debates, because in doing so we make more use of the listings, we have a little more fun, and as often as not, we learn something along the way..... from the man who bought you "TeX v. Mac", thankyou and goodnight ...