mode_def
convention described on page 94 of The Metafontbook
(see TeX-related books). You will need
a file, conventionally called local.mf, containing all the
mode_def
s you will be using. In the unlikely event that
local.mf doesn’t already exist, Karl Berry’s collection of
modes (modes.mf) is a good starting point
(it can be used as a ‘local.mf’ without modification in a
typical modern implementation of Metafont). Lists of
settings for various output devices are also published periodically in
TUGboat (see TUG). Now create
a plain
base file using mf (in “initialisation”
mode), plain.mf
, and local.mf
:
% mf -ini This is METAFONT... **plain # you type plain (output) *input local # you type this (output) *dump # you type this Beginning to dump on file plain... (output)
This will create a base file named plain.base (or something similar; for example, it will be PLAIN.BAS on MSDOS systems). Move the file to the directory containing the base files on your system.
Now you need to make sure Metafont loads this new base when it starts up. If Metafont loads theplain
base by default on your system, then you’re
ready to go. Under Unix (using the default TeX Live (and earlier)
distributions this does indeed happen, but we could for instance
define a command plainmf
which executes ‘mf -base=plain
’ (or, in more traditional
style ‘mf &plain
’) which loads the plain
base
file.
The usual way to create a font with Metafont (with an appropriate base
file loaded) is to start Metafont’s input with the
line
\mode=<mode name>; mag=<magnification>; input <font file name>in response to the ‘
**
’ prompt or on the Metafont command line. (If
<mode name>
is unknown or omitted, the mode defaults to
‘proof’ mode and Metafont will produce an output file called
<font file name>.2602gf)
The <magnification>
is a floating point number or
‘magstep’ (magsteps are defined in The Metafontbook and
The TeXbook).
If mag=<magnification>
is omitted, then the default
is 1 (magstep 0). For example, to generate cmr10 at 12pt for an Epson
printer you might type
mf \mode=epson; mag=magstep 1; input cmr10
Note that under Unix the \
and ;
characters must usually be quoted or escaped, so this would typically
look something like
mf '\mode=epson; mag=magstep 1; input cmr10'
If you need a special mode that isn’t in the base, you can put its
commands in a file (e.g., ln03.mf) and invoke it on the
fly with the \
smode
command. For example, to create
cmr10.300gf for an LN03 printer, using the file
% This is ln03.mf as of 1990/02/27 % mode_def courtesy of John Sauter proofing:=0; fontmaking:=1; tracingtitles:=0; pixels_per_inch:=300; blacker:=0.65; fillin:=-0.1; o_correction:=.5;
(note the absence of the mode_def
and enddef
commands), you would type
mf \smode="ln03"; input cmr10
This technique isn’t one you should regularly use, but it may prove useful if you acquire a new printer and want to experiment with parameters, or for some other reason are regularly editing the parameters you’re using. Once you’ve settled on an appropriate set of parameters, you should use them to rebuild the base file that you use.
Other sources of help are discussed in our list of Metafont and MetaPost Tutorials.This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=useMF