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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label useMF</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Getting Metafont to do what you want</h3>
<p>Metafont allows you to create your own fonts, and most TeX users
will never need to use it. Metafont, unlike TeX, requires some
customisation: each output device for which you will be generating
fonts needs a mode associated with it. Modes are defined using the
<code>mode_def</code> convention described on page 94 of <em>The Metafontbook</em>
(see <a href="FAQ-books.html">TeX-related books</a>). You will need
a file, which conventionally called <i>local.mf</i>, containing all the
<code>mode_def</code>s you will be using. If <i>local.mf</i> doesn’t already
exist, Karl Berry’s collection of modes (<i>modes.mf</i>)
is a good starting point
(it can be used as a ‘<i>local.mf</i>’ without modification in a ‘big
enough’ implementation of Metafont). Lists of
settings for various output devices are also published periodically in
<i>TUGboat</i> (see <a href="FAQ-TUGstar.html">TUG</a>). Now create
a <code>plain</code> base
file using <i>inimf</i>, <code>plain.mf</code>, and <code>local.mf</code>:
<pre>
% inimf
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)
</pre>
This will create a base file named <i>plain.base</i> (or something
similar; for example, it will be
<i>PLAIN.BAS</i>
on MSDOS systems) which should be moved to the directory containing
the base files on your system (note that some systems have two or more
such directories, one for each ‘size’ of Metafont used).
<p>Now you need to make sure Metafont loads this new base when it starts up. If
Metafont loads the <code>plain</code> base by default on your system, then you’re
ready to go. Under Unix (using the default <i>web2c</i>
distribution
)
this does indeed happen, but we could for instance define a command
<i>mf</i> which executes <code>virmf &plain</code> loading the <code>plain</code> base
file.
<p>The usual way to create a font with <code>plain</code> Metafont is to start
it with the line
<pre>
\mode=<mode name>; mag=<magnification>; input <font file name>
</pre>
in
response to the ‘**’ prompt or on the Metafont command line. (If
<code><mode name></code> is unknown or omitted, the mode defaults to ‘proof’ and
Metafont will produce an output file called
<i><font file name>.2602gf</i>)
The <code><magnification></code> is a floating point number or
‘magstep’ (magsteps are defined in <em>The Metafontbook</em> and
<em>The TeXbook</em>).
If <code>mag=<magnification></code> is omitted, then the default
is 1 (magstep 0). For example, to generate cmr10 at 12pt for an epson
printer you would type
<pre>
mf \mode=epson; mag=magstep 1; input cmr10
</pre>
Note that under Unix the <code>\</code> and <code>;</code> characters must usually be quoted or
escaped, so this would typically look something like
<pre>
mf '\mode=epson; mag=magstep 1; input cmr10'
</pre>
<p>If you don’t have <i>inimf</i> or need a special mode that isn’t
in the base, you can put its commands in a file (<em>e.g.</em>,
<i>ln03.mf</i>) and invoke it on the fly with the <code>\smode</code> command.
For example, to create <i>cmr10.300gf</i> for an LN03 printer, using
the file
<pre>
% 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;
</pre>
(note the absence of the <code>mode_def</code> and <code>enddef</code> commands), you would
type
<pre>
mf \smode="ln03"; input cmr10
</pre>
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.
<p>Other sources of help are mentioned in
<a href="FAQ-mfptutorials.html">Metafont and MetaPost Tutorials</a>.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>modes.mf</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/modes/modes.mf">fonts/modes/modes.mf</a>
</dl>
<p><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=useMF">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=useMF</a>
</body>
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