Re: tlug: Look, ma, no fonts!

[Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>]

Thanks for the input, Matt.  I was starting to wonder if anybody out
there could help me :-)

> 1. Does the printer usually work? (I presume it does, otherwise you'd
> have mentioned that).

Yes, printing text documents from various applications (Pine, Xemacs,
etc.) is not a problem.
 
> 2. Does printing from Xdvi usually work? Or printing DVIs by other means?

I've never tried it before, so I can't really comment on "usually."
However, I got a dvi format HOW-TO and tried it out.  I could view it in
Xdvi, but when I tried to print it, I got:

xdvi print-out: dviselect: command not found
This is dvips(k) 5.78 Copyright 1998 Radical Eye Software
(www.radicaleye.com)
dvips: ! DVI file can't be opened.
/bin/rm: /tmp/DNS-HOWTO.dvi:1@example.com: No such file or directory
lpr: /tmp/DNS-HOWTO.dvi:1@example.com is an empty file

in the kterm from which I ran Xdvi.

When I used dvips directly, it produced a fairly large amount of output,
to the kterm, of which this is about 1/3:

This is dvips(k) 5.78 Copyright 1998 Radical Eye Software
(www.radicaleye.com)
' TeX output 1997.06.18:2110' -> |lpr
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode ljfour --bdpi 600 --mag
magstep\(4.0\) --dpi 1244 cmss10
mf: can't load library 'libXt.so.6'
mktexpk: Mismatched mode ljfour and resolution 600; ignoring mode.
mktexpk: Running mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=magstep(4.0); nonstopmode; input
cmss10
mf: can't load library 'libXt.so.6'
mktexpk: `mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=magstep(4.0); nonstopmode; input
cmss10' failed.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
dvips: Font cmss10 not found, characters will be left blank.
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode ljfour --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi
600 cmr10
mf: can't load library 'libXt.so.6'
mktexpk: Mismatched mode ljfour and resolution 600; ignoring mode.
mktexpk: Running mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1+0/600; nonstopmode; input
cmr10
mf: can't load library 'libXt.so.6'
mktexpk: `mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1+0/600; nonstopmode; input cmr10'
failed.
dvips: Font cmr10 not found, characters will be left blank.

The problem seems to involve missing fonts (or a bad path?), cmr10,
cmms10.  The output from this was pages with horizontal lines on them,
anywhere from thin up to about the height of a full line (maybe 12
points?).  Some pages had up to 5 or 6 (no pattern to the spacing), some
had only 1, and I think a few were entirely blank.


> 3. What fonts are you using? Are they TeX fonts or Type 1 fonts, or
> something else (if you're not sure, I might recognize the names)?

Got me.  I don't know anything at all about how fonts work on *nix, but
I get the impression that it's a lot uglier than it is on Some Other
Operating Systems.  Where do I look to get this information?

> 4. Do you get any error messages? Maybe if you try printing from the
> command line and post a sample of the output, I or someone else might
> get an idea of what's happening?

As above.> 

> 5. Is ghostscript involved in the printing process in any way
> (e.g. font generation)? 

Ghostscript is on the machine.  I don't know how to tell if it's
involved in font generation or not, though.  GS is set for Postscript
Printer, if that helps at all.  The printer is a network printer
attached to another machine (also running Unix).

My GS version is 5.10, from PHT, and I'm running TurboLinux 3.0-J on
this machine.

> 6. Have you gotten dvips, as per Steve's suggestion, or are you still

I got an RPM from Red Hat: tetex-dvips-0.9-6

TIA,

Jonathan Byrne                                   Engineering Division
Global Online Japan                              http://www.gol.com/
Tel:  +81 03-5334-1700   Fax: +81-03-5334-1701   Direct: +81-03-5334-1756


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Nomikai: 14 January 1999, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
*** it will will be Jan 14 (Thu), as Jan 15 (Fri) is a natl holiday
Next Technical Meeting: Feb 13 (Sat), 12:30    ace: Temple Univ.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
more info: http://tlug.linux.or.jp                     Sponsor: PHT