1MF(1) General Commands Manual MF(1)
2
6 mf, inimf, mf-nowin - Metafont, a language for font and logo design
7
9 mf [options] [commands]
10
12 Metafont reads the program in the specified files and outputs font
13 rasters (in gf format) and font metrics (in tfm format). The Metafont
14 language is described in The Metafontbook.
15 Like TeX, Metafont is normally used with a large body of precompiled
17 macros, and font generation in particular requires the support of sev‐
18 eral macro files. This version of Metafont looks at its command line
19 to see what name it was called under. Both inimf and virmf are sym‐
20 links to the mf executable. When called as inimf (or when the -ini op‐
21 tion is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a .base file.
22 When called as virmf it will use the plain base. When called under any
23 other name, Metafont will use that name as the name of the base to use.
24 For example, when called as mf the mf base is used, which is identical
25 to the plain base. Other bases than plain are rarely used.
26 The commands given on the command line to the Metafont program are
28 passed to it as the first input line. (But it is often easier to type
29 extended arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to
30 gobble up or misinterpret Metafont's favorite symbols, like semicolons,
31 unless you quote them.) As described in The Metafontbook, that first
32 line should begin with a filename, a \controlsequence, or a &basename.
33 The normal usage is to say
35 mf '\mode=<printengine>; [mag=magstep(n);]' input font
37 to start processing font.mf. The single quotes are the best way of
39 keeping the Unix shell from misinterpreting the semicolons and from re‐
40 moving the \ character, which is needed here to keep Metafont from
41 thinking that you want to produce a font called mode. (Or you can just
42 say mf and give the other stuff on the next line, without quotes.)
43 Other control sequences, such as batchmode (for silent operation) can
44 also appear. The name font will be the ``jobname'', and is used in
45 forming output file names. If Metafont doesn't get a file name in the
46 first line, the jobname is mfput. The default extension, .mf, can be
47 overridden by specifying an extension explicitly.
48 A log of error messages goes into the file jobname.log. The output
50 files are jobname.tfm and jobname.<number>gf, where <number> depends on
51 the resolution and magnification of the font. The mode in this example
52 is shown generically as <printengine>, a symbolic term for which the
53 name of an actual device or, most commonly, the name localfont (see be‐
54 low) must be substituted. If the mode is not specified or is not valid
55 for your site, Metafont will default to proof mode which produces large
56 character images for use in font design and refinement. Proof mode can
57 be recognized by the suffix .2602gf after the jobname. Examples of
58 proof mode output can be found in Computer Modern Typefaces (Volume E
59 of Computers and Typesetting). The system of magsteps is identical to
60 the system used by TeX, with values generally in the range 0.5, 1.0,
61 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0. A listing of gf numbers for 118-dpi, 240-dpi
62 and 300-dpi fonts is shown below.
63 MAGSTEP 118 dpi 240 dpi 300 dpi
65 mag=magstep(0) 118 240 300
66 mag=magstep(0.5) 129 263 329
68 mag=magstep(1) 142 288 360
69 mag=magstep(2) 170 346 432
70 mag=magstep(3) 204 415 518
71 mag=magstep(4) 245 498 622
72 mag=magstep(5) 294 597 746
73 Magnification can also be specified not as a magstep but as an arbi‐
75 trary value, such as 1.315, to create special character sizes.
76 Before font production can begin, it is necessary to set up the appro‐
78 priate base files. The minimum set of components for font production
79 for a given print-engine is the plain.mf macro file and the local
80 mode_def file. The macros in plain.mf can be studied in an appendix to
81 the Metafontbook; they were developed by Donald E. Knuth, and this file
82 should never be altered except when it is officially upgraded. Each
83 mode_def specification helps adapt fonts to a particular print-engine.
84 There is a regular discussion of mode_defs in TUGboat, the journal of
85 the TeX Users Group. The local ones in use on this computer should be
86 in modes.mf.
87 The e response to Metafont's error-recovery mode invokes the system de‐
89 fault editor at the erroneous line of the source file. There is an en‐
90 vironment variable, MFEDIT, that overrides the default editor. It
91 should contain a string with "%s" indicating where the filename goes
92 and "%d" indicating where the decimal linenumber (if any) goes. For
93 example, an MFEDIT string for the vi editor can be set with the csh
94 command
95 setenv MFEDIT "vi +%d %s"
96 A convenient file in the library is null.mf, containing nothing. When
98 mf can't find the file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you
99 for another file name; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if
100 you don't want to input anything.
101
103 Metafont can use most modern displays, so you can see its output with‐
104 out printing. Chapter 23 of The Metafontbook describes what you can
105 do. This implementation of Metafont uses environment variables to de‐
106 termine which display device you want to use. First it looks for a
107 variable MFTERM, and then for TERM. If it can't find either, you get
108 no online output. Otherwise, the value of the variable determines the
109 device to use: hp2627, sun (for old SunView), tek, uniterm (for an
110 Atari ST Tek 4014 emulator), xterm (for either X10 or X11). Some of
111 these devices may not be supported in all Metafont executables; the
112 choice is made at compilation time.
113 On some systems, there are two Metafont binaries, mf and mf-nowin. On
115 those systems the mf binary supports graphics, while the mf-nowin bi‐
116 nary does not. The mf-nowin binary is used by scripts like mktexpk
117 where graphics support is a nuisance rather than something helpful.
118
120 This version of Metafont understands the following command line op‐
121 tions.
122 -base base
124 Use base as the name of the base to be used, instead of the name
125 by which Metafont was called or a %& line.
126 -cnf-line string
128 Parse string as a texmf.cnf configuration line. See the Kpath‐
129 sea manual.
130 -file-line-error
132 Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is simi‐
133 lar to the way many compilers format them.
134 -no-file-line-error
136 Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.
137 -file-line-error-style
139 This is the old name of the -file-line-error option.
140 -halt-on-error
142 Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during pro‐
143 cessing.
144 -help Print help message and exit.
146 -ini Be inimf, for dumping bases; this is implicitly true if the pro‐
148 gram is called as inimf.
149 -interaction mode
151 Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of batchmode,
152 nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of
153 these modes is the same as that of the corresponding commands.
154 -jobname name
156 Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name
157 of the input file.
158 -kpathsea-debug bitmask
160 Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.
161 See the Kpathsea manual for details.
162 -maketex fmt
164 Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be mf.
165 -no-maketex fmt
167 Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be mf.
168 -output-directory directory
170 Write output files in directory instead of the current direc‐
171 tory. Look up input files in directory first, the along the
172 normal search path.
173 -parse-first-line
175 If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it
176 to look for a dump name or a -translate-file option.
177 -no-parse-first-line
179 Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.
180 -progname name
182 Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used
183 and the search paths.
184 -recorder
186 Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files
187 opened for input and output in a file with extension .fls.
188 -translate-file tcxname
190 Use the tcxname translation table.
191 -version
193 Print version information and exit.
194
196 See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
197 node) for the details of how the environment variables are use when
198 searching. The kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of
199 the variables.
200 If the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT is set, Metafont attempts to
202 put its output files in it, if they cannot be put in the current direc‐
203 tory. Again, see tex(1).
204 MFINPUTS
206 Search path for input files.
207 MFEDIT Command template for switching to editor.
209 MFTERM Determines the online graphics display. If MFTERM is not set,
211 and DISPLAY is set, the Metafont window support for X is used.
212 (DISPLAY must be set to a valid X server specification, as
213 usual.) If neither MFTERM nor DISPLAY is set, TERM is used to
214 guess the window support to use.
215
217 A number of utility programs are available. The following is a partial
218 list of available utilities and their purpose. Consult your local
219 Metafont guru for details.
220 gftopk Takes a gf file and produces a more tightly packed pk font
222 file.
223 gftodvi Produces proof sheets for fonts.
225 gftype Displays the contents of a gf file in mnemonics and/or images.
227 pktype Mnemonically displays the contents of a pk file.
229 mft Formats a source file as shown in Computer Modern Typefaces.
231
233 mf.pool
234 Encoded text of Metafont's messages.
235 *.base Predigested Metafont base files.
237 $TEXMFMAIN/metafont/base/plain.mf
239 The standard base.
240 $TEXMFMAIN/metafont/misc/modes.mf
242 The file of mode_defs for your site's various printers
243
245 This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documen‐
246 tation for this version of Metafont can be found in the info manual
247 Web2C: A TeX implementation.
248
250 On January 4, 1986 the ``final'' bug in Metafont was discovered and re‐
251 moved. If an error still lurks in the code, Donald E. Knuth promises
252 to pay a finder's fee which doubles every year to the first person who
253 finds it. Happy hunting.
254
256 Donald E. Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and Typeset‐
257 ting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
258 Donald E. Knuth, Metafont: The Program (Volume D of Computers and Type‐
259 setting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13438-1.
260 Donald E. Knuth, Computer Modern Typefaces (Volume E of Computers and
261 Typesetting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13446-2.
262 TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
263
265 Warning: ``Type design can be hazardous to your other interests. Once
266 you get hooked, you will develop intense feelings about letterforms;
267 the medium will intrude on the messages that you read. And you will
268 perpetually be thinking of improvements to the fonts that you see ev‐
269 erywhere, especially those of your own design.''
270
272 gftopk(1), gftodvi(1), gftype(1), mft(1), mpost(1), pltotf(1),
273 tftopl(1).
274
276 Metafont was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his
277 Web system for Pascal programs. It was originally ported to Unix by
278 Paul Richards at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This
279 page was mostly written by Pierre MacKay.
280Web2C 2023 6 August 2019 MF(1)