[texhax] TeX -> PostScript, but in a resolution-independent manner

[zsdc]

Philip TAYLOR [PC87S-O/XP] wrote:

>This part is really weird : since the whole purpose of outline fonts
>is to be usable at /any/ size (unlike bitmaps, which are tied to
>a particular size/resolution), I simply cannot understand how using 
>"a non-standard font size" could cause DVIPS to use a bitmap font
>rather than the outline.  Can anyone explain this, please ?
>
I'm not really sure, but probably when I used cmr4 than dvips looked at 
the cmr4.pfb and having not found it, it used the standard TeX fonts, 
i.e. bitmaps. I have really no idea how the -Pcmz switch works, I only 
know what the effects should be, but this is how I suppose it works.

When istead of cmr4 I used cmr5 at 4truept, as Tomas suggested, it was 
ok. I suppose that way dvips looked for cmr5.pfb with success and 
rescaled it, but asked for cmr4 it didn't know it has to look for the 
closest to cmr4 match of cmr*.pfb.

Of course the whole point of scalable fonts is to scale them, but for 
example Computer Modern has 8 different Type 1 fonts only for the roman 
style, because smaller types should be wider, lighter, with more space 
between characters, etc. So I think I can understand why dvips can't 
find fonts which non-standard sizes, but I think it could be better if, 
instead of using bitmap fonts, it rescaled the closest size of available 
Type 1 fonts.

-zsdc.