[pdftex] Pale print with Adobe Reader

[George N. White III]

On 3/19/07, Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rodolfo Medina writes:
>
> >> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159-1.10b (Web2C 7.4.5)
>
>
>
> "Martin Schröder" writes:
>
> > Update.
>
>
> I installed pdftex-1.40.3, but:
>
> $ pdftex \\relax
> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.141592-1.40.3 (Web2C 7.5.6)
> ---! /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex.fmt was written by pdfetex
> (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)
>
> . I ran the command:
>
>  $ fmtutil --all
>
> , and also:
>
>  $ fmtutil --refresh
>
> , but the problem remained. I have tetex-bin_3.0-29_i386.deb.
> Any hint?

As Martin says, install TeX Live 2007.   This will help ensure that
you are not encountering bugs that were fixed long ago.  The default
fonts (lmodern) will still be very light, so you will
still need to read the documents on available fonts and try some
alternatives.  If you don't need maths, a good place to start would be
Charis SIL <http://scripts.sil.org/CharisSIL_download>, which is based
on Bitstream Charter, a font designed for desktop printing and to
remain legible after photocopying.  If you need maths, consider the
commercial Lucida fonts.  Note that these were unavailable for a
period (beware outdated web pages!), but can now be purchased from
TUG.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia