[tex-k] mktexpk broken, pdftex PK flaw

[Hartmut Henkel]

On Sat, 12 Nov 2005, Thomas Esser wrote:

> Well, that's the disadvantage of dropping pdftex's config file. In
> that file, it was perfectly possible to change the pk resolution and
> it was less likely that the setting there was not used, e.g. by
> people/programs who have their own idea of format generation.

Yes. But apart from this tiny problem it cleaned things up considerably.
Now, why giving the central DPI info to the backends in _separate_
config files at all? I just added in texmf.cnf:

MYDPI = 390

and got

$ kpsewhich -var-value MYDPI
390

So there is a means to query _one_ single central data set, accessible
by shell scripts, and similarly by all programs (dvips, dvipdfmx,
pdfetex...) directly by calling the kpse library. It doesn't even slow
down the program start, as texmf.cnf is read in anyway by all programs,
i guess. It's also easier to find for people (i really searched for
mktex.cnf and still can't remember the path :-) Couldn't one then drop
mktex.cnf by adding above kpsewhich call for DPI and MODE into
mktex.opt? Then also cleaning up the \pdfpkresolution thing of pdftex
would be much easier.

What do you think how feasible this is?

Regards, Hartmut


BTW, it seems that dvipdfm/x doesn't yet get its PK resolution "-r", so
it defaults to 600 dpi.