[tex-live] PK fonts characters left blank by "dvips -P pdf" on windows

[Cezary Śliwa]

Robin Fairbairns wrote:
> sliwa at cft.edu.pl wrote:
>
>    
>> It seems that "dvips -P pdf" fails to properly generate PK fonts on
>> Windows, leaving characters blank (tested on TeX Live 2010 and also 2009).
>> No such problem on Linux. The reason is probably that mktexpk ignores
>> --dpi and uses just the MF mode, resulting in a font generated at 600dpi
>> instead of 8000dpi. I see that mktexpk is an EXE file on Windows...
>>      
> -Ppdf really ought not to be necessary nowadays, anyway.  (i suspect the
> faq doesn't agree: i'll review that tonight -- i've a new version of the
> faq near to release.)
>
>    

OK, but then what is the purpose of config.pdf included in the 
distribution? Are the blank characters intentional?

> it has never (ime) worked for documents that required bitmap fonts --
> since there has never been a metafont mode for a 8000dpi printer.
>
>    

dpdfezzz is used on Linux.

> so what you observe is nothing directly to do with tl -- i first noticed
> it with an early tetex, i think.
>
>    

Right, the sames happens when using TeX installed with my Linux distro 
(CentOS 5.5). But the Windows version of mktexpk from TeX Live just 
silently ignores --dpi, which is not OK, I think.

> if your system is daft enough not to use outline fonts by default for
> computer modern, etc., there are other ways to solve the problem.
>    

The font is bbm (I doubt there is a PostScript ouline version).

Cezary Sliwa

> robin
>