GFTODVI(1)

📦
version 77830 · 11 versions
, in alpine 3.24, fedora 44, opensuse-leap 16.0

💖 GFTODVI — bestie edition 💖

okay so this is the manual page for gftodvi, section (1) of the manual, and it's genuinely one of the most fun little TeX-adjacent tools out there. we're making proof sheets from generic font files. slay. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

gftodvi — make proof sheets from generic font files

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

gftodvi [-overflow-label-offset=real] [-verbose] gf_file_name

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so first things first, bestie: this manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. the complete documentation for this version of TeX lives in the info file or the manual Web2C: A TeX implementation. iykyk.

the gftodvi program converts a generic font (gf) file — the kind output by, for example, mf(1) — into a device independent (DVI) file, which you can then typeset using the same software that's already been written for TeX. the characters in the gf file show up one per page, with labels, titles, and annotations exactly as specified in Appendix H (Hardcopy Proofs) of The Metafontbook. iconic behavior fr fr.

gftodvi also uses other fonts besides the main gf file, and the way that it does this is lowkey so clever:

  • a gray font is used to typeset the pixels that actually make up the character. (we would not want all the pixels to be simply black, because then labels, key points, and other information would be lost. 😭)
  • a title font is used for the information at the top of the page.
  • a label font is used for the labels on key points of the figure.
  • a slant font is used to typeset diagonal lines, which otherwise have to be simulated using horizontal and vertical rules.

the default gray, title, and label fonts are gray, cmr8, and cmtt10, respectively. and there is no default slant font. none. nada. you gotta bring your own. 💅

to change the default fonts, you can give special commands in your Metafont source file, or you can change the fonts online. an online dialog ensues if you end the gf_file_name with a /. for example:

gftodvi cmr10.300gf/
Special font substitution: grayfont black
OK; any more? grayfontarea /home/art/don/
OK; any more? slantfont /home/fonts/slantimagen6
OK; any more? <RET>

that will use /home/art/don/black as the gray font and /home/fonts/slantimagen6 as the slant font (and btw that name indicates a font for lines with slope 1/6 at the resolution of an Imagen printer). obsessed with this level of specificity. 🫶

the gf_file_name on the command line must be complete. because the resolution is part of the extension, it would not make sense to append a default extension like is done with TeX or DVI-reading software. the output file name uses the same root as the gf file, with the .dvi extension added. for example, the input file cmr10.2602gf would become cmr10.dvi. periodt. ⭐

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -overflow-label-offset=real — the argument specifies the distance from the right edge of the character bounding box at which the overflow equations (if any) are typeset. the value is given in TeX points. the default is a little over two inches. yes, two inches. it's giving generous margins. 🌈
  • -verbose — without this option, gftodvi operates silently. with it, a banner and progress report are printed on stdout. so if you're nosy (same), this one's for you. 🙈

🌱 ENVIRONMENT 🌱

gftodvi looks for gf_file_name using the environment variable GFFONTS. if that is not set, it uses the variable TEXFONTS. if that is not set, it uses the system default.

see tex(1) for the details of the searching. 🔍

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • {gray.tfm,...} — the default fonts.
  • {gray.mf,...} — the Metafont sources.

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

  • tex(1), mf(1).
  • Donald E. Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and Typesetting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
  • Donald E. Knuth et al., Metafontware.

💅 AUTHORS 💅

Donald E. Knuth wrote and still maintains the program. it was published as part of the Metafontware technical report. Paul Richards originally ported it to Unix. bug reports should go to tex-k@tug.org (https://lists.tug.org/tex-k). main character energy from everyone involved honestly. 👑

okay bestie that's the whole page — and just so you know where this all came from: this version is Web2C 2025, dated 4 March 2021, and it's page GFTODVI(1) of the General Commands Manual. go make some gorgeous proof sheets, you've got this 🦋✨💖

📦 where this page comes from