PKTYPE(1)

💖 PKTYPE(1) 💖

okay bestie, so this is the General Commands Manual page for pktype, and honestly? she's giving utility icon energy. let's get into it ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

pktype — verify and translate a packed font (pk) bitmap file to plain text 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

pktype pk_file[pk]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the pktype program translates a packed font file (pk) — the kind of thing output by, like, gftopk(1) for example — into a file that humans can actually read. ngl that's the whole vibe. 💅

but wait, there's more: it also serves as a pk file-validating program (i.e., if pktype can read it, it's correct 😌) and as an example of a pk-reading program for other software that wants to read pk files. main character of the pk-reading world, fr fr.

the input pk_file on the command line may omit the suffix pk — she's flexible like that. the plain text translation is always written to standard output. periodt.

the output file gives a compact encoding of the packed encoding, using conventions described in the source code. run lengths of black pixels alternate with parenthesized run lengths of white pixels, and brackets are used to indicate when a row should be repeated. iconic little system, no cap 🫶

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• See tex(1) for details of command-line parsing. (iykyk)
• The standard -help and -version options are supported. ✨

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

the program looks for pk_file using the environment variables PKFONTS, TEXPKS, GLYPHFONTS, and TEXFONTS — in that order, bestie, order matters!! if none are set, it uses the system default.

see the Kpathsea manual at https://tug.org/kpathsea for the details of the searching. 🔍

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• dvitype(1)
• gftopk(1)
• gftype(1)
• Donald E. Knuth et al., Metafontware.

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

Tomas Rokicki wrote the program. Donald E. Knuth originally ported it to Unix. Pierre MacKay originally adapted it for compilation with Web2c. a whole legendary lineup honestly 🧚

Public discussion list and bug reports: https://lists.tug.org/tex-k

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k that's the whole page bestie, go validate some pk files, slay 💅🔥

— sign-off time: this lil masterpiece is from Web2C 2026, dated 25 January 2026 🍓⭐ bye!!