🚀 go-pugleaf

Getting MF to do what is desired counts as one of the "frequently asked
questions". Here is the infrequently given answer (all you info compilers,
take note):

MF has one important difference from TeX: TeX needs no customization, MF
does. It is difficult, but not impossible to use MF without a working MF
and a customized plain.bas file.

The first thing to do is create a file containing all the mode_def's 
that you'll need. A good basis for this is the file waits.mf which should
be included with your MF distribution. If you can't find a mode_def for
your output device anywhere, listings of settings are published periodically
in TUGboat.

We will, at this point, assume that you have a file called local.mf which
has all the mode_def's that you need in it. The first step will be to
regenerate plain.mf with the following command:

inimf plain input local dump

(if your MF installation does not except command line arguments, type
everything beginning with "plain" at the ** prompt). You should now
have a file plain.bas. This should be moved to the directory containing
the base files on your system. If you are on a multi-user system and 
your system manager hasn't already done this, complain loudly until
it is done.

Now you are ready to use MF. The general syntax of MF is

mf \mode=<mode_name>; mag=<magnification>; input <filename>

where <mode_name> is the name of the mode_def that is relevant,
<magnification> is either a floating point number with 1 indicating
no magnification, 1.2 being 1.2 times magnification (TeX's 
\magnification 1200), etc. or magstep n which generates a font at
the magstep specified (if you are unfamiliar with magsteps, see
the appropriate pasages of the TeXbook and/or MFbook), and <filename>
being the name of the file to generate. Thus, to generate cmr10 at 12pt
for an epson printer you would type

mf \mode=epson; mag=1.2; input cmr10

-----

What if you don't have inimf? First, if you paid for your copy of MF
complain to whoever got your money. They should be shipping that as 
well. Once that is accomplished, you should create a file with the
information in it for the mode_def. Note that the mode_def command
and enddef are _not_ to be included. As an example, here is a 
file ln03.mf which contains a mode_def for the LN03 printer with a
Ricoh LP engine:

% This is ln03.mf as of 2/27/90
% mode_def courtesy of John Sauter
proofing:=0;
fontmaking:=1;
tracingtitles:=0;
pixels_per_inch:=300;
blacker:=0.65;
fillin:=-0.1;
o_correction:=.5;

to use this file, one would, rather than type \mode=<mode_name> on
the MF command, use \smode="ln03"; e.g.,

mf \smode="ln03"; input cmr17

to generate ln03.300gf for an LN03 printer.

-dh
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