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MF(1) General Commands Manual MF(1)

NAME
mf, inimf, mf-nowin - Metafont, a language for font and logo design

SYNOPSIS
mf [options] [commands]

DESCRIPTION
Metafont reads the program in the specified files and outputs font rasters (in gf format) and
font metrics (in tfm format). The Metafont language is described in The Metafontbook.

Like TeX, Metafont is normally used with a large body of precompiled macros, and font genera‐
tion in particular requires the support of several macro files. This version of Metafont
looks at its command line to see what name it was called under. Both inimf and virmf are
symlinks to the mf executable. When called as inimf (or when the -ini option is given) it
can be used to precompile macros into a .base file. When called as virmf it will use the
plain base. When called under any other name, Metafont will use that name as the name of the
base to use. For example, when called as mf the mf base is used, which is identical to the
plain base. Other bases than plain are rarely used.

The commands given on the command line to the Metafont program are passed to it as the first
input line. (But it is often easier to type extended arguments as the first input line,
since UNIX shells tend to gobble up or misinterpret Metafont's favorite symbols, like semi‐
colons, unless you quote them.) As described in The Metafontbook, that first line should be‐
gin with a filename, a \controlsequence, or a &basename.

The normal usage is to say

mf '\mode=<printengine>; [mag=magstep(n);]' input font

to start processing font.mf. The single quotes are the best way of keeping the Unix shell
from misinterpreting the semicolons and from removing the \ character, which is needed here
to keep Metafont from thinking that you want to produce a font called mode. (Or you can just
say mf and give the other stuff on the next line, without quotes.) Other control sequences,
such as batchmode (for silent operation) can also appear. The name font will be the ``job‐
name'', and is used in forming output file names. If Metafont doesn't get a file name in the
first line, the jobname is mfput. The default extension, .mf, can be overridden by specify‐
ing an extension explicitly.

A log of error messages goes into the file jobname.log. The output files are jobname.tfm and
jobname.<number>gf, where <number> depends on the resolution and magnification of the font.
The mode in this example is shown generically as <printengine>, a symbolic term for which the
name of an actual device or, most commonly, the name localfont (see below) must be substi‐
tuted. If the mode is not specified or is not valid for your site, Metafont will default to
proof mode which produces large character images for use in font design and refinement.
Proof mode can be recognized by the suffix .2602gf after the jobname. Examples of proof mode
output can be found in Computer Modern Typefaces (Volume E of Computers and Typesetting).
The system of magsteps is identical to the system used by TeX, with values generally in the
range 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0. A listing of gf numbers for 118-dpi, 240-dpi and
300-dpi fonts is shown below.

MAGSTEP 118 dpi 240 dpi 300 dpi
mag=magstep(0) 118 240 300
mag=magstep(0.5) 129 263 329
mag=magstep(1) 142 288 360
mag=magstep(2) 170 346 432
mag=magstep(3) 204 415 518
mag=magstep(4) 245 498 622
mag=magstep(5) 294 597 746

Magnification can also be specified not as a magstep but as an arbitrary value, such as
1.315, to create special character sizes.

Before font production can begin, it is necessary to set up the appropriate base files. The
minimum set of components for font production for a given print-engine is the plain.mf macro
file and the local mode_def file. The macros in plain.mf can be studied in an appendix to
the Metafontbook; they were developed by Donald E. Knuth, and this file should never be al‐
tered except when it is officially upgraded. Each mode_def specification helps adapt fonts
to a particular print-engine. There is a regular discussion of mode_defs in TUGboat, the
journal of the TeX Users Group. The local ones in use on this computer should be in
modes.mf.

The e response to Metafont's error-recovery mode invokes the system default editor at the er‐
roneous line of the source file. There is an environment variable, MFEDIT, that overrides
the default editor. It should contain a string with "%s" indicating where the filename goes
and "%d" indicating where the decimal linenumber (if any) goes. For example, an MFEDIT
string for the vi editor can be set with the csh command
setenv MFEDIT "vi +%d %s"

A convenient file in the library is null.mf, containing nothing. When mf can't find the file
it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you for another file name; responding `null'
gets you out of the loop if you don't want to input anything.

ONLINE GRAPHICS OUTPUT
Metafont can use most modern displays, so you can see its output without printing. Chapter
23 of The Metafontbook describes what you can do. This implementation of Metafont uses envi‐
ronment variables to determine which display device you want to use. First it looks for a
variable MFTERM, and then for TERM. If it can't find either, you get no online output. Oth‐
erwise, the value of the variable determines the device to use: hp2627, sun (for old Sun‐
View), tek, uniterm (for an Atari ST Tek 4014 emulator), xterm (for either X10 or X11). Some
of these devices may not be supported in all Metafont executables; the choice is made at com‐
pilation time.

On some systems, there are two Metafont binaries, mf and mf-nowin. On those systems the mf
binary supports graphics, while the mf-nowin binary does not. The mf-nowin binary is used by
scripts like mktexpk where graphics support is a nuisance rather than something helpful.

OPTIONS
This version of Metafont understands the following command line options.

-base base
Use base as the name of the base to be used, instead of the name by which Metafont was
called or a %& line.

-cnf-line string
Parse string as a texmf.cnf configuration line. See the Kpathsea manual.

-file-line-error
Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is similar to the way many com‐
pilers format them.

-no-file-line-error
Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.

-file-line-error-style
This is the old name of the -file-line-error option.

-halt-on-error
Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during processing.

-help Print help message and exit.

-ini Be inimf, for dumping bases; this is implicitly true if the program is called as in‐‐
imf.

-interaction mode
Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of batchmode, nonstopmode, scrollmode,
and errorstopmode. The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the correspond‐
ing commands.

-jobname name
Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name of the input file.

-kpathsea-debug bitmask
Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask. See the Kpathsea manual
for details.

-maketex fmt
Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be mf.

-no-maketex fmt
Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be mf.

-output-directory directory
Write output files in directory instead of the current directory. Look up input files
in directory first, the along the normal search path.

-parse-first-line
If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it to look for a dump
name or a -translate-file option.

-no-parse-first-line
Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.

-progname name
Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used and the search paths.

-recorder
Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files opened for input and
output in a file with extension .fls.

-translate-file tcxname
Use the tcxname translation table.

-version
Print version information and exit.

ENVIRONMENT
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications' node) for the details of
how the environment variables are use when searching. The kpsewhich utility can be used to
query the values of the variables.

If the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT is set, Metafont attempts to put its output files in
it, if they cannot be put in the current directory. Again, see tex(1).

MFINPUTS
Search path for input files.

MFEDIT Command template for switching to editor.

MFTERM Determines the online graphics display. If MFTERM is not set, and DISPLAY is set, the
Metafont window support for X is used. (DISPLAY must be set to a valid X server spec‐
ification, as usual.) If neither MFTERM nor DISPLAY is set, TERM is used to guess the
window support to use.

FONT UTILITIES
A number of utility programs are available. The following is a partial list of available
utilities and their purpose. Consult your local Metafont guru for details.

gftopk Takes a gf file and produces a more tightly packed pk font file.

gftodvi Produces proof sheets for fonts.

gftype Displays the contents of a gf file in mnemonics and/or images.

pktype Mnemonically displays the contents of a pk file.

mft Formats a source file as shown in Computer Modern Typefaces.

FILES
mf.pool
Encoded text of Metafont's messages.

*.base Predigested Metafont base files.

$TEXMFMAIN/metafont/base/plain.mf
The standard base.

$TEXMFMAIN/metafont/misc/modes.mf
The file of mode_defs for your site's various printers

NOTES
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for this version
of Metafont can be found in the info manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.

BUGS
On January 4, 1986 the ``final'' bug in Metafont was discovered and removed. If an error
still lurks in the code, Donald E. Knuth promises to pay a finder's fee which doubles every
year to the first person who finds it. Happy hunting.

SUGGESTED READING
Donald E. Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers and Typesetting), Addison-Wesley,
1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
Donald E. Knuth, Metafont: The Program (Volume D of Computers and Typesetting), Addison-Wes‐
ley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13438-1.
Donald E. Knuth, Computer Modern Typefaces (Volume E of Computers and Typesetting), Addison-
Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13446-2.
TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).

COMMENTS
Warning: ``Type design can be hazardous to your other interests. Once you get hooked, you
will develop intense feelings about letterforms; the medium will intrude on the messages that
you read. And you will perpetually be thinking of improvements to the fonts that you see ev‐
erywhere, especially those of your own design.''

SEE ALSO
gftopk(1), gftodvi(1), gftype(1), mft(1), mpost(1), pltotf(1), tftopl(1).

AUTHORS
Metafont was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web system for Pascal
programs. It was originally ported to Unix by Paul Richards at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. This page was mostly written by Pierre MacKay.

Web2C 2022/dev 6 August 2019 MF(1)