[Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

goodgrue · 2009-09-24 21:22:06

I upgraded the the most recent version of texlive recently. Now when I compile a document using pdflatex, the resulting document has pixelated fonts. During compilation I see messages like this:

mktexpk: /home/drew/.texlive/texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/cm/cmbx9.600pk: successfully generated.
 </home/drew/.texlive/texmf-v
ar/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/cm/cmbx9.600pk> </usr/share/texmf-dist/fonts/pk/ljfou
r/public/cm/dpi600/cmr12.pk> </usr/share/texmf-dist/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/cm/d
pi600/cmr17.pk>

I have followed all suggestions I could find on the texlive faq and in the forum, including:
* Deleting ~/.texlive
* updmap (as user)
* updmap-sys (as root)
* fmtutil (as user)
* fmtutil-sys (as root)
Most of these I have tried several times, in various orders.

The same document compiled with nice fonts prior to the upgrade. Any idea what might be causing this, or suggestions how to debug the issue?

Thanks!

Last edited by goodgrue (2009-09-26 02:56:13)

Stefan Husmann · 2009-09-24 21:33:51

Sometimes deleting /usr/share/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex.map also helps. and after that and the deletion of the .texlive stuff try updmap-sys --syncwithtrees.

Last edited by Stefan Husmann (2009-09-24 21:35:29)

goodgrue · 2009-09-24 21:55:08

That didn't seem to solve it. The output of updmap-sys --syncwithtrees is

updmap: This is updmap, version $Id: updmap 14402 2009-07-23 17:09:15Z karl $
updmap: using transcript file `/usr/share/texmf-var/web2c/updmap.log'
updmap: initial config file is `/usr/share/texmf-config/web2c/updmap.cfg'
updmap: configuration (updmap.cfg) unchanged. Map files will not be recreated.

Seems like it didn't do anything. I then ran udpmap-sys to regenerate the map file, and tried compiling -- the *.pk fonts were created again.

bernarcher · 2009-09-24 22:14:48

You may probably need to rebuild the formats:

sudo fmtutil-sys --all
fmtutil --all

And also update the per-user map:

updmap --syncwithtree

goodgrue · 2009-09-24 22:25:00

Thanks, but still no luck. The fmtutil commands produce tons of output...would any of that be useful?

goodgrue · 2009-09-25 05:55:13

Hm. If I add \usepackage{times} to my preamble, it uses nice-looking pfb fonts. So, maybe I just don't have the fonts it was trying to use before? How would I find out what files pdftex looks for when it compiles, and how it decides whether to use pk fonts?

bernarcher · 2009-09-25 06:37:51

There is a chapter about "Setting up Fonts" in the pdfTeX User Manual (if not installed you may get it from http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/. I didn't read it for some time now, but there may be some useful hints.

Stefan Husmann · 2009-09-25 07:23:48

goodgrue wrote:

Hm. If I add \usepackage{times} to my preamble, it uses nice-looking pfb fonts. So, maybe I just don't have the fonts it was trying to use before? How would I find out what files pdftex looks for when it compiles, and how it decides whether to use pk fonts?

There are also .pfb versions of the Computer Modern fonts. These are coming with each and every TeX installation.

What fontencoding do you use? Other than OT1? If so, try \usepackage{lmodern} or \usepackage{txfonts} - the letter, if you want to use times like fonts.

\usepackage{times} is deprecated. Read l2tabu (texdoc l2tabu) about further details (but this is not related to your problem).

bender02 · 2009-09-25 09:22:27

You can try "manually telling tex to use postscript cm fonts" by doing the following: run 'updmap --enable MixedMap=cm.map' and 'updmap --enable MixedMap=cmextra.map' (as user).

EDIT: as per rebuilding the formats, it's in this case unnecessary. Formats are fine (since your tex documents actually get compiled), and they have no saying in what type of fonts get used.

Last edited by bender02 (2009-09-25 09:24:56)

goodgrue · 2009-09-25 16:47:47

bernarcher wrote:

There is a chapter about "Setting up Fonts" in the pdfTeX User Manual (if not installed you may get it from http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/. I didn't read it for some time now, but there may be some useful hints.

Thanks, I'll take a look at that.

Stefan Husmann wrote:

What fontencoding do you use? Other than OT1?

I am sadly ignorant about font encodings, and fonts in general. I don't know what OT1 is, despite the fact that I am apparently using it. Perhaps after a bit of research I'll be able to answer this one. I do appreciate your suggestions, and the tip about \usepackage{times}...I'll read that texdoc when I get a chance.

bender02 wrote:

You can try "manually telling tex to use postscript cm fonts" by doing the following: run 'updmap --enable MixedMap=cm.map' and 'updmap --enable MixedMap=cmextra.map' (as user).

Thanks, I will look into this, too. Again, I don't understand what exactly this does, or what these "cm" fonts are, but I will look into when I have a chance.

I'll report back this evening (probably won't have a chance to follow up on these suggestions until then). Thank you all very much!

bender02 · 2009-09-25 17:44:30

goodgrue wrote:

bender02 wrote:
You can try "manually telling tex to use postscript cm fonts" by doing the following: run 'updmap --enable MixedMap=cm.map' and 'updmap --enable MixedMap=cmextra.map' (as user).
Thanks, I will look into this, too. Again, I don't understand what exactly this does, or what these "cm" fonts are, but I will look into when I have a chance.

OK, some explanations:
- "cm" fonts (full name Computer Modern fonts) are the default fonts used in tex, I was referring to them because in your first post, you showed examples of fonts that are being included as bitmap ones, namely cmr12, cmbx9, etc.. all these are members of the computer modern family
- for each font, tex uses "an algorithm" to determine whether it should use bitmap version (*.pk) or type1 (or postscript, *.pfb) version [this explains why \usepackage{times} helps, because then tex tries to use a completely different set of fonts than the one you showed in the first example]
- about that "algorithm":
- type1 fonts are preferred when available (which implies that although type1 versions of cm fonts are installed, tex doesn't "know" about them)
- there is a bunch of "mapfiles" (*.map) that tell tex which tex font names (e.g. cmr10) correspond to which type1 or bitmap fonts (e.g. cmr10.pfb)
- there is a config file 'updmap.cfg' which tells tex which of the mapfiles present it should use, and the utility 'updmap' reads this file, reads all the mapfiles it refers to, and compiles together a big list, which is then used by tex
- the official way to modify updmap.cfg is by either running 'updmap --edit', or add individual mapfiles to it by 'updmap --enable MixedMap=<mapfile>" - which is what I suggested. See 'updmap --help' for more.

goodgrue · 2009-09-26 02:55:43

Thanks bender, that makes sense . I enabled those map files, and it didn't seem to fix the problem.

Then I found this "bug" report: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/15700?ca … =2&status= . Someone else seems to have had the same issue, and they solved it by reinstalling. So I gave it a try, and voila! Nice fonts again!

Here's another weird thing: earlier, I tried running "pacman -S texlive-core" and choosing yes to reinstall...that didn't fix things. This time, I ran "pacman -Rd texlive core" to uninstall it, and then reinstalled. Does it make any sense for that to make a difference? Maybe the reinstallation combined with one of these other things I tried fixed it?

I'm not completely satisfied with the solution, but I'm very happy it's working properly again and I learned a few things along the way. Bizarrely, I had this issue on both of my Arch machines...I'll pay extra close attention when I try to fix the second one to see if I can hone in on the solution.

Thanks again to everyone for all your help!

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-24 21:22:06

[Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#2 2009-09-24 21:33:51

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#3 2009-09-24 21:55:08

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#4 2009-09-24 22:14:48

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#5 2009-09-24 22:25:00

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#6 2009-09-25 05:55:13

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#7 2009-09-25 06:37:51

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#8 2009-09-25 07:23:48

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#9 2009-09-25 09:22:27

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#10 2009-09-25 16:47:47

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#11 2009-09-25 17:44:30

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

#12 2009-09-26 02:55:43

Re: [Solved] pdflatex uses ugly fonts (*.pk) after texlive upgrade

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