[OS X TeX] cmr8 not in mapping file

Fri Jan 1 22:21:53 EST 2010

All,

On my Macbook, setting the GS_LIB environment variable to point to the cm fonts is the cure. However, the symlink option is interesting because it seems more permanent and perhaps something that the Texlive people can address ( I don't know this --- no expert, only guessing). Even without mp-tools, which has been part of tex distributions for a very long time, it is easy to see the problem. Save this file as junk2.mp.

prologues:=2;

beginfig(0);

numeric u; 10u = 3in;
drawdblarrow (-5u,0)--(5u,0);
label.rt(btex $x$ etex, (5u,0));
drawdblarrow (0,-5u)--(0,5u);
label.top(btex $y$ etex, (0,5u));

pair A, B;
A:=origin;
B:=(5u,5u);

drawarrow A--B withcolor blue;
label(btex $\phi$ etex,(1u,0.5u));

endfig;

end.

Now, make sure you don't have the GS_Lib environment variable pointing toward the cm fonts and run:

mpost junk2.mp
gs -dEPScrop -dEPSPageFit junk2.0

on your mac using the current Mactex installation. The result on my system in shown in the attached junk2_fig1.pdf. Now, set the following in ~/.bash_profile:

export GS_LIB=/usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm

Save and open a new shell. Then try again:

gs -dEPScrop -dEPSPageFit junk2.0

The result on my system in shown in the attached junk2_fig2.pdf.

As you can see in the first figure, Ghostscript can't find the cm fonts. This has long been a problem with tex distributions ever since Metapost first started becoming popular. Now, I'm not sure (again no expert here), but doesn't ps2pdf use ghostscript somehow? And that would explain why we were not getting the correct fonts with our compiling routine:

latex --shell-escape file.tex
dvips -o file-pics.ps file.dvi
ps2pdf file-pics.ps
pdflatex file.tex

Granted, this is certainly a strange way to compile a file with all the various options that are nowadays available, but our automated system for generating online tests for students (http://msenux.redwoods.edu/cgi-bin/online/f09/OTlogin.cgi) has to generate tests on the fly for our students. With the tests generating Metpost on the fly as well as PSTricks, we had to adopt this technique.

So, I for one,  would like to see the organizers of Texlive address this problem.

Sorry if I am missing some obvious solution.

David

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On Jan 1, 2010, at 6:09 PM, Chris Skeels wrote:

> My bad.  I clearly misunderstood one of Pete's more recent posts that seemed
> to suggest that the placement of a simple sym-link as part of the
> installation process (so that Ghostscript could find the computer modern
> fonts), something MacTeX does for various other purposes, would have made
> the problem go away.  Anyway, the original poster seems happy and so the
> problem is solved, until next time.
> 
> Cheers, Chris.
> 
> 
> On 2/1/10 12:56 PM, "Herbert Schulz" <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Jan 1, 2010, at 6:31 PM, Chris Skeels wrote:
>> 
>>> But Ghostscriptis part of MacTeX and the original post in this thread
>>> started with the line:
>>> 
>>>> Had to reinstall Mactex.
>>> 
>>> So maybe there is scope for something to be done in the longer run to avoid
>>> a problem such as this arising again.
>>> 
>>> Cheers, Chris
>>> 
>>> On 2/1/10 8:28 AM, "Herbert Schulz" <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Jan 1, 2010, at 3:15 PM, David Arnold wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Peter,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'm curious why the people who craft texlive don't handle this situation in
>>>>> the distribution. As far as I can remember, this has been a longstanding
>>>>> problem that certainly has a history at our school, where we would have to
>>>>> set up GSView to find the fonts needed to display a metapost file (maybe
>>>>> Untitled.1) with the correct fonts. Maybe this problem is ignored because
>>>>> mptopdf seems to take care of all of this without problem.
>>>>> 
>>>>> D.
>>>> 
>>>> Howdy,
>>>> 
>>>> Probably because Ghostscript has nothing to do with TeX Live.
>>>> 
>>>> Good Luck,
>>>> 
>>>> Herb Schulz
>>>> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
>>>> 
>> 
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> My point still stands since TeX Live was mentioned when Ghostscript was meant.
>> As Karl has shown it is in fact something that has to do with metapost and its
>> ConTeXt ``roots'' and is easily solved by eliminating an input. So, in some
>> way it has to do with TeX Live rather than anything to do with Ghostscript;
>> i.e., there is no need to change Ghostscript at all.
>> 
>> Good Luck,
>> 
>> Herb Schulz
>> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
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