Bug#143147: dvips uses type 3 fonts by default
In reply to the helpful discussion that has taken place:
1. I never modified any of the .cfg files manually. I have, however,
upgraded the tetex packages from the unstable distribution a number
of times. Until recently I had been using PRINTER=pdf to force
dvips to use type 1 fonts, but after installing cups and a local
printer this strategy was no longer convenient.
In the hope of getting type 1 fonts by default without having to
search the configuration files for the relevant parameters, last week
I ran dpkg --purge on all of the tetex packages (tetex-base,
tetex-bin, tetex-doc and tetex-extra), then re-installed from
unstable; the result was a broken tetex installation whereby dvips
used type 3 fonts, and pdftex couldn't find its font files.
Finally I ran dpkg --purge again, as above, but this time manually
deleted the /etc/texmf and /usr/share/texmf directories which still
existed, and were non-empty, after the purge. A clean re-installation
this time worked, with bluesky type 1 fonts as the default when
computer modern fonts were used.
I agree that hyphenation of French, German and other languages is
crucially important (in fact I personally need it for French). I am
not specifying which type 1 fonts should be used, only that type 1
fonts are preferable in many cases, and should at least be an option
in the configuration script. Thus I agree with the proposed strategy
of bringing the necessary fonts into tetex or as separate Debian
packages, and making type 1 fonts an installation-time option.
That dpkg --purge didn't cleanly remove all of the tetex files is a
separate problem which, if reproducable, should be treated as a
different bug.
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