Bug#131338: xdvi: please make a keystroke to toggle t1lib option

[Stefan Ulrich <stefan.ulrich@zen.co.uk>]

Matt Swift <swift@alum.mit.edu> writes:

> The same dvi file rendered by xdvi using the PostScript version of a font and
> using a rasterized version of the font does not look exactly the same.  The
> difference seems to be greater for some font families than
> others.

We've got a separate bug report for a few hinting bugs in t1lib
(#131336) which I hope will get fixed eventually. But a few
differences may always remain (see e.g.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=23164&atid=377580&func=detail&aid=568758
).

> I have been
> looking at raster fonts for more than a decade, and I find that looking at the
> PostScript versions is disappointing and that my printed output matches the
> raster presentation better.  Perhaps not all would agree.  

> In any case, that is motivation for the request to be able to turn the use of
> direct rendering of PostScript fonts on and off within an instance (a keystroke
> that toggles the command line option -not1lib).

I don't think that such a toggle is a really needed for the
following reasons:

(a) runtime toggles should be used for preferences that change
    frequently, but you just seem to want PK fonts instead of
    Type1 always

(b) a runtime toggle that may send xdvi into several seconds (or
    longer) of generating PK fonts doesn't sound exactly user friendly

(c) it's non-trivial to implement since the entire t1 machinery
    is usually initialized at startup.

-- 
Stefan Ulrich