Frequent Warning messages using gv

Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Fergus Daly]

Whenever I use gv on a PostScript file as in
$ gv filename.ps
then a (usually) successful display is (almost invariably) accompanied by Warning messages about font conversions.
It is not obvious what limitations or errors are affecting the displayed output, if any, and I have got into the habit
of issuing the command with the qualifier
$ gv filename.ps 2> /dev/null
However: the Warning messages whilst occasionally very esoteric nearly always include the form
Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-140-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
Is there some additional fonts package or group of packages that I could usefully incorporate into my Cygwin setup that
would reduce warnings when using gv? (And maybe improve the rendering of outputs.)
My directory /usr/share/fonts/microsoft/ contains 120+ ttf links, though none looking anything like helv*.
Thank you.

Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Adam Dinwoodie]

On Wed, 5 Oct 2022 at 06:46, Fergus Daly wrote:
> Whenever I use gv on a PostScript file as in
> $ gv filename.ps
> then a (usually) successful display is (almost invariably) accompanied by Warning messages about font conversions.
> It is not obvious what limitations or errors are affecting the displayed output, if any, and I have got into the habit
> of issuing the command with the qualifier
> $ gv filename.ps 2> /dev/null
> However: the Warning messages whilst occasionally very esoteric nearly always include the form
> Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-140-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Is there some additional fonts package or group of packages that I could usefully incorporate into my Cygwin setup that
> would reduce warnings when using gv? (And maybe improve the rendering of outputs.)
> My directory /usr/share/fonts/microsoft/ contains 120+ ttf links, though none looking anything like helv*.

I doubt it. I'm not familiar with gv, but this looks like you're
trying to process documents that incorporate Helvetica, in a way that
requires having the font files, without having the font files.
Helvetica is a trademark, and the font files are under copyright, so
no Cygwin package is going to be able to include the fonts or even
include substitutes with matching filenames.

You *might* be able to add symlinks from the missing Helvetica files
to more readily available metric-identical alternatives you already
have access to, e.g. Arial, MS Sans Serif, or Liberation Sans.
Otherwise I suspect you need to either avoid processing files that
incorporate fonts you don't own, or buy copies of the relevant
Helvetica typefaces.

Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Eliot Moss]

On 10/8/2022 8:57 AM, Adam Dinwoodie wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Oct 2022 at 06:46, Fergus Daly wrote:
>> Whenever I use gv on a PostScript file as in
>> $ gv filename.ps
>> then a (usually) successful display is (almost invariably) accompanied by Warning messages about font conversions.
>> It is not obvious what limitations or errors are affecting the displayed output, if any, and I have got into the habit
>> of issuing the command with the qualifier
>> $ gv filename.ps 2> /dev/null
>> However: the Warning messages whilst occasionally very esoteric nearly always include the form
>> Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
>> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-140-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Is there some additional fonts package or group of packages that I could usefully incorporate into my Cygwin setup that
>> would reduce warnings when using gv? (And maybe improve the rendering of outputs.)
>> My directory /usr/share/fonts/microsoft/ contains 120+ ttf links, though none looking anything like helv*.
> 
> I doubt it. I'm not familiar with gv, but this looks like you're
> trying to process documents that incorporate Helvetica, in a way that
> requires having the font files, without having the font files.
> Helvetica is a trademark, and the font files are under copyright, so
> no Cygwin package is going to be able to include the fonts or even
> include substitutes with matching filenames.
> 
> You *might* be able to add symlinks from the missing Helvetica files
> to more readily available metric-identical alternatives you already
> have access to, e.g. Arial, MS Sans Serif, or Liberation Sans.
> Otherwise I suspect you need to either avoid processing files that
> incorporate fonts you don't own, or buy copies of the relevant
> Helvetica typefaces.

Something I might try first is researching how fontconfig can allow
you to set up substitutions.

Cheers - Eliot Moss

Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Jon Turney]

On 05/10/2022 06:45, Fergus Daly wrote:
> Whenever I use gv on a PostScript file as in
> $ gv filename.ps
> then a (usually) successful display is (almost invariably) accompanied by Warning messages about font conversions.
> It is not obvious what limitations or errors are affecting the displayed output, if any, and I have got into the habit
> of issuing the command with the qualifier
> $ gv filename.ps 2> /dev/null
> However: the Warning messages whilst occasionally very esoteric nearly always include the form
> Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-140-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Is there some additional fonts package or group of packages that I could usefully incorporate into my Cygwin setup that
> would reduce warnings when using gv? (And maybe improve the rendering of outputs.)
> My directory /usr/share/fonts/microsoft/ contains 120+ ttf links, though none looking anything like helv*.

Installing 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi75' and/or 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi100' will 
probably resolve these warnings.

It's unclear to me if gv needs a dependency on more font packages or 
not, since the PS could be using any fonts?

Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Ken Brown]

On 10/8/2022 9:01 AM, Jon Turney wrote:
> On 05/10/2022 06:45, Fergus Daly wrote:
>> Whenever I use gv on a PostScript file as in
>> $ gv filename.ps
>> then a (usually) successful display is (almost invariably) accompanied by 
>> Warning messages about font conversions.
>> It is not obvious what limitations or errors are affecting the displayed 
>> output, if any, and I have got into the habit
>> of issuing the command with the qualifier
>> $ gv filename.ps 2> /dev/null
>> However: the Warning messages whilst occasionally very esoteric nearly always 
>> include the form
>> Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
>> Warning: Cannot convert string 
>> "-*-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Warning: Cannot convert string 
>> "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Warning: Cannot convert string 
>> "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Warning: Cannot convert string 
>> "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-140-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
>> Is there some additional fonts package or group of packages that I could 
>> usefully incorporate into my Cygwin setup that
>> would reduce warnings when using gv? (And maybe improve the rendering of 
>> outputs.)
>> My directory /usr/share/fonts/microsoft/ contains 120+ ttf links, though none 
>> looking anything like helv*.
> 
> Installing 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi75' and/or 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi100' will probably 
> resolve these warnings.
> 
> It's unclear to me if gv needs a dependency on more font packages or not, since 
> the PS could be using any fonts?

I could go either way on this.  On the one hand, gv is a postscript viewer and 
has no control over what fonts it might be asked to display.  On the other hand, 
gv is intended to be run under X11, so maybe it should require the most basic 
X11 fonts.

Ken

Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Brian Inglis]

On Sat, 8 Oct 2022 13:09:47 -0400, Ken Brown wrote:
> On 10/8/2022 9:01 AM, Jon Turney wrote:
>> Installing 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi75' and/or 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi100' will 
>> probably resolve these warnings.
>> It's unclear to me if gv needs a dependency on more font packages or 
>> not, since the PS could be using any fonts?

> I could go either way on this. On the one hand, gv is a postscript
> viewer and has no control over what fonts it might be asked to
> display.  On the other hand, gv is intended to be run under X11, so
> maybe it should require the most basic X11 fonts.

gv requires ghostscript which requires ghostscript-fonts-other and 
urw-base35-fonts which should provide a fallback from Helvetica to Nimbus.
Perhaps for older apps and documents urw-base35-fonts-legacy could or 
should (also) be included?
Could that solve the problem, or would it still require 
xorg-x11-fonts-dpi{75,100)?

-- 
La perfection est atteinte,
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter,
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer.
	-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Fergus Daly]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2007 bytes --]

Thank you.
Installing these two packages has done the trick, at least for the several files that previously generated warning messages.

Sent via Outlook on my Asus ZenFone 8
________________________________
From: Jon Turney <jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk>
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 2:01:50 PM
To: Fergus Daly <fergusd84@outlook.com>; The Cygwin Mailing List <cygwin@cygwin.com>
Subject: Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

On 05/10/2022 06:45, Fergus Daly wrote:
> Whenever I use gv on a PostScript file as in
> $ gv filename.ps
> then a (usually) successful display is (almost invariably) accompanied by Warning messages about font conversions.
> It is not obvious what limitations or errors are affecting the displayed output, if any, and I have got into the habit
> of issuing the command with the qualifier
> $ gv filename.ps 2> /dev/null
> However: the Warning messages whilst occasionally very esoteric nearly always include the form
> Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-120-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--*-140-*-*-P-*-ISO8859-1" to type FontStruct
> Is there some additional fonts package or group of packages that I could usefully incorporate into my Cygwin setup that
> would reduce warnings when using gv? (And maybe improve the rendering of outputs.)
> My directory /usr/share/fonts/microsoft/ contains 120+ ttf links, though none looking anything like helv*.

Installing 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi75' and/or 'xorg-x11-fonts-dpi100' will
probably resolve these warnings.

It's unclear to me if gv needs a dependency on more font packages or
not, since the PS could be using any fonts?