Re: Frequent Warning messages using gv

[Eliot Moss <moss@cs.umass.edu>]

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