Re: microtype for texinfo

[pertusus]

On Mon, Sep 26, 2022 at 03:40:46PM -0600, Karl Berry wrote:
> Hi Patrice - If you write to the tex-live list, more than likely I will
> end up being the one who answers, so we might as well continue here :).
> 
> What is the question? I don't understand how or why we got on to LaTeX.

There is a new converter in texi2any of Texinfo to LaTeX, which should
be in the next release, that's what I am talking about, not about LaTeX
in general.  We use some LaTeX packages for that, for instance, the LaTeX
microtype package, and many others (trying to load only packages that
are needed by the Texinfo code).

> As for cm-super, there is only one cm-super package / set of
> fonts. texinfo.tex uses cm-super just for a few characters (eth, thorn,
> ogoneks, and so on) that don't exist in the cm fonts. Actually
> texinfo.tex (and LaTeX) use the EC .tfm files for the needed fonts;
> cm-super provides the Type 1 fonts on the backend for those metrics.

That's what I do not understand.  On my debian I can remove the cm-super
package and also the cm-super-minimal package and texi2pdf still works
well and produces ogonek accented characters.  If I do not have cm-super
installed, however, the characters you mention are pixelated when I zoom
in the PDF.  Latin characters, however are not pixelated.  If I use
LaTeX, however, without cm-super installed, I get pixelated fonts
for every letter including for latin letters (like the a letter).  I
guess that microtype errors out if the font is a bitmap font that gets
pixelated, and not if the font is a scalable font which is ok for
microtype.

So, my question is how does Texinfo TeX select scalable fonts for the
letters that exists in cm fonts, while LaTeX does not?  Is there a way
to have LaTeX select the same scalable fonts as TeX (even when cm-super
is not installed)?

The LaTeX I am speaking about has the following in the header:
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[gen]{eurosym}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
...
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

> BTW, neither microtype nor cm-super are part of core LaTeX, in the sense
> that they are maintained by other people, and LaTeX can be successfully
> used without them. Microtype is entirely optional, and cm-super is not
> always needed, depending on encodings and font formats that are
> used. --best, karl.

As I said above, for the LaTeX output converted from Texinfo we use
quite a few packages to be able to output LaTeX that can express the
Texinfo formatting.

-- 
Pat