Re: Help!!!!

[AMS Technical Support <tech-support@ams.org>]

dear marion dikten,
we're responsible for the amsfonts and their documentation, so i am
concerned with the problem you describe:

    ...  help me with the following
    font problem concerning OzTeX and my Macintosh.

    ... Today I read in the docs that one gets with AMSfonts
    that I have to use some *.fd's in some "obsolete" subdirectory of some
    latex directory. I did that (even though I never use latex), ...

fonts to be used with plain tex have no need for any .fd files.
what is important is that the .tfm files are located in the same
place as you find cmr10.tfm.  access to the blackboard bold (\Bbb)
and fraktur alphabets should be adequate with what is provided in
amssym.def (read in by amssym.tex) for 10pt environments; for
other, smaller, sizes, the model shown in appendix e of the texbook
should be followed. i have just checked the amsfonts user's guide
(the file amsfndoc that should be part of the collection; it comes
both in source form and as a .ps file ready for printing), and can
find nothing about .fd files except in the section on using the
fonts with latex.

since you mention euex57, i guess that you are using the type 1
versions of these fonts.  for printing, you will need the .pfb
files in the same place as other .pfb files, e.g. cmr10.pfb --
the oztex documentation should say where that is.  if you aren't
getting any complaints from tex about the .tfm files, then it may
be that the substitution of \rm fonts us done in the printing
phase, leading to the conclusion that the .pfb files (or .px if
you are using the rasters) are not where the dvi processor expects
to find them.

we have tried to make the amsfonts user guide clear; it has to
cover quite a few different possibilities, so it certainly isn't
perfect, but we have tried to distinguish clearly between these
three typesetting environments
 - latex
 - ams-tex
 - plain tex or other macro packages
and the four hardware/operating system environments
 - pc (dos and windows)
 - macintosh -- textures
 - macintosh -- oztex
 - unix
if we have failed to do so, please let us know the specific areas
of the amsfonts user's guide that are confusing, and we will try to
fix them.

also, if you have problems, the user's guide says where to send
questions about using the fonts:
    tech-support@ams.org

    What bugs me about all these free versions is that there is simply _no_ way
    to get help if you're stuck, and all people around me only use unix
    machines *sniff*.

you are welcome to send inquiries to ams tech-support if you are
having problems with one of the ams collections.  also, you may be
interested in knowing that of all the mac implementations, oztex
is the closest to unix -- in fact, use of the unix versions of the
ams packages is recommended -- and the instructions should be
understandable to most unix users.

finally, there is an oztex-info mailing list, announced in andrew
trevorrow's oztex web pages.  subscribe by sending a message to
    majordomo@maths.adelaide.edu.au
with this single line in the *body* of the message:
    subscribe oztex-info
the announcement says
    Note that oxtex-info is for discussion about topics and
    problems related to OzTeX.
    ...
    Before sending a question to oztex-info, see if the OzTeX FAQ
    has the answer.
this faq can be found at
    http:/www.kagi.com/authors/akt/ozfaq.html

Barbara Beeton
Technical Support
Electronic Products and Services
American Mathematical Society
Phone: 800-321-4AMS (321-4267) or 401-455-4080
Internet: tech-support@ams.org