inimf invocation

inimf is the "initial" form of Metafont, which does lengthy initializations avoided by the "virgin" (vir) form, so as to be capable of dumping `.base' files (see section Memory dumps). For a detailed comparison of virgin and initial forms, see section Initial and virgin.

For a list of options and other information, see section mf invocation.

The only memory dump file commonly used with Metafont is the default `plain.base', also known as `mf.base' (again, see section Memory dumps). It is created by default during installation, but you can also do so by hand if necessary (e.g., if a Metafont update is issued):

inimf '\input plain; input modes; dump'

(The quotes prevent interpretation of the backslashes from the shell.) Then install the resulting `plain.base' in `$(basedir)' (`/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c' by default), and link `mf.base' to it.

For an explanation of the additional `modes.mf' file, see section Modes: Device definitions for Metafont. This file has no counterpart in TeX or MetaPost.

In the past, it was sometimes useful to create a base file `cmmf.base' (a.k.a. `cm.base'), with the Computer Modern macros also included in the base file. Nowadays, however, the additional time required to read `cmbase.mf' is exceedingly small, usually not enough to be worth the administrative hassle of updating the `cmmf.base' file when you install a new version of `modes.mf'. People actually working on a typeface may still find it worthwhile to create their own base file, of course.

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