---
name: "gftopk"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "texlive-doc"
version: "2026.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gftopk"
---

# gftopk(1)

convert generic font (gf) bitmap files to packed font (pk) files

## NAME

gftopk - convert generic font (gf) bitmap files to packed font (pk) files

## SYNOPSIS

**gftopk** \[**-v**\] *gf\_file*\[gf\] \[*pk\_file*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **gftopk** program converts a generic font (*gf*) bitmap file output by, typically, [**mf**(1)](/mf/1.md), to a packed font bitmap file for use by DVI-reading programs; notably, [**dvips**(1)](/dvips/1.md) only supports *pk* files. Packed font files (*pk* files) are much smaller than the corresponding *gf* files.

The *gf\_file* on the command line must include the resolution, but can omit the suffix "gf". The *pk\_file* defaults to the same (stripped) name as *gf\_file*, and it is placed in the current working directory with the **pk** suffix replacing **gf**. For example, the input file */some/directory/cmr10.300gf* would become *cmr10.300pk*.

## OPTIONS

See [**tex**(1)](/tex/1.md) for details of command-line parsing.

By default, **gftodvi** operates silently.  With the **-v** (a.k.a. **-verbose**) option, some reports are printed on stdout.

The standard **-help** and **-version** options are also supported.

## ENVIRONMENT

The program looks for *gf\_file* using the environment variables GFFONTS, GLYPHFONTS, and TEXFONTS, in that order. If none are set, it uses the system default. See the Kpathsea manual at https://tug.org/kpathsea for the details of the searching.

## SEE ALSO

[**dvips**(1)](/dvips/1.md), [**gftype**(1)](/gftype/1.md), [**pktogf**(1)](/pktogf/1.md), [**pktype**(1)](/pktype/1.md).\
 Donald E. Knuth et al., *Metafontware*.

Package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/gftopk\
 Section in the Web2c manual: https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#gftopk-invocation\
 Typeset source code, including file format descriptions: https://ctan.org/pkg/knuth-pdf

## AUTHORS

Tomas Rokicki wrote the program. It was published as part of the *Metafontware* technical report. Paul Richards originally ported it to Unix.

Public discussion list and bug reports: https://lists.tug.org/tex-k