Design size mismatch warning when using the eco package

Question

I'm using the eco package and am getting the following warning:

design size mismatch in local font ecrm2074 in virtual font ecorm2074.vf ignored.

when compiling the following MWE:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{eco}

\begin{document}
  {\huge This causes a warning}
\end{document}

the warning goes away if I don't use \huge (or eco).

Any ideas as to how I can get rid of it?

Answer 1

The "design size mismatch" is issued by TeX when it loads font ecorm2074 which is a virtual font; this means that it's a container of references to other fonts. When TeX loads this font it realizes that the referenced fonts are loaded with a size parameter that differs from what's stated in the fonts themselves.

Judging from line 156 in create.sh in the sources of eco fonts, the recorded size parameter is 20.74, while the referenced fonts (ecrm2074 and tcrm2074) carry 20.7400055.

At such a big size, rounding errors can be expected. The same happens with

• ecorm1728: 17.28 against 17.279999
• ecorm1440: 14.40 against 14.399994

but not with ecorm1200 and smaller sizes.

When I run vftovp on the offending .vf files, the program says

Design size in VF file being replaced by TFM design size

The same happens when TeX loads the font and actually corrects the mismatching entry: the difference is very small, so nothing relevant happens.

However this should be regarded as a (small) bug in the eco distribution.

One can regenerate the .vf files with the help of a Bash script: create a directory called, say, ecocorrected and in it put the following regenerate.sh script

#!/bin/bash
for i in /usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/fonts/vf/public/eco/*
do
  j=$(basename $i)
  vftovp $i > ${j%.*}.vpl
done
for i in *.vpl
do
  vptovf $i
done
rm -i *.tfm *.vpl

Run the following shell commands

cd ecocorr
bash regenerate.sh

Then the ecocorrected directory can be moved in the correct place:

mv regenerate.sh ..
cd ..
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/fonts/vf/public
sudo mv ecocorrected /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/fonts/vf/public
sudo mktexlsr

When and if the eco distribution will be corrected, you can remove the ecocorrected directory (and rerun mktexlsr).

Actually, running this procedure tells that the eco distribution has several little annoyances, which shouldn't be ignored, but are not very harmful anyway. Personally, I'd live with the warnings, though

Answer 2

This is too long to put into a comment, and also only a partial answer. Switching to a different compiler solves the problem. Perhaps others may have an idea based on the following:

• Compiling with pdflatex produces the "design size mismatch" font warning. pdffonts produces:

  name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
  ------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
  ZLOGBE+SFRM1000                      Type 1            yes yes no       4  0
  WPERDS+SFRM2074                      Type 1            yes yes no       5  0
  

• Compiling with latex->dvips->ps2pdf does NOT produce the warning. pdffonts produces:

  name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
  ------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
  MPHKJZ+SFRM2074                      Type 1C           yes yes no      10  0
  OTJKZH+SFRM1000                      Type 1C           yes yes no       8  0
  

• Compiling with xelatex does NOT produce produce the warning. pdffonts produces:

  name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
  ------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
  VSQWHV+SFRM1000                      Type 1C           yes yes no       4  0
  RQEQJE+SFRM2074                      Type 1C           yes yes no       5  0
  

It is clearly the font encoding. As such, switching to Latin Modern fonts (via \usepackage{lmodern}) also avoids this problem with the following pdffonts outputs:

• Compiling with pdflatex, pdffonts produces:

  name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
  ------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
  JVWJQI+LMRoman10-Regular             Type 1            yes yes no       4  0
  NHHVPB+LMRoman17-Regular             Type 1            yes yes no       5  0
  

• Compiling with latex->dvips->ps2pdf, pdffonts produces:

  name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
  ------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
  MPHKJZ+LMRoman17-Regular             Type 1C           yes yes no      10  0
  OTJKZH+LMRoman10-Regular             Type 1C           yes yes no       8  0
  

• Compiling with xelatex, pdffonts produces:

  name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
  ------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
  VYDDOZ+LMRoman10-Regular             Type 1C           yes yes no       4  0
  ICNJUT+LMRoman17-Regular             Type 1C           yes yes no       5  0
  

Answer 3

OK, I think I've got it now:

The eco package somehow messes up the fonts and trouble arises with certain combination of sizes, shapes and weights. In this particular case, the problems where in the title pages and on the part headings.

Luckily, I was already using the sectsty package and managed to get out of the latter with:

\partfont{\fontfamily{cmr}\selectfont}

(the \fontfamily{cmr}\selectfont "trick" I learned from another question of mine).

For the title pages it was enough to say \fontfamily{cmr}\selectfont where appropriate.

Hope this helps someone else trying to get rid of that pesky little warnings!