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Modes: Device definitions for Metafont
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  Running Metafont and creating Metafont base files requires information
that TeX and MetaPost do not: "mode" definitions which specify device
characteristics, so Metafont can properly rasterize the shapes.

  When making a base file, a file containing modes for locally-available
devices should be input after `plain.mf'.  One commonly used file is
<ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/modes.mf>; it includes all known definitions.

  If, however, for some reason you have decreased the memory available
in your Metafont, you may need to copy `modes.mf' and remove the
definitions irrelevant to you (probably most of them) instead of using
it directly.  (Or, if you're a Metafont hacker, maybe you can suggest a
way to redefine `mode_def' and/or `mode_setup'; right now, the amount
of memory used is approximately four times the total length of the
`mode_def' names, and that's a lot.)

  If you have a device not included in `modes.mf', please see comments
in that file for how to create the new definition, and please send the
definition to <tex-fonts@mail.tug.org> to get it included in the next
release of `modes.mf'.

  Usually, when you run Metafont you must supply the name of a mode that
was dumped in the base file.  But you can also define the mode
characteristics dynamically, by invoking Metafont with an assignment to
`smode' instead of `mode', like this:
     mf '\smode:="newmode.mf"; mag:=MAGNIFICATION; input MFNAME'

This is most useful when you are working on the definition of a new
mode.

  The MAGNIFICATION and MFNAME arguments are explained in Note: mf
invocation.  In the file `newmode.mf', you should have the following
(with no `mode_def' or `enddef'), if you are using `modes.mf'
conventions:
     mode_param (pixels_per_inch, DPI);
     mode_param (blacker, B);
     mode_param (fillin, F);
     mode_param (o_correction, O);
     mode_common_setup_;

(Of course, you should use real numbers for DPI, B, F, and O.)

  For more information on the use of `smode', or if you are not using
`modes.mf', see page 269 of `The Metafontbook'.