The program dvips takes a DVI file [.dvi] produced by TeX (or by some other processor such as GFtoDVI) and converts it to PostScript, normally sending the result directly to the laserprinter. Fonts used may either be resident in the printer or defined as bitmaps in PK files, or a `virtual' combination of both. Dvips will automatically invoke METAFONT to generate fonts that don't already exist.