you can test the beta
I used the same test file: \starttext \startstaticMPfigure{fig:ellipse} path p; p := fullcircle scaled 2in yscaled 0.5; label(btex hello etex, origin); draw p; \stopstaticMPfigure \placefigure[right,none]{}{\usestaticMPfigure[fig:ellipse]} \input tufte \stoptext No luck with ver: 2007.01.04 17:37 MK II. With all three settings (the two runMP... ones and shell_escape) false, the static figure is about 1pt wide. The tufte text has a slight indentation in the right margin to make room for it. With all three settings true, it works fine. With the run* settings true but shell_escape false, the whitespace allocated is a block for a 'dummy' rectangle (with grey background). So it looks like the same behavior as before. With all the settings false, this is the texexec.tex produced: \setupoutput[pdftex] \setupcolors[state=start] \global \loadfontfileoncetrue \readfile {cont-en.tmp}{}{}\starttext \startMPpage beginfig(1); path p; p := fullcircle scaled 2in yscaled 0.5; label(btex hello etex, origin); draw p; endfig; \stopMPpage \stoptext Running 'texexec texexec.tex' produces the right pdf file, so I don't know what's going on. But off-list I'm sending you a tar.gz file that has the two runs, each in a separate directory, and then the recursive diff of them. -Sanjoy `Not all those who wander are lost.' (J.R.R. Tolkien)