To stress-test things and because xdvi renders crisper text than any pdf viewer, I just tried 'texexec --dvi --nobackend notes'. It failed with: (/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/sort-lan.tex) (./notes.tuo ! Illegal unit of measure (pt inserted). <to be read again> - \pospxywhd ...fnum \positionanchormode =\plusone - \MPx \pageanchor \fi ... l.193 ...952663}{8880535}{334}{6216377}{134561832} The offending line in notes.tuo is: \pospxywhd{text:33}{33}{10952663}{8880535}{334}{6216377}{134561832} texexec works fine in PDF mode, where that line in the notes.tuo file is \pospxywhd{text:33}{33}{167.12437pt}{135.50621pt}{334.24875pt}{523.95755pt}{0.0pt} And 167.12437pt = 10952663sp. So dvipos (Version 20030628 (KPATHSEA)) is outputting the locations in scaled points (sp), but the results are being interpreted as printers points (pt), whereupon the dimension is absurdly large. [CtxTools | context version: 2007.01.02 13:44] -Sanjoy `A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.' (Gibbon)