I was afraid of that. My understanding is that the problem with the CM fonts in PDF is actually not the CM fonts as in Metafont but in the conversion of the CM

I was afraid of that. My understanding is that the problem with the CM fonts in PDF is actually not the CM fonts as in Metafont but in the conversion of the CM fonts to what PDF wants. So, that conversion was essentially by hand by starting with magnified TeX output and taking 'outlines', in part because what Metafont assumes for 'pens' conflicts with what PS does with 'pens'. So, from the last time I looked, it seemed that what I needed was just some new conversions of CM to what PDF wants. Actually with the TeX distribution I have, there are some nice fonts for just text, maybe Century Schoolbook, etc. But, again, I never want to give up on math or the AMS symbols. Uh, I just use TeX and not LaTeX!