[l2h] Double-spacing command in a .tex file worked in a .dvi file using LaTeX 2e, but not in a .html file using LaTeX2HTML 1.70.

[Ross Moore]

Hello Pat,

On 14/08/2010, at 9:44 PM, "Pat Somerville" <l_pat_s at hotmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for sharing you observations.
However these seem to indicate a significant misunderstanding of what is the role of the various file formats produced by TeX and other software, in helping to produce the images that you see on a computer screen or printed page.

Neither a .dvi nor a .html file contains any executable code. All the these do is to contain information to be used by other software. The .dvi file is read by dvips to produce a page description in PostScript, which may be further processed to PDF, to be read by software such as Adobe Reader. The .html file just has data to be interpreted by a web browser.

There is no concept of double spacing in the HTML language, so there is no way for LaTeX2HTML to put anything into the file so that a web browser knows that this is the effect you want to see.

That last statement Is not quite true. The CSS language can be used to add extra information about detailed layouts for items on a webpage. When LaTeX2HTML was written, the CSS specifications were in rather early stages of development, and not well supported by web browsers. Nevertheless, there is a mechanism to add CSS rules using LaTeX2HTML. You can learn about it in the book The LaTeX Web Companion. It requires you to adjust your LaTeX source somewhat, and/or edit .CSS files after the translation has been done.
These are things which do not happen automatically. 

>  
>  
> Question I.  But what is a way in which I could have double-spaced, Chinese or English text in a .html file produced using LaTeX2HTML?
>  
> I imagine or wonder if there might be two types of solutions to produce double spacing in the .html file:
>  
> A) a set of LaTeX commands for double spacing internally in the .tex file and

In TeX you set the \baseline stretch parameter.

> B) externally in a latex2html command, a method which will enable double spacing from a .tex file which does not contain commands for double spacing.

HTML does not support this, so you need to do it with CSS rules.

>  
> But, of course, what I imagine and reality could be different.
>  
> Question II.  Or are there different results for 1 or 2 using either simplified-Chinese or English text and a more recent version of LaTeX2HTML?
>  
> Unless someone advises otherwise, with a currently working installation of LaTeX2HTML 1.70 I am hesitant to upgrade it in an OpenSuSE-11.1, Linux operating system using  probably version 3.5.10 of the K Desktop Environment (KDE).  With LaTeX2HTML's required software packages I suppose the safest way to upgrade LaTeX2HTML might be to install the newer version of LaTeX2HTML when installing, say version 11.2 or higher of the whole, OpenSuSE operating system onto a freshly formatted, but otherwise blank area of a hard-disk drive.
>  
> Question III.  Where on the Internet I may find thorough documentation for the use of LaTeX2HTML?

The manual that comes with it has most things. Read also the comments in the .tex files themselves, rather than just the final PDF. Also the Web Companion has extra stuff, not in the manual.  


>  
> Thanks in advance for help.
>  
> Pat

Hope this helps,

    Ross 


>  
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