[OS X TeX] Weird page size problem using XeLaTeX

[Jonathan Kew]

On 20 Dec 2005, at 10:57 am, Martin Buchmann wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> i've just discovered XeLaTeX and the fontspec package for  
> typesetting christmas cards, that's wonderfull :-)
>
> But there is kind of a problem if i want to use the eso-pic package  
> and a landscape a5paper. It's working fine using pdfelatex or if i  
> use xelatex without the eso-pic package but if i compile the  
> minimal example given below, TeXniscope and Acroread show a whole  
> a4 page with just the upper half used instead of a a5 page.
>
> Any ideas what i can do you get it done correctly?
>
> Best regards
>   Martin
>
> \documentclass[12pt,a5paper,landscape,pagesize]{scrartcl}
>
> \usepackage[colorgrid,texcoord]{eso-pic}
>
> \pagestyle{empty}
>
> \begin{document}
>
> Test
>
> \end{document}

To get a landscape a5 page, you need to tell xelatex that this is the  
paper size you want, and apparently this isn't happening. Remember  
that the paper (media) size of the PDF file is distinct from the size  
used by LaTeX in formatting your text. When you run pdfelatex, one or  
other of the packages you're using no doubt knows how to issue the  
appropriate \pdf.... commands that set the media size, but these  
won't work with other TeX engines.

One way to do it would be to run xelatex with the -papersize option:

	xelatex -papersize=a5:landscape myfile.tex

The other option is to set the paper size from within the document,  
which can be done with a \special command:

	\special{papersize=a5:landscape}

should do it. This needs to occur at the beginning of the output, if  
it's to take effect from the first page; LaTeX's \AtBeginDvi may be  
one way to achieve this.

The ideal is for this to be done automatically by packages that want  
to configure the paper size (such as the "pagesize" option in your  
sample, I assume!). If the package supports drivers such as dvips or  
dvipdfm, which also use \special{papersize=...}, then it might work  
to give an option such as [dvips], to convince it to use the \special  
command. But I haven't tried this, and don't know anything about the  
specific packages you're using.

HTH,  JK


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