[OS X TeX] Re: dvipdf vs. dvipdfm vs. dvipdfmx

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 27.11.2005 um 19:29 schrieb Arthur Snoke:

> I am not familiar with dvipdfm -- or dvipdfmx.  I have been using 
> dvipdf as a shortcut for dvips => ps2pdf.  I would appreciate it if 
> someone could point me to a comparison among these options.  
> Specifically, what do I lose by using dvipdf?
>

I think dvipdfm was the first convertor to create PDF from TeX sources, 
with just DVI as a used to intermediate output. dvipdfm developed to a 
splendid application that could handle many advanced issues, for 
example extra PostScript or TrueType fonts, graphics inclusion, or 
hyper text (hyperref). dvipdfmx extends this to handle Unicode.

dvipdf is close to an efficient hack, good for simple documents. Font 
issues should not come up since dvips has its own MAP file. It's a very 
simple script that takes only options to optimise the PS to PDF 
conversion, but that's splendid:

	dvips -q -f "$infile" | gs $OPTIONS -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH 
-sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="$outfile" $OPTIONS -c .setpdfwrite -

The DVI file is converted to PS by dvips. No output file is created 
yet, all goes via a pipe into Ghostscript (gs) that creates the output 
PDF file. There are means missing to handle errors. You can't tell 
dvips that you're using another than the standard paper size. simpdftex 
(the former altpdftex) does a much better and more precise job. 
hyperref is of course supported because the 'distiller' (gs) does the 
final implementation.

--
Greetings

   Pete

   It's not the valleys in life I dread so much as the dips.
		-- 	Garfield

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