[OS X TeX] Beamer problem with simpdflatex/dvips

[Herbert Schulz]

On Feb 10, 2010, at 4:26 PM, ludling wrote:

> I recently decided to try out Beamer, and I encountered a problem when compiling with the default TeXShop settings for "tex and dvi" (simpdftex latex --maxpfb).  The output contains everything it is supposed to, but each slide is located in the lower left corner of the page, with the page itself being in portrait mode and with the default size of a regular document.
> 
> This problem does not occur with pdflatex, which creates slides of the correct orientation and size, and with the slide contents taking up the entire page as expected.
> 
> Here is a minimal example that displays this behavior for me:
> 
> 
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> \documentclass{beamer}
> 
> \title{Beamer Problem}
> \author{Nathan Sanders}
> \date{\today}
> 
> \begin{document}
> 
> \begin{frame}{Title Frame}
> \maketitle
> \end{frame}
> 
> \end{document}
> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
> 
> 
> I've done some searching around the internet and found references to similar problems caused by a misconfiguration of dvips in TeXLive 2008.  I'm using TL 2009 with all the latest updates provided by TLU, but the problem apparently still exists.  Is there a known solution within TeXShop itself (i.e., by adding some option to simpdflatex in the preferences to work around the dvips misconfiguration)?
> 
> For completeness, here are a few selected lines from the console output:
> 
> ### This is /usr/texbin/simpdftex, Version 20070809
> [...]
> (/usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamer.cls
> (/usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamerbasercs.sty)
> Document Class: beamer 2007/03/11 cvs version 3.07 A class for typesetting pres
> entations (rcs-revision 1.70)
> [...]
> ### /usr/texbin/dvips -R -Poutline  -o /tmp/altpdflatex.45046-1265840502/Untitled.ps Untitled.dvi
> This is dvips(k) 5.98 Copyright 2009 Radical Eye Software (www.radicaleye.com)
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> Nathan=

Howdy,

I'm not seeing a problem simpdftex and a beamer presentation I compile here. While I do have some additional options set none would account for your problem. Are you sure you don't have something (e.g., some configuration file) in your personal texmf or texmf-local tree that is interfering here?

Maybe you can give us a small but compilable sample file that shows this behavior on your system so we can take a look at it.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)