Minus signs don't print - problem solved

[Hans Hagen]

William R. Smith wrote:

> >The whole point of using pdftex from our point of view is  so
> >that students would be able to print from our web pages without
> >using a postscript viewer, which most of  the students don't
> >have access to.  But if it can not handle the printing of the
> >most simple things, it does not meet the needs of the mathematics
> >community.

A quote on paper size from the pdftex manual (next version, to be
release as soon as sebastian approves of the english):

\subsection[cfg]{The \PDFTEX\ configuration file}

One has to keep in mind that, opposite to \DVI\ output, there is no
postprocessing stage. This has several rather fundamental consequences,
like
one||pass graphic and font inclusion. When \TEX\ builds a page, the
macro
package used quite certain has a concept of page dimensions, which is
not the
same as paper dimensions. The reference point of the page is the
top||left
corner.

Most \DVI\ postprocessors enable the user to specify the papersize,
which
often defaults to ``A4'' or ``letter''. In most cases it does not harm
that
much to mix the two, because one will seldom put too small paper in the
printer. And, if one does, one certainly not does do it a second time.
In
\PDF\ the paper size is part of the definition. This means that
everything
that is off page, is clipped off, it simply disappears. Even worse, just
like
in a \POSTSCRIPT\ file, the reference point is in the lower corner,
which is
opposite to \DVI's reference point.

And so, we've found one of the main reasons why \PDFTEX\ explictly needs
to
know the paper dimensions. These dimensions can either be passed using
the so
called configuration file, or by using the primitives provided for this
purpose. In this respect, the \PDFTEX\ configuration file can be
compared to
configuration files that come with \DVI\ postprocessors and|/|or command
line
options. Both contain information on the paper used, the fonts to be
included
and optimizations to be applied.

etc etc 

Hans 

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                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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