[pdftex] Re: tex2pdf 2.1 released

Sherlock Holmes sherlock at rna.nl
Mon Jun 11 17:52:31 CEST 2001


For people interested in script hacking. I wrote altpdftex, a sh script 
that uses tex->dvips->ps2pdf (or dvips->ps2pdf on dvi files). It can be 
linked symbolically to altpdflatex, altpdfetex, altpdfelatex and will do 
the other formats. altpdftex writes internmediary results in a temporary 
directory, minimizing the chances files are overwritten (a thing that 
has bitten be badly at one time).

Mainly written for the same reason: old tex code with eps inclusions and 
ps tricks.

There is another benefit for me. Sometimes pdftex produces pdf that, 
when viewed on my Mac OS X system and printed from there refuses to 
print on my NeXT printer. The same file through altpdflatex prints fine. 
The reason is unknown to me, but an alternative is nice to have.

altpdftex can be found as ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/comp/macosx/tex-
gs/altpdftex

Dependencies:
	TeX
	dvips
	ghostscript (ps2pdf)

SH

On Monday, June 11, 2001, at 12:43  AM, Bryan J. Smith wrote:

> Steffen Evers wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>> tex2pdf 2.1 has been released. It is a bugfix release.
>> <... cut ...>
>> More information at: http://tex2pdf.berlios.de/
>
> [ WARNING:  Total newbie action here so excuse any ignorance.  Note
> I use LyX as a total LaTeX/SGML "crutch," not being a guru at
> producing either.  I'm one of those people that said "screwing it"
> when MS Word 97 toasted half my "technical" MS Word 95 templates
> (when upgrading) and decided to use a _real_ publication/typeset
> system instead, like LaTeX.  LyX was there thanx to good people like
> yourselves.  That was late 1998, early 1999 and I haven't gone back
> either!  ;-PPP ]
>
> First off, I just downloaded tex2pdf after getting "frustrated" with
> EPS images in my LyX document.  I had previously tried PS export
> w/ps2pdf to get the EPS graphics in, but could figure no way to get
> the FoilTeX slides to appear "landscape" in Acroread (they kept
> coming out as sideways/portrait, and tried editing the PDF manually
> to no avail -- not good for presentations).  This little script did
> the trick in no time flat -- nice landscape oriented slides, with
> the EPS graphics and thumbnails, in PDF format (which allows me to
> do my presentation with _any_ OS).  Thank you!  As such, I think
> this script should be a part and/or called in any future version of
> LyX.
>
> Secondly, since I've got the LyX, tex2pdf and pdftex lists all here
> (note I'm only subscribed to the first), is there any work being
> done on getting PDF "bookmarks" implemented in the output?  I know
> this is a quite an additional challenge of just PDF conversion
> and/or thumbnailing, but I was curious as to what projects or
> efforts are in place.  I'm such an avid LyX user (almost bigot on at
> least 5 different LUG lists here in Florida ;-), I'm almost to the
> point if seeing if I could do this manually, and write a program to
> do it.  I'm definately NOT a GUI guy, but I'm fairly good at string
> manipulation with Perl (and I write system-level/real-time C code
> for a living in the US defense industry).  ;-PPP
>
> So, if anyone can point me to any current efforts, I'd greatly
> appreciate it.  I'm skimming through some of the on-line PS/PDF
> documentation (and have in the past to "slightly modify" PS/PDFs
> manually).  I guess subscribing to the pdftex mailing lists is
> probably my first, best move?
>
> -- TheBS
>
> --
> Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org   chat:thebs413
> SmithConcepts, Inc.           http://www.SmithConcepts.com
> ==========================================================
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