[pdftex] pdflatex: paper size

[Alain Matthes]

Le 26 juil. 08 à 02:36, Darrell Long a écrit :

> Hi,
>
> I installed TeXlive (replaced teTeX) and am having problems with
> pdflatex. I cannot figure out how to set the paper size. I found
> something on the web about editting pdftexconfig.tex (which I did) but
> it had no effect ('ll attach it below).
>
> I am running on a Mac (TeXlive) under OS/X 1.5.4. dvips and dvipdf are
> working fine, so the texconfig command did what it should there. I
> installed the software using MacPorts.

Hi,

A better and safe solution is to use MacTeX

The TeX Live installed by MacTeX is identical to that obtained by  
installing using TeX Live's own install script, with the following  
exceptions:


	• MacTeX's TeX Live is configured to use $HOME/Library/texmf rather  
than $HOME/texmf for user additions to thetexmf tree. This is the  
location used by previous versions of TeX on Mac OS X from Gerben  
Wierda. After adding files to this location, texhash need not be run.

	• When the TeX Live install script finishes, it prints a message  
suggesting that users configure TeX paper size for "letter" or "a4"  
paper. MacTeX does this step automatically. TeX Live suggests using  
the command

sudo texconfig-sys paper letter

(or "a4" instead of "letter" where appropriate), while MacTeX issues  
two commands:

sudo texconfig-sys paper letter
sudo texconfig-sys dvips paper letter

This makes a subtle difference which will not affect most users. The  
MacTeX approach tells dvips to insert postscript commands "letter" or  
"a4" in postscript output. When this output is then converted to pdf  
form by Ghostscript or Apple's Distiller, the "letter" and "a4"  
commands are used to produce correct pdf files. Some printers do not  
understand the "letter" and "a4" commands, which is why TeX Live uses  
only the first command. Mac users almost never send postscript files  
directly to a printer, but they often convert postscript to pdf.  
Gerben Wierda's distributions are configured for paper size using the  
MacTeX approach.

"sudo texconfig-sys" must be usefull in your case

Best Regards

Alain