[pdftex] dvi output

[Heiko Oberdiek]

On Fri, Sep 05, 2008 at 10:06:49AM -0700, Sandeep Gupta wrote:

> Hi Hilmar,
>   Thanks for helping me out. You example helped me debug the actual problem.
> I am importing pdf figures in my latex file.
> 
> 
> 
> So my tex file looks something like this:
> 
> \documentclass[pdftex,mnsy]{article}
                 ^^^^^^
> 
> \usepackage{graphicx,color}
> 
> \DeclareGraphicsRule{.pdftex}{pdf}{*}{}
> 
> \begin{document}
> hi
> \end{document}
> 
> On this file pdflatex refuses to produce dvi.

Of course, first you say DVI (by option), but later in the
file you demand PDF (option pdftex) and driver pdftex.def
only obeys and set PDF mode.

Thus if you don't want PDF, then don't lie with the driver options.

BTW there is package `ipdf' for detecting the mode:

\usepackage{ifpdf}
\ifpdf
  \usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx,color}
\else
  \usepackage[dvips]{graphicx,color}
\fi

Most distributions have intelligent configuration files (graphics.cfg,
color.cfg) that are able to detect pdfTeX in PDF mode and automatically
sets the right option. Therefore you don't need option `pdftex'
in many cases.
  The DVI driver cannot be detected at TeX run time, because the
driver is called *after* the TeX run is completed.
But a default driver for DVI mode can be configured in the
configuration files, that is `dvips' in TeX Live and MikTeX.

If you are using dvips, then you can omit the driver option entirely
in many cases:
  \documentclass{article}
  \usepackage{graphicx,color}

Yours sincerely
  Heiko <oberdiek at uni-freiburg.de>
--