[tex-eplain] Landscape output from dvi

[Dan Luecking]

At 03:02 PM 8/21/2007, you wrote:
>Is there any way, in any of the new TeX processors, to print output 
>in landscape mode from a dvi file containing custom made pk font 
>files which are not compatible with ps??
>

PK fonts are not incompatible with PS. Dvips has always been capable of
producing PS files with them embedded (as PS type 3 fonts). Nowadays
GSview will display and print them very nicely. Printing in landscape
(in Windows) is solely a matter of telling the printer dialog that
you want landscape output. Even Yap can do it.

Rotation on screen is a different matter.

>By way of background, I'm a 20+ year user of plain TeX, still using 
>eplain version 2.3b (11 Feb 1994), and do not use LaTeX.  Until the 
>last six months my primary TeXing has been with a DOS version PCTeX 
>and also emTeX.  These programs have dvi drivers which can output 
>both profile and landscape.
>
>One example is MiKTeX and Yap.  Apparently Yap will only output 
>landscape when the file is converted to ps, but you can't convert a 
>pk font to ps.

This is not true. It is solely up to the Windows printer driver
whether the output is printed in landscape or not. Earlier Yap
versions would not perform rotation, but printing a whole document
in landscape was always easy. Now, Yap is capable of passing a lot
of postcript code to Ghostscript and displaying the results on screen.

>
>The 2005 printing of the Eplain manual has no mention of landscape 
>but does mention text rotation on page 30, which again appears to 
>involve conversion to ps.

Rotation of individual portions of a page or individual pages does usually
involve PS, but that has nothing to do with the type of fonts being used.
PK fonts can be used, embedded by dvips in its PS output.

>
>I don't yet know what capabilities are in TeX Live 2007, which I 
>have installed but have been too intimidated by to delve into it properly.

There is almost nothing TeXLive can do that MiKTeX cannot (apart from the new
XeTeX engine, which is irrelevant here). I don't know how its DVI viewer
compares to Yap. I use the current TeXLive with windvi from the 
previous TeXLive. I can certainly print a whole document from windvi 
in landscape,
and PS is never involved.


Dan


Daniel H. Luecking
Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Arkansas
"Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum" --Descarte