[texworks] Problem with .eps files

[Vladimir Lomov]

Hello,

** Mark Saul [2011-09-18 21:09:30 -0400]:

> Andreas: Thank you for your kind reply.  Can I prevail just a bit
> more on your kindness?

> >If it is neccessary to use eps-Files, you have to use latex instead of
> pdflatex (which is default).

> > So you have to go this way:

> >  file.tex ->  file.dvi ->  file.ps ->  file.pdf

> >using latex, dvips and ps2pdf

pdflatex is variant of latex program to produce PDF file directly, while
latex generates DVI file. A DVI file can be converted to a number of
formats:
- PS (PostScript) by means of `dvips' program
- PDF (Portable Document Format) by means of `dvipdfm' program.

> As a naive user, I'm not sure what this is saying.  I compile the
> code, and now see that I've been using PdfLatex--under the 'Typeset'
> menu in TexWorks.  I tried choosing 'LaTexmk', but immediately got
> an error messag e"The Perl interpreter could not be found."  I'm
> totally lost.

`latexmk' is merely a PERL script, so to work it needs PERL (search web
for perl) to be installed. After that you can run in terminal (cmd on Windows)
$ latexmk YOUR_DOCUMENT.tex
to get DVI and PS files (PS file will be generated automatically, IMO).
Or run it as following
$ latexmf -pdf YOUR_DOCUMENT.tex
to get PDF file.

> How do I create a file.dvi file?  Where do I get dvips?  Is that yet
> another compiler, that eats .dvi files and gives .ps files?  And
> will ps2pdf take a .ps file as imput and give me a .pdf file?

> If so, where do i find all these programs?
And may be many other :D. To get all TeX related programs just install
one of TeX distributions: either MikTeX (if you on Windows) or TeX Live
(even if for Windows you can install TeX Live).

http://www.miktex.org
http://www.tug.org/texlive/

> I thank you in advance for your patience with me.

Actually you first problem is not texworks or latex, but lack of any
background information about LaTeX (search for `The LaTeX Companion').
But don't worry you get used to it quickly.

In short: latex allows you to include figures in two formats: EPS and PDF.

If you use `latex' _program_ you should use EPS figures (EPS files), if
you use `pdflatex' _program_ (default for texworks) you should use PDF
figures (PDF files). Great thing is you don't have to specify extensions
for image files. Consider example:

\includegraphics{fig1}

If file is processed by latex program then `fig1.eps' file will be used,
if document is processed by `pdflatex' then `fig1.pdf' file will be
included. So, generally, it is best have both files: fig1.eps and
fig1.pdf and don't use extension.

As I understand from your first post you already have EPS files. Now
there are two ways to work further:

1. convert manually EPS files for PDF ones with the help of `epstopdf'
_program_, like below
$ epstopdf fig1.eps
and that for each EPS file (I could write a one-line bash code, but if
you on Windows I lack knowledge how to achieve the same there).

2. Add to preamble of your document _package_ epstopdf, like below
... PREAMBLE
\usepackage{epstopdf}
... REST OF PREAMBLE
Then just run pdflatex, package `epstopdf' will do job on converting EPS
files to PDF before including them into document.

---
WBR, Vladimir Lomov

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