LaTeX to PDF Guide [original]

This document describes how you can generate PDF-documents from LaTeX documents. There are several ways to generate PDF from LaTeX documents.

pdfTeX

pdfTeX is a version of TeX that outputs PDF documents instead of DVI-files. pdfTeX is currently shipped with most of the major TeX distributions such as teTeX or MikTeX. As a first try one can simply type

            pdflatex myfoobar.tex
      

which generates myfoobar.pdf. There are still some problems with pdfTeX if your document contains embedded Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) figures. I don't now the latest state of how to deal with that. Any further hint on this problem would be valuable to know. You can try to obtain more information at DejaNews with the following query.

dvips and Acrobat Distiller

Another option is to use dvips in conjunction with Adobe's Distiller.

If you use a plain dvips configuration to generate PostScript from your DVI file, dvips embeds Computer Modern fonts into the document as bitmap fonts of the specified resolution (e.g. 600 dpi). If you then use Distiller to generate a PDF document, the bitmap fonts are included into the PDF file. Unfortunately, the Acrobat Reader does a very poor job on antialiasing the included bitmap fonts.

The proper way is to instruct dvips to embed Type1 outline fonts into the PostScript file instead of the bitmap fonts. A detailed description of the font handling in PostScript and PDF is offered by Adobe. If this page has moved you can refer to the following copy taken on 99-08-06 (I did this because in the past the page number seems to have moved. Hope I don't run in any legal problems with Adobe).

Most TeX distributions include Type1 outline fonts for the Computer Modern fonts. The proper way is to instruct dvips to embed these outline fonts instead of the bitmap fonst into the PostScript file.

This can be achieved with an additional configuration file for dvips. Unfortunately, for most users it is not easy to write such a file. But it is quite easy to generate a file automatically. Here's the way to go:

• Search for a file pdftex.map in your TeX distribution (could be somewhere in .../dvips/config/).

• Run a Perl script as follows:

       perl -ne '($font, @rest) = split(/ /);
                 $uc = $font;
                 $uc =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/;
                 print "$font $uc @rest";
                ' PATH-TO-PDFTEX-MAP/pdftex.map
                > cm.map
            

  The result of this should look like my personal cm.map. This file instructs dvisp to embed the Type1 outling fonts for the Computer Modern fonts into the resulting PostScript file.

• Add to your presonal .dvipsrc the following line

        p +PATH-TO-CM-MAP/cm.map
            

  This tells dvips to use the font map you just created in addition to the system-wide configuration files.

• If you now run dvips on one of your DVI files you'll see something like

  dvips -o www.ps www.dvi
  This is dvips(k) 5.86 Copyright 1999 Radical Eye Software (www.radicaleye.com)
  ' TeX output 1999.08.05:1316' -> www.ps
  <texc.pro><texnansi.enc><8r.enc><texps.pro>. <cmti9.pfb>
  <cmr6.pfb><cmr7.pfb><cmcsc10.pfb><cmbx10.pfb><cmti10.pfb><cmbx12.pfb>
  <cmbx9.pfb><cmtt9.pfb><cmsy9.pfb><cmr9.pfb><cmr10.pfb>[1] [2
  <foo.eps>] [3] [4] [5<bar.eps>] [6] [7] [8<baz.eps>] [9] [10]
  

  It tells you that dvips has embedded all the fonts appearing in angle brackets into the PostScript file.

• Now run Distiller on the PostScript and you are done.

The nice thing about this approach is that (a) you don't need to worry about embedded EPS-figures in the PostScript file, and (b) you can do that on documents where only the PostScript document is available.

For more information ask DejaNews with the following query.

There is a publicly available Internet Distiller which you can use, if you don't have access to Adobe's product. Obviously, you should use it for publicly available documents only --there are documents that are named invoice99.pdf ... ;-)

Any further help, comments or improvements on this topic are welcome.

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kehr@informatik.tu-darmstadt.de
Last modified: Mon Jan 14 14:11:16 GMT 2002