hazela@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Jose Reynaldo Setti) (02/03/90)
I am a novice in LaTeX and I am looking for some good and knowledgeable soul to give me some help. I am trying to run LaTeX on a 386AT under DOS. Up to this point I ftp'ed SB29TEX and DVIVGA from one of the net archives. These two beasts are working fine -- I tested them on the SB29TEX documentation. So far, so good. Now, my first question. I have installed each of these programs using different subdirectories and I noticed that some of the files seem to have the same names -- especially fonts. Can I use the same files for both things? Is anybody out there using this combination? How do you have structured your files? Up to this point I've not been able to print anything. Not that I really wanted to, but I imagine that some day I might have to print a page or two, maybe a little more. Our 386 is connected to a Mac and a Laserwriter by a Tops network and I want to use the Laserwriter to do the printing job. Now, my second question: what do I need to do this? New font metrics to go with SB29TEX? Is it possible to use SB29TEX to produce a dvi file for a postscript printer? What has to be done? Where can I get the font metrics and files from? What kind of dvi to postscript translators exist out there? The easiest way for my setup is to get a program that would translate the dvi file into a postscript file which I could send to Laserwriter through SendPS, but I would consider hooking the Laserwriter to the 386 directly, when necessary. Is this PostScript flavour of LaTeX available as freeware or shareware? I am in a very low budget but I can ftp files from any server. I apologize if this is a very common question in this newsgroup, although scanning the last 352 messages has not brought up any answers to my questions. Thanks in advance for any help, j.r.setti civil eng - u of waterloo waterloo ontario canada
spqr@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Sebastian Rahtz) (02/06/90)
>>>>> On 2 Feb 90 23:15:24 GMT, hazela@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Jose Reynaldo Setti) said: > I am trying to run LaTeX on a 386AT under DOS. Up to this point I ftp'ed > SB29TEX and DVIVGA from one of the net archives. These two beasts are .. > using different subdirectories and I noticed that some of the files seem > to have the same names -- especially fonts. Can I use the same files for you probably have 3 sorts of font files: - set 1 are with suffix of .tfm are for TeX, and tell it how big letters are - set 2 are for dvivga, and tell it how to draw letters dot by dot; probably a load of .pk files in a texfonts directory - set 3 are for a laser printer at a different resolution to the screen, and do the same sort of job as set 2 You always need set 1; although 2 and 3 may look the same sort of names, they *are* both needed, as you wouldn't want to send 100dpi fonts to a 300dpi printer. I may have misunderstood your setup, of course... > two, maybe a little more. Our 386 is connected to a Mac and a Laserwriter > by a Tops network and I want to use the Laserwriter to do the printing > job. Now, my second question: what do I need to do this? New font metrics > to go with SB29TEX? If you want to print using the default Computer Modern Roman fonts (which are horrible on a laserwriter in my opinion), you need no new font metrics, but do need a printer driver and a set of 300 dpi fonts. If you want to use the builtin PostScript fonts, you need a set of font metrics for them, and a printer driver that understands this concept (not all do). You also need to convince LaTeX it is using eg Palatino instead of Computer Modern Roman. not trivial, but all the dvi to PS drivers which support PS fonts have examples of how to do it. there are three approaches: a) hack lfonts.tex and hard-wire in a different set of default fonts b) use a style option in LaTeX to load new fonts and change the default meanings of \rm, \em, \large etc c) dump the concept of lfonts.tex and use Frank Mittelbach's scheme for describing font families to LaTeX most people adopt b). If you want to read about c), look up the issue of Tugboat (TeX User's Group journal) for last year. > font metrics and files from? What kind of dvi to postscript translators > exist out there? dozens. you just don't want to know.... there are commercial ones all over the shop, and PD ones for all sorts of machines. sadly, the PC isn't *that* well served. you could ftp Nelson Beebe's programs (you want dvialw) from science.utah.edu (but I seem to recall that it doesn't support use of builtin PostScript fonts), or if you can find Clark's dvitops somewhere in America, that compiles well on a PC and offers more functionality than Beebe (without any disrespect to Beebe's family, its PostScript interface is a bit lacking these days). You will also find the font metrics for PostScript fonts at Utah, I think, or I have little doubt that searching sun.soe.clarkson.edu or june.cs.washington.edu would net you all the .tfm files you want and a lot more besides. > would translate the dvi file into a postscript file which I could send to > Laserwriter through SendPS, but I would consider hooking the Laserwriter > to the 386 directly, when necessary. Is this PostScript flavour of the driver will produce a PS file which you can send to the printer howsoever you like. > I apologize if this is a very common question in this newsgroup, although > scanning the last 352 messages has not brought up any answers to my > questions. its incredibly common, despite the fact that the problems were solved at least 4 or 5 years ago. people still quarrel in public about the best way of getting TeX to use PostScript fonts. sebastian rahtz PS as another letter today said, the best thing you can do is join TUG: "The TeX Users Group has lots of additional information about TeX. The cost to join is only $35 (a mere $25 for students). The membership fee includes a subscription to the TUGboat---an invaluable resource for TeX users. So, to use the words of Knuth "Don't delay, write today!" (pg. 483 of the TeXbook). TeX Users Group P.O. Box 9506 Providence, RI 02940 (401) 751-7760 TUG@math.ams.com (Internet) " -- Sebastian Rahtz S.Rahtz@uk.ac.soton.ecs (JANET) Computer Science S.Rahtz@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bitnet) Southampton S09 5NH, UK S.Rahtz@sot-ecs.uucp (uucp)