mrwittma@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Martin R. Wittmann) (10/27/89)
(I hope this doesn't start a religious war.)
I know of three different dvi-to-PostScript drivers (specifically, for
the Apple LaserWriter): dvialw (Beebe), dvi2ps, and dvips, and there
are probably others. Which is the *best* for including PostScript
figures, etc., directly into TeX/LaTeX via \special{} command
extensions? What are the most recent versions of each?
I will want to run the "winner" on Sun 3's (4.2BSD Unix).
Much thanks, Martin Wittmann
mrwittma@phoenix.princeton.eduverber@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu (Mark A. Verber) (10/27/89)
There are a variety of dvi-->ps. Which is best? Good questions.
(i) by Larry Denenberg, available from june.cs.washington.edu by ftp,
under the name tex/ld_dvi2ps.tar.Z
Main features: support for builtin fonts, psfig, TeX relection commands,
reasonable directory organization for fonts and environment variables,
single pages, different printer resolutions. PXL or GF fonts.
Problems: The psfile special was disabled when the support for
psfig was added. No PK fonts.
(ii) by Peter Damron, available from june.cs.washington.edu by ftp,
under the name tex/pdvi2ps.tar.Z
Main features: Improved font substitution. Well-documented code.
Supports psfile specials and macintosh graphics. PXL or GF fonts.
Problems: No builtin fonts, no support for psfig.
(iii) by Jing-bai Wang, available from june.cs.washington.edu by ftp
under the name tmp/dvi2ps.tar.Z
Main features: PK or PXL fonts. psfig. builtin fonts. some control of
virtual memory. PostScript scaling of substituted TeX fonts. On-line help.
Full page specials, psfile.
Problems: Rigid directory organization of fonts, poor search for substitutions.
Help program probably should be separate. Reimplementation of psfile looks
dangerous, but I haven't tested it.
(iv) by Van Jacobson. Available by ftp from lbl, but I don't remember the
precise address right now. It was posted fairly recently in either comp.text
or comp.lang.postscript.
Main features: psfig, builtin fonts, PK or PXL fonts, virtual memory control.
Problems: Poor search of font directories, no psfile special.
(v) by Greg Lee. He will email the shar files. Send him a message at
lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
Main features: PK or PXL files, builtin fonts. More VM control. Command
line arguments processed by getopt. Extensive use of relative movement
in PostScript, and of widthshow whenever possible to optimize PS part
of the process.
Problems: No psfig.
(vi) by Piet van Oostrum. Available from oddjob.uchicago.edu by ftp
under the name dvi2ps.2.45.tar.Z
I just got a copy of this one, and haven't looked at it.
Has correct positioning algorithm and improved selection of pages
to print. PXL or PK fonts, VM control.
(vii) dvips by Tomas Rokicki. from labrea.stanford.edu in pub directory.
This is currently my favorite:
Single version which uses PK, GF, or PXL fonts (specified at compile time),
uses builtin fonts, supports the psfile special, psfig, and macintosh
graphics, has a flexible font directory organization and a reasonable search
procedure with PostScript scaling of substituted TeX fonts, some control
of VM, the additional specials introduced by Wang, and some enhanced
page specification options.
According to Tom Rokicki:
This is the latest and greatest version of dvips. It supports:
* Automatic generation of fonts via MF whenever needed
- EPSF PostScript files complete with automatic determination
of graphics size (see epsf.tex)
* Literal PostScript includes complete with definitions
- Non-EPSF PostScript graphics with user-specified scaling
- TPIC specials
* Correct budgeting of printer memory
- Output at 300 or 400 DPI (or any other DPI)
- Use of PostScript fonts
* Use of popen on output file.
* Optional generation of `compressed' output---greatly
reduces final output file size and VM requirements.
* Reduced VM requirements even without compression
(The starred features are unique to my implementation; no other translator
that I am aware of has these features.) In addition, mine meets all the
standards that many others do not, such as use of the standard maxdrift
algorithm, even with PostScript fonts, and generation of a correct set of
ligatures and kerns for PostScript fonts.
And there are many, many other features, such as collated copies in
addition to uncollated copies, and EPSF-2.0 conformant output, etc.
Mine is virgin code, though, not derived at all from the more global
dvi2ps, so it will be harder to `integrate'.
--
Mark A. Verber
System Programmer, Physics Department, Ohio State University
verber@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu
(614) 292-8002lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) (10/27/89)
From article <958@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu>, by verber@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu (Mark A. Verber): " ... " (vii) dvips by Tomas Rokicki. from labrea.stanford.edu in pub directory. Problem: It's copyrighted. Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
gilmore@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Scott Gilmore) (10/28/89)
In article <5255@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes: >From article <958@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu>, by verber@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu (Mark A. Verber): >" ... >" (vii) dvips by Tomas Rokicki. from labrea.stanford.edu in pub directory. > >Problem: It's copyrighted. > Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu So what? It's still free! Just because Rokicki doesn't want anyone to rip-off his code and claim it (or even sell it) for their own is no reason to condemn it. In fact, it makes perfect sense to me. It's an excellent program and has been rigorously updated to keep up with the latest technology. (Now if only someone could make a fully-functional VMS port of it! A previously mentioned VMS port from Miami chokes on embedded Mac-based postscript files included with psfig.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scott Gilmore Research Assistant University of Delaware gilmore@vax1.acs.udel.edu Center for Composite Materials gilmore@oscar.ccm.udel.edu Dept. of Mechanical Engineering gilmore@minnie.me.udel.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (10/28/89)
>> (vii) dvips by Tomas Rokicki. from labrea.stanford.edu in pub directory. > Problem: It's copyrighted. Thanks for the kind words, folks. And it is copyrighted. But here are the conditions (at the top of every source file): /* * This is dvips, a freely redistributable PostScript driver * for dvi files. It is (C) Copyright 1987 by Tomas Rokicki. * You may modify and use this program to your heart's content, * so long as you send modifications to Tomas Rokicki. It can * be included in any distribution, commercial or otherwise, so * long as the banner string defined in structures.h is not * modified (except for the version number) and this banner is * printed on program invocation, or can be printed on program * invocation with the -? option. */ Although it is Copyright 88, 89, too, as specified in the banner line. You can do anything you want with it. You can compile it, sell it, modify it. Just send me the changes and leave the banner line alone. (And the banner line print option.) It's all yours. You don't have to make source available to everyone if you don't want to. -tom
lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) (10/28/89)
From article <12732@polya.Stanford.EDU>, by rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki): " ... " Although it is Copyright 88, 89, too, as specified in the banner line. " You can do anything you want with it. ... It's a fine program and the conditions on distribution are very liberal. Without meaning to imply any criticism at all, though, I can't see that it is quite true that I can do anything I want with it. Suppose I want to clip out a subroutine for use in a (free) program that I distribute, with attribution, of course. The wording of the copyright does not appear to allow that -- the "it" that can be distributed is the whole program (possibly modified). Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu