Re: writing pdfs
> You can use pdftops(1) from the xpdf Port wich seems to make a very > correct PostScript output. For me, the pdf2ps(1) from Ghostscript make > a very, very ugly PostScript document. In me experience, acroread is the best option to convert pdf to ps (either be printing to a file or with acroread's cli). Simon signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: writing pdfs
> There's an excellent latex2e introduction from Tobias Oettiker which can > be downloaded from http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/lshort/ (filename: > lshort.pdf). I second that. An older version of lshort is included with the teTeX distribution, but since the document is actively maintained, getting the latest version might be a good idea. Simon signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: writing pdfs
On Friday, 10 October 2003 at 8:31:41 -0400, William O'Higgins wrote: > I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output > format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't > my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in > vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my > purposes nicely. > > I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice > about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text > page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I > learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some > excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line > interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what > process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing PDFs, > not writing them. PDF is a relatively unimportant part of the story. Most programs can generate PostScript, and ghostscript can convert PostScript to PDF. It comes with a script ps2pdf which does just that, though there are some options you can tweak. I use the following Makefile rule: .ps.pdf: $(GS) -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sPAPERSIZE=$(PAPER) -sOutputFile=$@ -c save pop -f $< PAPER is one of the identifiers defined in /usr/local/share/ghostscript/*version*/lib/gs_statd.ps. The real question was: which markup? Doubtless DocBook is the most recommendable, and it's very close in concept to HTML. I have lots of difficulty with it, though, and processing it is currently still a pain. You might like to look at the (barely documented) gmat port, which is what O'Reilly use to format their books. Apart from that, there's (La)TeX and groff. I started off with TeX and moved on to groff. Every time I go back to TeX, it drives me mad. groff is relatively easy to use, but most people consider it obsolescent. Greg -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. If you don't, I may ignore the reply or reply to the original recipients. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html See complete headers for address and phone numbers. pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: writing pdfs
> The only thing I would add to the excellent replies is that > no one seems to have mentioned the dvipdfm utility, > part of the teTeX package, which generates pdf > directly from your .dvi file; no need to convert > ps to pdf. Because pdflatex(1) can output PDF directly from the same LaTeX source file as for DVI. Better than to convert *from* DVI... :) -- -jg. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
[snipped] > I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice > about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text > page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I > learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some > excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line > interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you can write HTML almost as quickly as plain text you will have absolutely no problem learning LaTeX markup. IMHO the result is so superior to HTML output that they're not even in the same league, but I'm no html expert. The only thing I would add to the excellent replies is that no one seems to have mentioned the dvipdfm utility, part of the teTeX package, which generates pdf directly from your .dvi file; no need to convert ps to pdf. I've never had any problem using the Computer Modern fonts. Don Tyson ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
wrote Alexander Haderer thusly...
>
> At 07:59 10.10.2003 -0600, Tillman Hodgson wrote:
> >On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 03:06:23PM +0200, Alexander Haderer wrote:
> >>
> >> The "old" way of generating pdf via tex->dvi->ps->pdf via the
> >> classic (la)tex commands has the disadvantage that you have to
> >> deal with different ps-fontencodings (type 1 / type 3 or
> >> Pixelfont vs. Outline font) with the bad sideeffect that your
> >> pdfs have crippled and slow display on screen while printing
> >> works fine. google is full of messages regarding this topic.
> >
> >I disagree that one needs to use pdflatex, though. Those side-effects
> >you mention are trivial to get rid of:
>
> > 1. \usepackage{times} (or palatino or bookman or whatever font
> > package you like)
>
> Does this work without _any_ problems when you want to use the
> (tex-default) computer modern fonts?
No, i did not have any problems in creating PS or PDF files (from
tex ones) using Computer Modern fonts. The only drawback is the
font is packed along w/ the file, resulting in expansive files (when
compred to using only Time, Helevetica, or Courier fonts).
- Parv
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Re: writing pdfs
On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 07:59:10AM -0600, Tillman Hodgson wrote:
> 1. \usepackage{times} (or palatino or bookman or whatever font
> package you like)
>
> 2. use something like this in your Makefile:
>
> ps:
> latex some_latex_file.tex
> latex some_latex_file.tex
> dvips -Ppdf -G0 some_latex_file.dvi
>
> pdf:
> latex some_latex_file.tex
> latex some_latex_file.tex
> dvips -Ppdf -G0 some_latex_file.dvi
> ps2pdf some_latex_file.ps
>
> (running latex twice is for TOC generation, if you don't use a TOC you
> don't need that part).
>
> Voila! Your PDF and PS output will be identical. Quick display outdates
> and non-bitmap printing.
Follow-up:
For some live examples, take a look at "Automated report generation with
LaTeX and MetaPost" at http://www.rospa.ca/documents/ ... or even the
Prosper based PDFs under "Presentations".
-T
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Re: writing pdfs
> Right, but in return you gave up nice generation of exactly equivalent > PS files. I have a PS printer - I put PDF on the web and cat PS to the > printer :-) You can use pdftops(1) from the xpdf Port wich seems to make a very correct PostScript output. For me, the pdf2ps(1) from Ghostscript make a very, very ugly PostScript document. -- -jg. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
Thanks to all who, very quickly, gave recommendations, hints, references and ports locations. An excellent response. I'm going to look into DocBook and LaTex and see where that takes me. Thanks also to those who offered help with OpenOffice, but I have come to *profoundly* dislike Word and all its work-alikes, not just for its file format, but for its properties as a tool. To sum up, Word and family is a tool, in the derogatory sense. The last item that I forgot to mention is that I wanted a non-binary working format that better supports versioning with cvs, which I use to keep my laptop and desktop in sync. Thanks again to all. -- yours, William ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 04:18:38PM +0200, Alexander Haderer wrote:
> >I agree with the recommendation to learn LaTeX. It's probably the best
> >way to generate PDF output and it's widely used for document generation.
> >
> >I disagree that one needs to use pdflatex, though. Those side-effects
> >you mention are trivial to get rid of:
>
> > 1. \usepackage{times} (or palatino or bookman or whatever font
> > package you like)
>
> Does this work without _any_ problems when you want to use the
> (tex-default) computer modern fonts?
The font packages actually cause PostScript fonts to be used.
I've run into no problems with it over several years, many article
length te4chnical documents, and one book length non-technical
document.
> My experiences over the last years with different platforms and latex
> installations are, that you alway have to "google"-around to get this
> working. I use LaTeX/pdf output only from time to time so I am not the
> big expert, but using pdflatex a while ago was the first time I got
> the CMR fonts into a pdf without any display/print problems. I just
> made some slight modifications to my latex file necessary for pdflatex
> (mentioned in the pdflatex doc) and whoops, there it was.
Right, but in return you gave up nice generation of exactly equivalent
PS files. I have a PS printer - I put PDF on the web and cat PS to the
printer :-)
-T
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Re: writing pdfs
At 07:59 10.10.2003 -0600, Tillman Hodgson wrote:
On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 03:06:23PM +0200, Alexander Haderer wrote:
> My opinion: yes. Learn the basics of LaTeX and use pdflatex instead of
> latex to create pdf files directly from your tex source. The "old" way of
> generating pdf via tex->dvi->ps->pdf via the classic (la)tex commands has
> the disadvantage that you have to deal with different ps-fontencodings
> (type 1 / type 3 or Pixelfont vs. Outline font) with the bad sideeffect
> that your pdfs have crippled and slow display on screen while printing
> works fine. google is full of messages regarding this topic.
I agree with the recommendation to learn LaTeX. It's probably the best
way to generate PDF output and it's widely used for document generation.
I disagree that one needs to use pdflatex, though. Those side-effects
you mention are trivial to get rid of:
1. \usepackage{times} (or palatino or bookman or whatever font
package you like)
Does this work without _any_ problems when you want to use the
(tex-default) computer modern fonts? My experiences over the last years
with different platforms and latex installations are, that you alway have
to "google"-around to get this working. I use LaTeX/pdf output only from
time to time so I am not the big expert, but using pdflatex a while ago was
the first time I got the CMR fonts into a pdf without any display/print
problems. I just made some slight modifications to my latex file necessary
for pdflatex (mentioned in the pdflatex doc) and whoops, there it was.
Alexander
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Re: writing pdfs
On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 03:06:23PM +0200, Alexander Haderer wrote:
> My opinion: yes. Learn the basics of LaTeX and use pdflatex instead of
> latex to create pdf files directly from your tex source. The "old" way of
> generating pdf via tex->dvi->ps->pdf via the classic (la)tex commands has
> the disadvantage that you have to deal with different ps-fontencodings
> (type 1 / type 3 or Pixelfont vs. Outline font) with the bad sideeffect
> that your pdfs have crippled and slow display on screen while printing
> works fine. google is full of messages regarding this topic.
I agree with the recommendation to learn LaTeX. It's probably the best
way to generate PDF output and it's widely used for document generation.
I disagree that one needs to use pdflatex, though. Those side-effects
you mention are trivial to get rid of:
1. \usepackage{times} (or palatino or bookman or whatever font
package you like)
2. use something like this in your Makefile:
ps:
latex some_latex_file.tex
latex some_latex_file.tex
dvips -Ppdf -G0 some_latex_file.dvi
pdf:
latex some_latex_file.tex
latex some_latex_file.tex
dvips -Ppdf -G0 some_latex_file.dvi
ps2pdf some_latex_file.ps
(running latex twice is for TOC generation, if you don't use a TOC you
don't need that part).
Voila! Your PDF and PS output will be identical. Quick display outdates
and non-bitmap printing.
-T
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Re: writing pdfs
You have quite a few options: 1. HTMLDOC - will convert most HTML documents to PDF very quickly (I use this in production to generate several thousand files a month) 2. Openoffice 1.1 - has an Export to PDF option. (the most recent port works) 3. Anything that prints using Gnome's Gnome-print or KDE's Kprint, eg. Abiword or Kword, even gedit. 4. Ghostscript's ps2pdf tool used with any application that can save or print to postscript, like a2ps, html2ps, etc. Whichever method you choose, make sure you verify the output in Acrobat a few times until you are confident with the result. Sometimes it takes a bit of tweaking to get everything in the right places. Seeya...Q On Fri, 2003-10-10 at 22:31, William O'Higgins wrote: > I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output > format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't > my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in > vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my > purposes nicely. > > I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice > about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text > page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I > learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some > excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line > interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what > process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing PDFs, > not writing them. > > Thanks. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
On Friday 10 October 2003 08:14 am, Chris wrote: > On Friday 10 October 2003 07:31 am, William O'Higgins wrote: > > I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output > > format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't > > my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in > > vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my > > purposes nicely. > > > > I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice > > about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text > > page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I > > learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some > > excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line > > interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > > > I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what > > process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing PDFs, > > not writing them. > > > > Thanks. > > OppenOffice.Org (/usr/ports/editors/openoffice & > /usr/ports/editors/openoffice-devel) > > Is a suite that gets you as close to the MS Office package as can be. In > addition, you CAN create PDF's > > Just my 2 pennies As a follow up, I agree, I have not gotten OOo to install however, the openoffice-devel went smoothly for me. -- Best regards, Chris __ PGP Fingerprint = D976 2575 D0B4 E4B0 45CC AA09 0F93 FF80 C01B C363 PGP Mail encouraged / preferred - keys available on common key servers __ 01010010011101100011011001010111001001011000 ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
At 08:31 10.10.2003 -0400, William O'Higgins wrote: I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my purposes nicely. I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? I think no, because: - "modern" pdf uses compression - pdf has/may have a non linear contents: page one may be located somewhere in the pdf. - Expect pdf readers that behave strange when displaying odd pdf files Should I learn TeX or some variant and translate it? My opinion: yes. Learn the basics of LaTeX and use pdflatex instead of latex to create pdf files directly from your tex source. The "old" way of generating pdf via tex->dvi->ps->pdf via the classic (la)tex commands has the disadvantage that you have to deal with different ps-fontencodings (type 1 / type 3 or Pixelfont vs. Outline font) with the bad sideeffect that your pdfs have crippled and slow display on screen while printing works fine. google is full of messages regarding this topic. Advantages of (la)tex: the possibility to include images into your documents without problem and tables and footnotes and index and table of X and ... pdflatex is part of the (almost) complete tex distribution teTeX: /usr/ports/print/teTeX. This port has lots of documentation onboard. For more information about tex see: http://www.ctan.org/ If you think tex is much too fat for your needs because you only want to write some lines of text consider using groff (base system) with ps output and then convert this output to pdf via ps2pdf (part of /usr/ports/print/ghostscript-gnu-XXX) Alexander ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
On Friday 10 October 2003 07:31 am, William O'Higgins wrote: > I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output > format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't > my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in > vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my > purposes nicely. > > I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice > about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text > page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I > learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some > excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line > interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what > process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing PDFs, > not writing them. > > Thanks. OppenOffice.Org (/usr/ports/editors/openoffice & /usr/ports/editors/openoffice-devel) Is a suite that gets you as close to the MS Office package as can be. In addition, you CAN create PDF's Just my 2 pennies -- Best regards, Chris __ PGP Fingerprint = D976 2575 D0B4 E4B0 45CC AA09 0F93 FF80 C01B C363 PGP Mail encouraged / preferred - keys available on common key servers __ 01010010011101100011011001010111001001011000 ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
On Fri, Oct 10, 2003 at 08:31:41AM -0400, William O'Higgins wrote: > I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output > format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't > my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in > vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my > purposes nicely. > > I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice > about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text > page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I > learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some > excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line > interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'd suggest you take a look at TeX (especially LaTeX). While it might take some time to learn it will allow to output your data in various formats like html, pdf, ps, text and so on. I am generating my pdf documents with 'pdflatex' from tex sources as well. I'd recommend the following ports for writing latex docs: - teTeX - latex2e There's an excellent latex2e introduction from Tobias Oettiker which can be downloaded from http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/lshort/ (filename: lshort.pdf). If you dont like writing latex sources you can try 'lyx' which is a WYSIWYG latex editor. > I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what > process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing PDFs, > not writing them. googling on latex and pdf should give you more than enough to read :). Hope that helps cheers, tom ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: writing pdfs
* William O'Higgins: > I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what > process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing > PDFs, not writing them. Have a look at DocBook. You will need FreeBSD packages docbook-xml (the DTD), docbook-xsl (stylesheets for generating HTML and FO), libxslt (contains an XSLT processor invoked with xsltproc), and fop (converts FO to PDF). FO is an intermediate document format, it means Formatting Objects. If you don't mind writing HTML, you will surely also accept writing XML. If you are interested in Docbook, I suggest reading Bob Stayton's excellent book: http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/ Best regards, -- Jean-Baptiste Quenot http://caraldi.com/jbq/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
writing pdfs
** Reply to note from "William O'Higgins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Fri, 10 Oct 2003 08:31:41 -0400 > I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output > format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't > my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in > vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my > purposes nicely. > > I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice > about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text > page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I > learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some > excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line > interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what > process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing PDFs, > not writing them. I use a virtual printer calling ghostscript to let my users output a pdf file from any program that can print. Any postscript driver should work. Basically they prin from their favourite program to a samba shared printer which outputs a pdf file in their home dir. Some kinks but it does its job. If you are a local user you will not need samba, but the principle can be almost the same: practically everything can output postscript. bye av. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
writing pdfs
I have grown tired of using MS Word as my standard document output format. I haven't gotten OpenOffice to work under FreeBSD (and it isn't my favourite tool by a long shot) and I am most happy generating text in vi. PDF is eminently portable, and I think that it would suit my purposes nicely. I had some thoughts about generating PDFs, but I was hoping for advice about which tools to use. Should I just learn how to mark up a text page manually (I write HTML almost as quickly as plain text)? Should I learn TeX or some variant and translate it? I hear that PHP has some excellent PDF-generation tools; should I write up a command-line interpreter myself? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I did a bit of searching, but I didn't find any real *advice* on what process to use, and most of the tools that I found are for viewing PDFs, not writing them. Thanks. -- yours, William ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
