Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!mailrus!ames!ncar!tank!eecae!cps3xx!cpsvax!smithda From: smithda@cpsvax.cps.msu.edu (J. Daniel Smith) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: DVI files to Postscript (and tools) Message-ID: <4776@cps3xx.UUCP> Date: 28 Sep 89 01:18:57 GMT References: <860@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu> Sender: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP Reply-To: smithda@cpsvax.UUCP (J. Daniel Smith) Organization: Michigan State University, Computer Science Department Lines: 71 In article <860@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu> verber@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu (Mark A. Verber) writes: >It seems to be a shame that everyone has done their own dvi2ps driver >with their own extensions, fixes, and improvements. I am trying to >make a list of about various drivers: Amen!!!!!!!!!!! Its nice to have lots of people working on dvi->ps drivers, but it is also getting very confusing with all these different versions. I have source code for 4 or 5 different dvi->ps drivers on a machine here. Each one has a few features that are unique to it. (For example the one that is currently installed as dvi2ps will do PostScript scaling of a CM bitmap font if it can't find the right size. This is really neat, because then one can use say \font\bigtt=cmtt at 73.2pt without any problems). The list of features goes on for each different version. >I will be happy to post a summary after I get responces. It would >be nice to try and merge the various versions of dvi2ps back into >a single driver that would replace the current dvi2ps on the Unix-TeX >dist. This would be WONDERFUL. Let's get a big long list together of what everybody wants in their dvi->ps. I don't think there would be to many mutually-exclusive type things. This might be a big driver with lots of options, but I think that is much better than the current state of too many drivers. So, here is what I would like in my dvi->ps (just off the top of my head): * GOOD PostScript output (I assume this also means fast PS output) * Inclusion of other PS files (EPSF format). Since the output will also be EPSF, it should be possible to include the output from a previous run of dvi2ps as a PS file in another..... * Support of ALL font formats. I know PKs are the best, but we only want ONE driver floating around... * Support of Internal PostScript fonts. A naming standard needs to be agreed upon here. I have TFMs called Times-Roman.tfm and t-rom.tfm. * Support of other PS fonts. Both user defined fonts (so I can generate Logos and the like in PS), and downloadable fonts (so I can use fonts from Adobe) * Font substitution. Substitute missing fonts with "close" fonts, or with resident PS fonts. * I like the PS font scaling of Bitmaps mentioned above. * Control over the PS encoding vector (so I can use those neat characters that are in a PS font from TeX. A CM section symbol doesn't look very nice if everything else is Helvetica). Also, I think that the PS accented characters are probably better than with TeX. * All options controllable from a file. A file like /usr/local/tex/.dvi2ps for standards for the local system and ~/.dvi2ps for however I might want things set up differently. Of course the command line would override all of this, but it would be nice just to type dvi2ps filename most of the time. * Correct VM memory usage. I should be able to print the PS file generated by dvi->ps on all PS printers. I'm sure there are many, many, many more features that people would like to see. Some have become almost "standard" like landscape printing, etc. Anybody want to tell us out there in NetLand why this can't be done, or take a guess as to how long such an task might take? Dan ========================================================================= J. Daniel Smith Internet: smithda@cpsvax.cps.msu.edu Michigan State University BITNET: smithdan@msuegr Yea, from the table of my memory, I'll wipe away all trivial fond records. - William Schakespeare, Hamlet =========================================================================