Welcome to Patrick Jöckel's
"How-to make a PDF-document from a LaTeX - source ?" - page
Last modified on
23 Jun 2008
Hi !
You want to produce a PDF (portable document format)
from your LaTeX - source ?
-- Nothing is easier than that !
The result should look perfect, with bookmarks,
hyper-references, thumbnails ?
-- No problem !
Really ???
-- As I say !!! O.K. Let's go ...
... first, a short intro for very beginners ...
What are hyper-references ?
The PDF-Format supports links comparable to conventional web-pages (HTML).
With this you can (provided that your PDF-viewer supports it) jump per
mouse-click to in-text-references, e.g., if you reference in your TeX-source
a figure, table, or equation with the \label{...} command, a link to
this label will be created whenever you use \ref{...}.
This works also with citations (\cite{...}) when you use
bibTeX.
What are bookmarks ?
These are special links, usually in a separate frame of your PDF-viewer.
With those you can jump per mouse-click to chapters, sections, subsections,
etc., and also to self-defined places in your document.
What are thumbnails ?
These are small pictograms with the page-layout and page number, usually
in a separate frame of your PDF-viewer. Helps to find (and jump per
mouse-click to) a special page.
... second, some general remarks ...
In principle there are two pathways to follow:
I) LaTeX (+bibTeX) -> dvips -> ps2pdf
(gs Version 6.01 or later)
- This you can easily use to convert (almost) any
postscript(.ps)-document to PDF (.pdf). It is the easiest way,
if you do not need hyper-references, or thumbnails. You do not have
to change your TeX-source ! In particular, you can go on including
.eps (Encapsulated-Postscript) files in your document.
- This also supports hyper-references (and thumbnails)
with the hyperref-package (and the thumbpdf-package).
- Use "dvips -Ppdf" in order to include
scalable Type-1 fonts (i.e., postscript-fonts
instead of the standard bitmap(PK)-fonts)
into your ps-document, otherwise the resulting PDF-file will look
quite ugly on screen.
- If you want to have hyper-references, be aware that this path
currently
does not correctly support
references which exceed one line
(i.e., the "breaklinks=true" - option of the
hyperref-package) !
Such hyper-references usually occur for long headings in the
"Table of Contents", or figure-/table-captions in the "List of
Figures/Tables".
II) pdfLaTeX (+bibTeX)
- First of all: For this path you must convert all your included
.eps-graphics into PDF format. This can be done by
"epstopdf". In addition you have to change your
TeX-file, at minimum to include the .pdf-graphics.
- If you start a new document from scratch, intended to get a PDF,
this path is the first choice, although pdfLaTeX is still in
"beta-state".
- LaTeX and pdfLaTeX behave by default differently concerning the
character-spacing. As a result, the same TeX-File compiled with
LaTeX and pdfLaTeX may show different line-breaks, paragraphs,
page-breaks etc.
Fortunately, there is a switch in pdfLaTeX to ensure LaTeX spacing.
- pdfLaTeX uses per default Type-1 fonts.
... third, a list of recipes ...
How do I include hyper-references ?
Include
\usepackage[option1,option2,...]{hyperref}
as last package into the header of your TeX-file.
Possible options are (not complete):
| ps2pdf |
required for LaTeX -> dvips -Ppdf -> ps2pdf |
| pdftex |
required for pdfLaTeX |
| bookmarks=true |
generates bookmarks for all entries in the "Table of Contents" |
| bookmarksnumbered=true |
includes chapter-/header-/section-/subsection-/... -numbers for
the entries in the "Table of Contents".
Note: The "depth" of
entries you can choose with \setcounter{tocdepth}{...}, and the
numbering with \setcounter{secnumdepth}{...} in your TeX-header.
|
| hypertexnames=false |
this might be necessary in order to get the hyper-links to the
figures right
|
| breaklinks=true |
allows hyper-references (links) exceeding a single line
Note: NOT supported by all versions of dvips and/or ps2pdf !
|
| linkbordercolor={0 0 1} |
if you prefer blue frames around the links instead of the default,
which is red
Note: You can choose any color with {r g b}, where
0 < r,g,b < 1 are the fractions of red, green and blue.
|
| pdfborder={0 0 112.0} |
(set width of frames in pixels), this may be necessary for ps2pdf,
since some versions multiply the default ({0 0 1}) with 0.009
|
For a complete list of options, have a look at
hyperref.pdf.
Can I set the PDF-Document-Info section
of my document ?
(With the
Acrobat-Reader
you will get this dialog with Ctrl-D, or via the
File->Document Info->General... menu.)
Yes, you can ! Include the following lines into your TeX-header
(after the hyperref-package is included):
\hypersetup{
pdfauthor = {Name of Author},
pdftitle = {Title of docment},
pdfsubject = {Subject},
pdfkeywords = {Keyword1, Keyword2, ...},
pdfcreator = {LaTeX with hyperref package},
pdfproducer = {dvips + ps2pdf}}
Notes:
- Entries you do not set explicitly are set by default (probably empty).
- The "pdfcreator" and "pdfproducer" - fields are automatically set by
pdfLaTeX.
- pdfLaTeX also sets automatically the
/CreationDate - field
(i.e., the date and time of creation of the PDF-document) in addition,
which you CANNOT set manually with the \hypersetup - command.
Can I still set the CreationDate in the
PDF-Document-Info section, if I use ps2pdf ?
Yes, you can:
Edit the Postscript-File (dvips-output) before ps2pdf.
Search for "/Keywords".
Introduce the following before it:
/CreationDate (D:20010124145052+01'00')
The format is D:YYYYMMDDhhmmss[+,-]HH'NN'
(YYYY=year, MM=month, DD=day, hh=hour (local), mm=minutes(local), ss(local),
+ or - for HH hours and NN minutes relative to UTC. The "'" belong to the
syntax!
If you use LaTeX on UNIX, the tcsh-script
pdftime
will do the job for you
(simply edit the UTC-offset for your time-zone !).
Usage: pdftime ps-file
How can I force pdfLaTeX to use the same spacing
as LaTeX ?
Simply include
\pdfadjustspacing=1
to your TeX-header.
Is it possible to have one TeX-header for both
LaTeX and pdfLaTeX ?
Yes, see the example below ...
How can I introduce additional bookmarks, e.g.,
for pages that have no entries in the "Table of Contents" ?
Simply include
\pdfbookmark[n]{Bookmarktitle}{internal_label}
into your TeX-header. "n" is the category, the bookmark occurs, i.e.,
1 for section, 2 for subsection, ... etc. in case of the article-style.
"Bookmarktitle" is the name of the bookmark that occurs in the
bookmarks-frame of your PDF-viewer, and "internal_label" is an internal,
non-ambiguous label.
Why does the additional bookmark not work correctly,
if I generate an additional line in the "Table of Contents", e.g.,
for the "List of Figures" with
"\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{\listfigurename} ?"
The hyperref-package needs a "section" command for putting the page-anchor
correctly. In the default TeX-environment, "List of Figures", "List of Tables",
"References", and "Table of Contents" do not occur in the "Table of Contents".
For including those explicitly, use the
tocbibind-package, e.g.,
\usepackage[nottoc]{tocbibind}
in your TeX-header. The "nottoc"-option prevents the entry "Table of Contents"
in the "Table of Contents". In a similar way you can switch off the
entries for "List of Figures", "List of Tables", "References". By default,
i.e., without options, all entries are generated. With the tocbibind-package
all bookmarks work correctly.
I use the tocbibind-package. I additionally want
to use the "natbib.sty"-style for the "References". Is this possible ?
Yes. With recent LaTeX installations it should work.
If not ...
Both packages redefine the standard "\thebibliography" environment of TeX.
However, you can use
\usepackage[square]{natbib}
\usepackage[nottoc]{tocnatbibind}
instead.
Download the file tocnatbibind.sty,
which is only a "quick-and-dirty hack",
and put it in the same directory where your TeX source is located.
Note: tocnatbibind has the same options as tocbibind.
How can I include thumbnails in my PDF-document ?
Use thumbpdf.sty, i.e., include
\usepackage[ps2pdf]{thumbpdf} %% in case of ps2pdf
resp.
\usepackage[pdftex]{thumbpdf} %% in case of pdfLaTeX
(pdf)LaTeX your pdf-File as usually.
Then run thumbpdf (thumbpdf.pl),
which is a perl-script using
ghostscript (Version > 6.01). This will create your
thumbnails. Then redo (pdf)LaTeX to include the thumbnails.
See also the example below ...
Note:
- thumbpdf --modes=dvips pdf-file for ps2pdf
- thumbpdf pdf-file for pdfLaTeX
Where can I get all these packages, style files,
etc. ?
Some LaTeX-distributions include all of those, e.g., the
teTeX-distribution.
You can download everything
related to TeX from CTAN - for example at
ftp.dante.de or
www.dante.de.
... and last but not least, a documented example ...
The following TeX-header is an example which works for both pathways.
It contains a switch which automatically recognizes whether it is processed
by LaTeX or by pdfLaTeX.
example.tex
For use with LaTeX->dvips->ps2pdf
you can process it with the sequence:
# ----------------------------------
latex example.tex
bibtex example
latex example.tex
latex example.tex
latex example.tex
dvips -Ppdf example.dvi
pdftime example.ps
ps2pdf example.ps
# ----------------------------------
thumbpdf --modes=dvips example.pdf
latex example.tex
dvips -Ppdf example.dvi
pdftime example.ps
ps2pdf example.ps
# ----------------------------------
With pdfLaTex, do
# ----------------------------------
pdflatex example.tex
bibtex example
pdflatex example.tex
pdflatex example.tex
pdflatex example.tex
thumbpdf example.pdf
pdflatex example.tex
# ----------------------------------
... finally, here are some comments I received ...
(Thanks a lot for the contributions !)
Hans Fr. Nordhaug
(
hans dot fredrik at nordhaug dot no):
- other packages which should be mentioned:
- "ifpdf" (by Heiko Oberdiek): a more robust switch than
the one used in the example file above
- "epstopdf": If the named pdf file/figure doesn't exist
the package/macro will look for a ps/eps file with the same
name and use epstopdf automatically to convert to pdf
- "pdftricks": Makes it possible to use pstricks with pdflatex
by automatically converting eps (produced by the pstricks
enviroment) to pdf.
- "pdfpages" - makes it very easy to include pages from other
pdf-files into your document. Very convenient for collections
of articles or if you just need a couple of pages from earlier
works. (Only works with pdflatex as far as I know.)
- "purifyeps" - makes it possible to use one single eps file for both
dvips and pdflatex. (No need to store both a eps and pdf version
of a figure.)
All packages are available at CTAN - for example at
ftp.dante.de
- the figures should be included without extensions (as in the example
above), i.e,
\includegraphics{myfig}
to make the transition between ps and pdf easy
- definition of the graphics extensions in the above example is
not required,
since this is done automatically by the graphicx package
David Vannucci
(
d dot vannucci at ee dot wits dot ac dot za):
- Here is an example for colored text:
\usepackage{color} %red, green, blue, yellow,
cyan, magenta, black, white
\definecolor{pink}{rgb}{1,0.5,0.5} % color values Red, Green, Blue
\begin{document}
\textcolor{red}{Hello} this is a test
\end{document}
- Informations on forms and java in the PDF can be found here:
http://tug.daimi.au.dk/texshowcase
Marco Caliari
(
mcaliari at math dot unipd dot it):
- The packages ae and aecompl provide 8-bit Type 1
(virtual) fonts
- Using bibTeX and
hyperref causes problems with bookmarks and tableofcontents
and the bibliography entry. To solve these, use:
\clearpage
\phantomsection
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Bibliography}
\bibliography{biblio}
- Acrobat 5 displays automatically the thumbnails, without using
the thumbpdf package.
- Older versions of ps2pdf (ghostscript <= 6.53) have a bug in the
conversion of blank pages. In the PDF document the line
/Contents []
has to be replaced by a line of 12 blank spaces.
Rolf Sander
(
sander at mpch-mainz dot mpg dot de):
- Weird characters in dvips output:
(Original source:
http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=charshift
)
You've innocently generated output, using
dvips, and there
are weird transpositions in it: for example, the fi ligature has
appeared as a £ symbol. This is an unwanted side-effect of
the precautions outlined in
generating PostScript for PDF.
The -G1 switch discussed in that question is appropriate for
Knuth's text fonts, but doesn't work with text fonts that don't follow
Knuth's patterns (such as fonts supplied by Adobe).
If the problem arises, suppress the -G1 switch:
if you were using it explicitly, don't; if you were using
-Ppdf, add -G0 to
suppress the implicit switch in the pseudo-printer file.
The problem has been corrected in dvips v 5.90 (the
version distributed with the TeX-Live 7 CDROM and in other
TeX distributions from that date onwards).
-
TeX Frequently Asked Questions
Martin Aichele
(
martin dot aichele at uni-mainz dot de):
- Using the sort & compress option of natbib with hyperref
requires the package hypernat.sty. hyperref does then not longer
destroy the compression of references.
- breaklinks=true works with ps2pdf (gs 7.05.3)
- More information about LaTeX/PDF can be found here:
www.ibnm.uni-hannover.de/Mitarbeiter/beuerman/LaTeX2PDF.pdf
Andrew Archibald
(
archibal at math dot mcgill dot ca):
- The line
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
(as for example automatically included by LyX)
forces (PDF)LaTeX to use bitmap fonts.
Comment from Hans Fr. Nordhaug
(
hans dot fredrik at nordhaug dot no): This is true if
the standard TeX fonts are used. For fonts like
CM-super, latin modern and some others (which are free fonts)
it's completely fine to use \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}.
Comment from Lionel Elie Mamane
(
lionel at mamane dot lu):
But it is possible to use the CM fonts (the standard LaTeX fonts when
using OT1 encoding - the default without the above line) with a T1
encoding. This is implemented by the line:
\usepackage{ae,aecompl,aeguill}
This will again permit your LaTeX processing chain to use outline
(vector) fonts, while keeping the many advantages of the T1 encoding
for non-English languages.
Stephen Bespalko
(
sjbespa at comcast dot net):
- Using
\addcontentsline
within the text (together with the hyperref-package)
for additional entries in the table of contents generates
a hyperlink anchor on the page where the respective section starts,
and not - as would be desired - on the page, where the new entry
is located. The technique to change this behaviour is the command
\phantomsection
which needs to be placed immediately before \addcontentsline.
Then the page anchor is generated correctly.
Lars Kellogg-Stedman
(
lars at oddbit dot com):
- There is a third option for creating PDF files from LaTeX sources:
dvipdfm
(available at http://gaspra.kettering.edu/dvipdfm/).
As the name implies, this program
is similar to dvips but it produces
PDF files as output instead of postscript.
It has full support for packages such as hyperref and for most
pdfmark operators, links, outlines, named destinations, etc.
Sebastian Stammler
(
linuxcld at hrz dot tu-darmstadt dot de):
Adrian Vogel
(
adrian dot vogel at desy dot de):
-
Some further information for using gnuplot eps figures with (PDF)LaTeX
and the hyperref-package:
info_01.txt
If you have comments or suggestions, e-mail me at
pj@p-joeckel.de
!
You can visit my home-page at
http://www.p-joeckel.de