Re: texi2dvi: --dvipdf and --ps

[Karl Berry]

Hi Akim,

    and both do not have the same interface (one is input -o output,
    the other input output).

Yeah, what a drag.

    What is your recommendation?  Should I use these tools?  

I'm sure dvipdf is more widespread than dvipdfmx.  So I think dvipdf
should be the default.  An envvar seems good enough to switch to
dvipdfmx.

Also, if dvips can be overridden by an envvar, then people can override
options that way.  That should suffice.

    Should I make direct calls to dvips and them ps2pdf or even gs
    directly?

I think using dvipdf is ok, being a standard part of gs.

    I don't know dvipdfmx.  I can try a --help to see if the
    interface is "input output" or "input -o output".  

It's input -o output, like dvips.

    What's the --help for dvipdfmx?

Below.

Thanks,
karl

This is dvipdfmx-20050823 by the DVIPDFMx project team,
an extended version of dvipdfm-0.13.2c developed by Mark A. Wicks.

Copyright (C) 2002-2005 by the DVIPDFMx project team

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

Usage: dvipdfmx [options] dvifile
-c              Ignore color specials (for B&W printing)
-d number       Set PDF decimal digits (0-5) [2]
-l              Landscape mode
-f filename     Set font map file name [t1fonts.map]
-m number       Set additional magnification
-o filename     Set output file name [dvifile.pdf]
-p papersize    Set papersize [a4]
-r resolution   Set resolution (in DPI) for raster fonts [600]
-s pages        Select page ranges (-)
-t              Embed thumbnail images
-x dimension    Set horizontal offset [1.0in]
-y dimension    Set vertical offset [1.0in]
-z number       Set zlib compression level (0-9) [9]
-v              Be verbose
-vv             Be more verbose
-C number       Specify miscellaneous option flags [0]:
                  0x0001 reserved
                  0x0002 Use semi-transparent filling for tpic shading command,
                         instead of opaque gray color. (requires PDF 1.4)
                  0x0004 Treat all CIDFont as fixed-pitch font.
                  0x0008 Do not replace duplicate fontmap entries.
                Positive values are always ORed with previously given flags.
                And negative values replace old values.
-O number       Set maximum depth of open bookmark items [0]
-P number       Set permission flags for PDF encryption [0x003C]
-S              Enable PDF encryption
-T              Embed thumbnail images. Remove images files when finished.
-M              Experimental mps-to-pdf mode
-V number       Set PDF minor version [3]

All dimensions entered on the command line are "true" TeX dimensions.
Argument of "-s" lists physical page ranges separated by commas, e.g., "-s 
1-3,5-6"
Papersize is specified by paper format (e.g., "a4") or by w<unit>,h<unit> 
(e.g., "20cm,30cm").