These instructions assume that you are using latex from the command prompt. This is the case for most UNIX versions, as well as mikTeX for MS Windows.

Generating a Postscript Document

Postscript is the traditional format for UNIX documents. It can be sent directly to any postscript printer. Most less expensive printers do not support postscript, therefore to print a postscript document, a driver like ghostscript is required.

The examples below assume that you have a properly formatted LaTeX file called file.tex. To generate the postscript file takes two commands. The first command:

    latex file.tex

generates a .dvi file which is an intermediate file format. The second command:

    dvips file.dvi -o file.ps

• To view the created postscript file type the command:
  gv file.ps
• To print the document type the command:
  lp file.ps

Generating a PDF Document

Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) is becoming more common because the free Acrobat Reader is available for almost all operating systems. Although no printers accept pdf documents directly, printing through the Acrobat Reader works well. The Acrobat Reader also has a full screen mode which can be used do do presentations using a video projector.

The examples below assume that you have a properly formatted LaTeX file called file.tex. The steps to generate the .pdf file vary depending on which LaTeX distribution you are using. On all systems, you first generate the .dvi file the same as when generating postscript:

    latex file.tex

On most UNIX systems, there are two steps now required. The first is to make a postscript file which contains vector fonts. This is done with the command:

    dvips -P pdf file.dvi -o file.ps

Next to create the .pdf file use the command:

    ps2pdf file.ps

which will generate the file file.pdf. The ps2pdf command comes with the ghostscript distribution.

When using mikTeX on a PC, the .pdf file can be created directly using the command:

    dvipdfm file.dvi

which will generate the file, file.pdf, directly.

Department's main LaTeX help page.

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Page last updated: Monday, May 20, 2002