pdfTeX

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pdfTeX
Basic data

Maintainer Hàn Thế Thành
Current  version 1.40.19
( April 14, 2018 )
operating system Platform independence
category Pleading
License GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later
tug.org/applications/pdftex

pdfTeX is an extension of the typesetting program TeX , with which PDF files can be generated directly from TeX, LaTeX and ConTeXt sources . It was originally developed by Hàn Thế Thành as part of his doctoral project at Masaryk University in Brno .

The importance of pdfTeX arises above all from the fact that PDF has effectively replaced the "old" TeX output formats DVI and PostScript .

PdfTeX is included in the newer TeX distributions ( TeX Live and the MacTeX based on it, MiKTeX ) and is used there as the standard TeX engine. The inclusion of pdfTeX in the TeX distribution teTeX 1.0 was of great importance for the spread of the system.

history

The idea for this TeX extension came up in the early 1990s when Jiří Zlatuška and Philip Taylor discussed their ideas for the further development of TeX with Donald E. Knuth in Stanford. When Knuth later came to the University of Brno to receive an honorary doctorate from the computer science faculty there, there were further encouraging discussions, this time also with Hàn Thế Thành. Other important contributions to the development of pdfTeX come from Pavel Janík, Heiko Oberdiek, Jiří Osoba, Ricardo Sanchez Carmenes, Robert Schlicht and Martin Schröder.

PdfTeX is based on the TeX sources and on Web2c. From version 1.40 the ε-TeX sources are also included in pdfTeX.

The development of pdfTeX is almost complete. Until the release of version 1.50.0 only errors should be fixed. LuaTeX is the successor to pdfTeX .

Features of pdfTeX

Differences to TeX

The main difference between TeX and pdfTeX is the way they create PDF files. The output format of TeX is DVI. In order to generate PDF files for prepress from this , further processing by a driver must be carried out. This step is not necessary when using pdfTeX because the PDF can be generated directly with it.

This makes it possible to create PDF-specific features such as hypertext references and a table of contents using LaTeX add -on packages such as hyperref in particular . PDF forms can also be generated.

On the other hand, packages based on the conversion from DVI to PostScript do not work with pdfTeX (especially PSTricks). This also applies in particular to the embedding of PostScript graphics. These must first be converted into a format that can be processed immediately by pdfTeX (PNG, JPEG, JBIG2 or PDF). The PGF / Ti k Z system was developed as an alternative to generating graphics with LaTeX .

Because pdfTeX contains the TeX sources, it is also possible to generate DVI output directly with pdfTeX. It will be identical to that of TeX, provided that the microtypographic extensions of pdfTeX have not been used.

Microtypographic extensions

The two most important capabilities of pdfTeX are in the microtypographic area. On the one hand, the so-called protruding was implemented (the optical edge compensation, also known as margin kerning or hanging punctuation ), on the other hand there is the so-called font expansion, with which works by Hermann Zapf are implemented, whose aim was to achieve a uniform gray value of the To effect print side. For LaTeX, the microtype package, which also supports the successor system LuaTeX , makes it easier to access these features.

Support of TrueType and Type 1 fonts

In addition, pdfTeX offers native support for TrueType and Type 1 fonts , which can be embedded directly in PDF files. OpenType fonts, on the other hand, can only be used to a limited extent. For this reason, successor systems such as LuaTeX and XeTeX have been developed that offer a purely Unicode-based production process for LaTeX sources.

use

In order to process LaTeX source texts, the program pdflatex can be called directly. For ConTeXt documents, pdfTeX is used by default when calling texexec .

literature

  • Michel Goossens, Sebastian Rahtz, Eitan M. Gurari, Ross Moore, Robert S. Sutor: Portable Document Format . In: The LaTeX Web Companion. Integrating TeX, HTML, and XML . 1999, ISBN 0-201-43311-7 , pp. 25-81 (8th reprint, Jan 2006).
    • German edition under the title: Michel Goossens, Sebastian Rahtz, Eitan M. Gurari, Ross Moore, Robert S. Sutor: With LaTeX into the web: Electronic publishing with TeX, HTML and XML . Addison-Wesley, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-8273-1629-4 .
  • Hàn Thế Thành: Micro-typographic extensions to the TeX typesetting system . 2000 ( pragma-ade.com [PDF; accessed on September 1, 2010] Zugl .: Diss. Univ. Brno. 2000. Zugl .: TUGboat 21: 4 (PDF; 3.5 MB). December 2000, p. 317 ff).
  • Hàn Thế Thành: Margin Kerning and Font Expansion with pdfTeX. (PDF; 87 kB) In: TUGboat. 2001, pp. 146–148 , accessed October 7, 2010 (Volume 22 (2001), No. 3).
  • Hàn Thế Thành, Sebastian Rahtz, Hans Hagen et al .: The pdfTeX user manual. (PDF; 798 kB) May 9, 2016, accessed September 30, 2016 (Rev. 753).
  • Dave Walden: Interview with Hàn Thế Thành. July 24, 2008, accessed August 30, 2010 (TUG Interview Corner).
  • Robert Schlicht: The microtype package. (PDF; 1.84 MB) May 14, 2016, accessed September 30, 2016 (Version 2.6a).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NEWS . (English, accessed August 6, 2018).
  2. ↑ pdftex - Licenses . (English, accessed August 6, 2018).
  3. ↑ Hàn Thế Thành: Micro-typographic extensions to the TeX typesetting system (German: "Mikrotypographische Extensions des TeX sentence system"). At the same time: Dissertation, Univ. Brno, 2000 (PDF, 2.4 MB).
  4. ↑ a b c d e Dave Walden: Interview with Hàn Thế Thành. In: TUG Interview Corner. tug.org. July 24, 2008. Accessed August 24, 2010.
  5. ↑ Thomas Esser. teTeX Release Notes. Accessed August 24, 2010.
  6. ↑ 19th TEX Users Group Conference TUG '98: Philip Taylor . Accessed June 8, 2016.
  7. ↑ Generating PDF directly from TeX. In: Michel Goossens, Sebastian Rahtz, Eitan M. Gurari, Ross Moore, Robert S. Sutor. The LaTeX Web Companion. Integrating TeX, HTML, and XML. 1999. 8th printing January 2006. pp. 67 ff., 67.
  8. ↑ Hàn Thế Thành, Sebastian Rahtz a. a. The pdfteX user manual.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. January 25, 2007. Rev. 1.675. S. 1. Accessed August 24, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / dante.ctan.org  
  9. ↑ Robin Fairbairn: PDFTeX and LuaTeX. In: UK List of TeX Frequently Asked Questions on the Web (UK TeX FAQ). Version 3.25. March 29, 2012. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  10. ↑ Hyperref. ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: The TeX Catalog. Accessed August 24, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dante.ctan.org
  11. ↑ Dirk Krause: PDF forms with pdflatex, hyperref and insdljs. February 7, 2008. Accessed August 24, 2010.
  12. ↑ The pdftex user manual, p. 39
  13. ↑ PDF / TikZ.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The TeX Catalog. Accessed August 24, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / dante.ctan.org  
  14. ↑ Generating PDF directly from TeX, In: Michel Goossens, Sebastian Rahtz, Eitan M. Gurari, Ross Moore, Robert S. Sutor: The LaTeX Web Companion. Integrating TeX, HTML, and XML. 1999. 8th printing January 2006. pp. 67 ff., 67.
  15. ^ Hàn Thế Thành: Micro-typographic extensions to the TeX typesetting system. P. 21; passim.
  16. ↑ The pdftex user manual. P. 41 f. Accessed August 24, 2010.
  17. ↑ Hàn Thế Thành: Micro-typographic extensions to the TeX typesetting system. P. 52 ff .; passim.
  18. ↑ Robert Schlicht. Microtype.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The TeX Catalog. Accessed August 24, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / dante.ctan.org  
  19. ↑ The pdftex user manual. P. 9 ff., 9. Accessed August 24, 2010.
  20. ↑ The pdftex user manual. P. 9. Accessed August 24, 2010.