Compiling slides into PDF

To compile the previous section's LaTeX source file, sample.tex, into a PDF file for on-screen presentation, do: 

latex sample.tex                          # will create sample.dvi
dvips -t a4 sample.dvi                    # will create sample.ps
ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress sample.ps  # will create sample.pdf
acroread sample.pdf                       # view the resulting pdf file

But make sure to read the section Configuring dvips below, before you do this. I have noticed that about 70% of users ignore this request and end up producing ugly slides.

Also see the section A Makefile for LaTeX/Prosper to see how to automate the compilation process and save yourself from typing all these ugly commands.

During the development cycle, you may want to do the following instead, which is much quicker: 

latex sample.tex         # will create sample.dvi
dvips -t a4 sample.dvi   # will create sample.ps
gv -landscape sample.ps  # view the resulting postscript file
Important!  The "-t a4" flag tells dvips to treat its input as having the dimensions of the international A4 paper size rather than the US 8.5"x11" paper size. This is because Prosper's design is based on the A4 geometry. Without that flag, parts of the slide may be cut off.
Remark: The "-dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress" flag optimizes the output resolution for producing sharper graphics. Without it, included graphics and images may look fuzzy. You may omit this flag if you don't have graphics in your slides.

Configuring dvips

The dvips utility reads its configuration information from several places, including a file named .dvipsrc in your home directory. (Note that the first character of the file name is a period.) Create a .dvipsrc file if it doesn't exist, or examine its contents if it does. Make sure that it has the following two entries: 

p +psfonts.cmz
p +psfonts.amz

Without this, characters and symbols used in mathematical formulae will have coarse outlines and will look ugly, especially when magnified and projected on a screen.

Remark: The following comment, received from Sam Greenberg in August 2006, may be of use to Windows users. I don't use Windows therefore I cannot verify its correctness:
It's probably worth noting that the .dvipsrc file has a funky translation on the windows side. If the dvips.exe is in .\, the config file is ..\config\dvips.ini. I happened to find it http://www.tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/2006-January/019992.html

Configuring ghostview

The ghostview utility, invoked by the gv command, is used to view Postscript files. Ghostview reads its configuration information from several places, including a file named .gv in your home directory. (Note that the first character of the file name is a period.) I suggest that you create a .gv file if it doesn't exist, or examine its contents if it does. Put the following three lines in it: 

GV.antialias:           True
GV.watchFile:           True
GV.watchFileFrequency:  500

This way, you don't have to restart gv every time you update your Postscript file. The watchFileFrequency tells gv to check the the file every half a second (500 milliseconds) and redraw the display if the file has changed. For this, it's best if you run gv in the background by putting a trailing ampersand (&) on the command line, as in: 

gv -landscape sample.ps &
[previous]     [index]     [next]