1DVIPS(1) General Commands Manual DVIPS(1)
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6 dvips - convert a TeX DVI file to PostScript
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9 dvips [OPTIONS] file[.dvi]
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12 THIS MAN PAGE IS OBSOLETE! See the Texinfo documentation instead. You
13 can read it either in Emacs or with the standalone info program.
14 The program dvips takes a DVI file file[.dvi] produced by TeX (or by
16 some other processor such as GFtoDVI) and converts it to PostScript,
17 sending the output to a file or directly to a printer. The DVI file
18 may be specified without the .dvi extension. Fonts used may either be
19 resident in the printer or defined as bitmaps in PK files, or a `vir‐
20 tual' combination of both. If the mktexpk program is installed, dvips
21 will automatically invoke METAFONT to generate fonts that don't already
22 exist.
23 For more information, see the Texinfo manual dvips.texi, which should
25 be installed somewhere on your system, hopefully accessible through the
26 standard Info tree.
27
29 -a Conserve memory by making three passes over the .dvi file in‐
30 stead of two and only loading those characters actually used.
31 Generally only useful on machines with a very limited amount of
32 memory, like some PCs.
33 -A Print only odd pages (TeX pages, not sequence pages).
35 -b num Generate num copies of each page, but duplicating the page body
37 rather than using the #numcopies option. This can be useful in
38 conjunction with a header file setting \bop-hook to do color
39 separations or other neat tricks.
40 -B Print only even pages (TeX pages, not sequence pages).
42 -c num Generate num copies of every page. Default is 1. (For collated
44 copies, see the -C option below.)
45 -C num Create num copies, but collated (by replicating the data in the
47 PostScript file). Slower than the -c option, but easier on the
48 hands, and faster than resubmitting the same PostScript file
49 multiple times.
50 -d num Set the debug flags. This is intended only for emergencies or
52 for unusual fact-finding expeditions; it will work only if dvips
53 has been compiled with the DEBUG option. If nonzero, prints ad‐
54 ditional information on standard error. For maximum informa‐
55 tion, you can use `-1'. See the Dvips Texinfo manual for more
56 details.
57 -D num Set the resolution in dpi (dots per inch) to num. This affects
59 the choice of bitmap fonts that are loaded and also the posi‐
60 tioning of letters in resident PostScript fonts. Must be between
61 10 and 10000. This affects both the horizontal and vertical
62 resolution. If a high resolution (something greater than 400
63 dpi, say) is selected, the -Z flag should probably also be used.
64 -e num Make sure that each character is placed at most this many pixels
66 from its `true' resolution-independent position on the page. The
67 default value of this parameter is resolution dependent. Allow‐
68 ing individual characters to `drift' from their correctly
69 rounded positions by a few pixels, while regaining the true po‐
70 sition at the beginning of each new word, improves the spacing
71 of letters in words.
72 -E makes dvips attempt to generate an EPSF file with a tight bound‐
74 ing box. This only works on one-page files, and it only looks
75 at marks made by characters and rules, not by any included
76 graphics. In addition, it gets the glyph metrics from the tfm
77 file, so characters that lie outside their enclosing tfm box may
78 confuse it. In addition, the bounding box might be a bit too
79 loose if the character glyph has significant left or right side
80 bearings. Nonetheless, this option works well for creating
81 small EPSF files for equations or tables or the like. (Note, of
82 course, that dvips output is resolution dependent and thus does
83 not make very good EPSF files, especially if the images are to
84 be scaled; use these EPSF files with a great deal of care.)
85 -f Run as a filter. Read the .dvi file from standard input and
87 write the PostScript to standard output. The standard input
88 must be seekable, so it cannot be a pipe. If you must use a
89 pipe, write a shell script that copies the pipe output to a tem‐
90 porary file and then points dvips at this file. This option
91 also disables the automatic reading of the PRINTER environment
92 variable, and turns off the automatic sending of control D if it
93 was turned on with the -F option or in the configuration file;
94 use -F after this option if you want both.
95 -F Causes Control-D (ASCII code 4) to be appended as the very last
97 character of the PostScript file. This is useful when dvips is
98 driving the printer directly instead of working through a
99 spooler, as is common on extremely small systems. NOTE! DO NOT
100 USE THIS OPTION!
101 -G Causes dvips to shift non-printing characters to higher-numbered
103 positions. This may be useful sometimes.
104 -h name
106 Prepend file name as an additional header file. (However, if the
107 name is simply `-' suppress all header files from the output.)
108 This header file gets added to the PostScript userdict.
109 -i Make each section be a separate file. Under certain circum‐
111 stances, dvips will split the document up into `sections' to be
112 processed independently; this is most often done for memory rea‐
113 sons. Using this option tells dvips to place each section into
114 a separate file; the new file names are created replacing the
115 suffix of the supplied output file name by a three-digit se‐
116 quence number. This option is most often used in conjunction
117 with the -S option which sets the maximum section length in
118 pages. For instance, some phototypesetters cannot print more
119 than ten or so consecutive pages before running out of steam;
120 these options can be used to automatically split a book into
121 ten-page sections, each to its own file.
122 -j Download only needed characters from Type 1 fonts. This is the
124 default in the current release. Some debugging flags trace this
125 operation. You can also control partial downloading on a per-
126 font basis, via the psfonts.map file.
127 -k Print crop marks. This option increases the paper size (which
129 should be specified, either with a paper size special or with
130 the -T option) by a half inch in each dimension. It translates
131 each page by a quarter inch and draws cross-style crop marks.
132 It is mostly useful with typesetters that can set the page size
133 automatically.
134 -K This option causes comments in included PostScript graphics,
136 font files, and headers to be removed. This is sometimes neces‐
137 sary to get around bugs in spoolers or PostScript post-process‐
138 ing programs. Specifically, the %%Page comments, when left in,
139 often cause difficulties. Use of this flag can cause some in‐
140 cluded graphics to fail, since the PostScript header macros from
141 some software packages read portions of the input stream line by
142 line, searching for a particular comment. This option has been
143 turned off by default because PostScript previewers and spoolers
144 have been getting better.
145 -l num The last page printed will be the first one numbered num Default
147 is the last page in the document. If the num is prefixed by an
148 equals sign, then it (and any argument to the -p option) is
149 treated as a sequence number, rather than a value to compare
150 with \count0 values. Thus, using -l =9 will end with the ninth
151 page of the document, no matter what the pages are actually num‐
152 bered. On the other hand, if num is suffixed by `.SEQ', the SE‐
153 Qth occurrence of num is used; for example, -l 99.2 says to end
154 processing with the second page numbered 99 in the document.
155 -m Specify manual feed for printer.
157 -mode mode
159 Use mode as the Metafont device name for path searching and font
160 generation. This overrides any value from configuration files.
161 With the default paths, explicitly specifying the mode also
162 makes the program assume the fonts are in a subdirectory named
163 mode.
164 -M Turns off the automatic font generation facility. If any fonts
166 are missing, commands to generate the fonts are appended to the
167 file missfont.log in the current directory; this file can then
168 be executed and deleted to create the missing fonts.
169 -n num At most num pages will be printed. Default is 100000.
171 -N Turns off structured comments; this might be necessary on some
173 systems that try to interpret PostScript comments in weird ways,
174 or on some PostScript printers. Old versions of TranScript in
175 particular cannot handle modern Encapsulated PostScript.
176 -noomega
178 This will disable the use of Omega extensions when interpreting
179 DVI files. By default, the additional opcodes 129 and 134 are
180 recognized by dvips as Omega or pTeX extensions and interpreted
181 as requests to set 2-byte characters.
182 -noptex
184 This will disable the use of pTeX extensions when interpreting
185 DVI files. By default, the additional opcodes 130 and 135 are
186 recognized by dvips as pTeX extensions and interpreted as re‐
187 quests to set 3-byte characters, and 255 as request to change
188 the typesetting direction.
189 The only drawback is that the virtual font array will (at least
191 temporarily) require 65536 or more positions instead of the de‐
192 fault 256 positions, i.e., the memory requirements of dvips will
193 be somewhat larger. If you find this unacceptable or encounter
194 another problem with the Omega or pTeX extensions, you can
195 switch off the pTeX extension by using -noptex, or both by using
196 -noomega (but please do send a bug report if you find such prob‐
197 lems - see the bug address in the AUTHORS section below).
198 -o name
200 The output will be sent to file name If no file name is given
201 (i.e., -o is last on the command line), the default name is
202 file.ps where the .dvi file was called file.dvi; if this option
203 isn't given, any default in the configuration file is used. If
204 the first character of the supplied output file name is an ex‐
205 clamation mark, then the remainder will be used as an argument
206 to popen; thus, specifying !lpr as the output file will automat‐
207 ically queue the file for printing. This option also disables
208 the automatic reading of the PRINTER environment variable, and
209 turns off the automatic sending of control D if it was turned on
210 with the -F option or in the configuration file; use -F after
211 this option if you want both.
212 -O offset
214 Move the origin by a certain amount. The offset is a comma-sep‐
215 arated pair of dimensions, such as .1in,-.3cm (in the same syn‐
216 tax used in the papersize special). The origin of the page is
217 shifted from the default position (of one inch down, one inch to
218 the right from the upper left corner of the paper) by this
219 amount.
220 -p num Just like -l but for the first page in the document.
222 -pp pagelist
224 A comma-separated list of pages and ranges (a-b) may be given,
225 which will be interpreted as \count0 values. Pages not speci‐
226 fied will not be printed. Multiple -pp options may be specified
227 or all pages and page ranges can be specified with one -pp op‐
228 tion.
229 -P printername
231 Sets up the output for the appropriate printer. This is imple‐
232 mented by reading in config.printername , which can then set the
233 output pipe (as in, !lpr -Pprintername as well as the font paths
234 and any other config.ps defaults for that printer only. Note
235 that config.ps is read before config.printername In addition,
236 another file called ~/.dvipsrc is searched for immediately after
237 config.ps; this file is intended for user defaults. If no -P
238 command is given, the environment variable PRINTER is checked.
239 If that variable exists, and a corresponding configuration file
240 exists, that configuration file is read in.
241 -q Run in quiet mode. Don't chatter about pages converted, etc.;
243 report nothing but errors to standard error.
244 -r Stack pages in reverse order. Normally, page 1 will be printed
246 first.
247 -R[0|1|2]
249 Run securely. -R2 disables both shell command execution in
250 \special'{} (via backticks ` ) and config files (via the E op‐
251 tion), and opening of any absolute filenames. -R1 , the de‐
252 fault, forbids shell escapes but allows absolute filenames. -R0
253 allows both. The config file option is z
254 -s Causes the entire global output to be enclosed in a save/restore
256 pair. This causes the file to not be truly conformant, and is
257 thus not recommended, but is useful if you are driving the
258 printer directly and don't care too much about the portability
259 of the output.
260 -S num Set the maximum number of pages in each `section'. This option
262 is most commonly used with the -i option; see that documentation
263 above for more information.
264 -t papertype
266 This sets the paper type to papertype. The papertype should be
267 defined in one of the configuration files, along with the appro‐
268 priate code to select it. (Currently known types include let‐
269 ter, legal, ledger, a4, a3). You can also specify -t landscape,
270 which rotates a document by 90 degrees. To rotate a document
271 whose size is not letter, you can use the -t option twice, once
272 for the page size, and once for landscape. You should not use
273 any -t option when the DVI file already contains a papersize
274 special, as is done by some LaTeX packages, notably hyper‐
275 ref.sty.
276 The upper left corner of each page in the .dvi file is placed
278 one inch from the left and one inch from the top. Use of this
279 option is highly dependent on the configuration file. Note that
280 executing the letter or a4 or other PostScript operators cause
281 the document to be nonconforming and can cause it not to print
282 on certain printers, so the paper size should not execute such
283 an operator if at all possible.
284 -T papersize
286 Set the paper size to the given pair of dimensions. This option
287 takes its arguments in the same style as -O. It overrides any
288 paper size special in the dvi file.
289 -u psmapfile
291 Set psmapfile to be the file that dvips uses for looking up
292 PostScript font aliases. If psmapfile begins with a + charac‐
293 ter, then the rest of the name is used as the name of the map
294 file, and the map file is appended to the list of map files (in‐
295 stead of replacing the list). In either case, if psmapfile has
296 no extension, then .map is added at the end.
297 -U Disable a PostScript virtual memory saving optimization that
299 stores the character metric information in the same string that
300 is used to store the bitmap information. This is only necessary
301 when driving the Xerox 4045 PostScript interpreter. It is
302 caused by a bug in that interpreter that results in `garbage' on
303 the bottom of each character. Not recommended unless you must
304 drive this printer.
305 -v Print the dvips version number and exit.
307 -V Download non-resident PostScript fonts as bitmaps. This re‐
309 quires use of `gsftopk' or `pstopk' or some other such pro‐
310 gram(s) in order to generate the required bitmap fonts; these
311 programs are supplied with dvips.
312 -x num Set the magnification ratio to num/1000. Overrides the magnifi‐
314 cation specified in the .dvi file. Must be between 10 and
315 100000. Instead of an integer, num may be a real number for in‐
316 creased precision.
317 -X num Set the horizontal resolution in dots per inch to num.
319 -y num Set the magnification ratio to num/1000 times the magnification
321 specified in the .dvi file. See -x above.
322 -Y num Set the vertical resolution in dots per inch to num.
324 -z Pass html hyperdvi specials through to the output for eventual
326 distillation into PDF. This is not enabled by default to avoid
327 including the header files unnecessarily, and use of temporary
328 files in creating the output.
329 -Z Causes bitmapped fonts to be compressed before they are down‐
331 loaded, thereby reducing the size of the PostScript font-down‐
332 loading information. Especially useful at high resolutions or
333 when very large fonts are used. Will slow down printing some‐
334 what, especially on early 68000-based PostScript printers.
335
337 afm2tfm(1), tex(1), mf(1), dvitype(1), lpr(1), dvips.texi,
338 https://tug.org/dvips.
339
341 Dvipsk uses the same environment variables and algorithms for finding
342 font files as TeX and its friends do. See the documentation for the
343 Kpathsea library for details. (Repeating it here is too cumbersome.)
344 KPATHSEA_DEBUG: Trace Kpathsea lookups; set to -1 for complete tracing.
346 PRINTER: see above.
348
350 PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
351
353 Tomas Rokicki; extended to virtual fonts by Don Knuth. Path searching
354 and configuration modifications by Karl Berry.
355 Maintained in TeX Live; please send bug reports or other correspondence
357 to tex-k@tug.org (https://lists.tug.org/tex-k).
358 24 October 2021 DVIPS(1)