This manual documents Dvips version 5.95b (August 2005), a program to translate a DVI file into PostScript.
The Dvips program has a number of features that set it apart from other PostScript drivers for TeX. This rather long section describes the advantages of using Dvips, and may be skipped if you are just interested in learning how to use the program. See Installation, for details of compilation and installation.
The Dvips driver generates excellent, standard PostScript, that can be included in other documents as figures or printed through a variety of spoolers. The generated PostScript requires very little printer memory, so very complex documents with a lot of fonts can easily be printed even on PostScript printers without much memory, such as the original Apple LaserWriter. The PostScript output is also compact, requiring less disk space to store and making it feasible as a transfer format.
Even those documents that are too complex to print in their entirety on a particular printer can be printed, since Dvips will automatically split such documents into pieces, reclaiming the printer memory between each piece.
The Dvips program supports graphics in a natural way, allowing PostScript graphics to be included and automatically scaled and positioned in a variety of ways.
Printers with any resolution are supported, even if they have different resolutions in the horizontal and vertical directions. High resolution output is supported for typesetters, including an option that compresses the bitmap fonts so that typesetter virtual memory is not exhausted. This option also significantly reduces the size of the PostScript file and decoding in the printer is very fast.
Missing fonts can be automatically generated if Metafont exists on the system, or fonts can be converted from GF to PK format on demand. If a font cannot be generated, a scaled version of the same font at a different size can be used instead, although Dvips will complain loudly about the poor aesthetics of the resulting output.
Users will appreciate features such as collated copies and support for tpic, psfig, emtex, and METAPOST; system administrators will love the support for multiple printers, each with their own configuration file, and the ability to pipe the output directly to a program such as lpr. Support for MS-DOS, OS/2, and VMS in addition to Unix is provided in the standard distribution, and porting to other systems is easy.
One of the most important features is the support of virtual fonts, which add an entirely new level of flexibility to TeX. Virtual fonts are used to give Dvips its excellent PostScript font support, handling all the font remapping in a natural, portable, elegant, and extensible way. Dvips even comes with its own Afm2tfm program that creates the necessary virtual fonts and TeX font metric files automatically from the Adobe font metric files.
Source is provided and freely distributable, so adding a site-specific feature is possible. Adding such features is made easier by the highly modular structure of the program.
There is really no reason to use another driver, and the more people use Dvips, the less time will be spent fighting with PostScript and the more time will be available to create beautiful documents. So if you don't use Dvips on your system, get it today.
Tom Rokicki wrote and maintains the original Dvips program.
(A copy of this chapter is in the distribution file dvipsk/INSTALL.)
Installing Dvips is mostly the same as installing any Kpathsea-using program. Therefore, for the basic steps involved, see Installation. (A copy is in the file kpathsea/INSTALL.)
For solutions to common installation problems and information on how to report a bug, see the file kpathsea/BUGS (see Bugs). For solutions to Dvips-specific problems, see Debug options. Also see the Dvips home page at http://www.radicaleye.com/dvips.
Dvips does require some additional installation, detailed in the sections below. Also, to configure color devices, see Color device configuration.
Dvips has its own configuration files: a file config.ps for
sitewide defaults, and a file config.printer for each
printer (output device). Since these are site-specific, make
install does not create them; you must create them yourself.
(These Dvips configuration files are independent of the Kpathsea onfiguration file texmf.cnf (see Config files).
Dvips configuration files contents and searching are described fully in Config files. The simplest way to create a new configuration file is to copy and modify the file dvipsk/contrib/config.proto, seasoning with options to your taste from Config files. Here is config.proto for your reading pleasure:
% Prototype Dvips configuration file.
% How to print, maybe with lp instead lpr, etc.
o |lpr
% Default resolution of this device, in dots per inch.
D 600
% Metafont mode. (This is completely different from the -M command-line
% option, which controls whether MakeTeXPK is invoked.) Get
% ftp://ftp.tug.org/tex/modes.mf for a list of mode names. This mode
% and the D number above must agree, or MakeTeXPK will get confused.
M ljfour
% Memory available. Download the three-line PostScript file:
% %! Hey, we're PostScript
% /Times-Roman findfont 30 scalefont setfont 144 432 moveto
% vmstatus exch sub 40 string cvs show pop showpage
% to determine this number. (It will be the only thing printed.)
m 3500000
% Correct printer offset. You can use testpage.tex from the LaTeX
% distribution to find these numbers. Print testpage.dvi more than once.
O 0pt,0pt
% Partially download Type 1 fonts by default. Only reason not to do
% this is if you encounter bugs. (Please report them to
% tex-k@mail.tug.org if you do.)
j
% Also look for fonts at these resolutions.
R 300 600
% With a high resolution and a RISC cpu, better to compress the bitmaps.
Z
% Uncomment these if you have and want to use PostScript versions of the
% fonts.
%p +cmfonts.map
%p +lafonts.map
%p +cyrfonts.map
%p +eufonts.map
% You will also want definitions for alternative paper sizes -- A4,
% legal, and such. Examples in contrib/papersize.level2 and
% contrib/papersize.simple.
To use PostScript fonts with TeX and Dvips, you need both metric files (.tfm and .vf) and the outlines (.pfa or .pfb). See Font concepts.
To support the basic PostScript font set, the recommended (and simplest) approach is to install the files at http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/psfonts/lw35nfsx.zip. This archive contains metrics, outlines, and bitmaps (for previewing) for the 35 de facto standard fonts donated by URW and the additional high-quality freely available PostScript fonts donated by Adobe, Bitstream, and URW, including geometrically-created variants such as oblique and small caps.
CTAN:/fonts/psfonts contains support for many additional fonts for which you must buy outlines (Adobe, Bigelow & Holmes, Monotype, Softkey, Y&Y). (For CTAN info, see unixtex.ftp; a copy is in the top-level file INSTALL.)
If you have additional PostScript fonts, you can make them available to Dvips by (1) giving them with appropriate filenames; and (2) running Afm2tfm (see Making a font available) to make TFM and VF metrics for TeX and Dvips to use. Also add them to psfonts.map if necessary (see psfonts.map); it contains everything contained in lw35nfsx.zip and most fonts that come with Unix systems.
Following are locations for vendor-supplied fonts. Please mail tex-k@tug.org if you find fonts elsewhere on your system.
The NeXT system supplies more fonts than any others, but there's a lot of overlap.
Finally, if you have an Hewlett-Packard printer, you should be able to get Type 1 font files for the standard 35 fonts from HP, if the freely available URW Type 1's do not satisfy for whatever reason. The phone number for HP Printer Drivers is (in the United States) 303-339-7009. The driver set to ask for is Adobe Type Manager 2.51, and the disk set number is `MP210en3'. Mentioning anything other than Microsoft Windows when you ask for the driver set will likely lead to great confusion on the other end.
Ghostscript is a PostScript interpreter freely available to end-users, written by Peter Deutsch. It can read the PostScript produced by Dvips and render it on your monitor, or for another device (e.g., an Epson printer) that does not support PostScript, or in PDF format. The latest version is available via http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html and ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/aladdin/.
A somewhat older version of Ghostscript is available under the GNU General Public License, free to everyone. You can get that from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/.
The program Ghostview, written by Tim Theisen, provides typical previewing capabilities (next page/previous page, magnification, etc.). It requires Ghostscript to run, and files in structured Postscript, specifically with `%%Page' comments (no `N' in config.ps). You can get Ghostview from the same places as Ghostscript.
You've gone through all the trouble of installing Dvips, carefully read all the instructions in this manual, and still can't get something to work. The following sections provide some helpful hints if you find yourself in such a situation.
For details on effective bug reporting, common installation problems,
and mktexpk problems, see Bugs.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the printer has in the configuration file; see the previous section.
The most common problem with including graphics is an incorrect bounding box (see Bounding box). Complain to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications must follow when generating files to be included. The Dvips program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't been tested.
One possible thing to try is the `-K' flag which strips the comments from an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling software does not read the structured comments correctly. Use of this flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some applications read the PostScript file from the input stream, looking for a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary (not ASCII hex) will probably fail with Dvips.
Dvips reads a DVI file as output by (for example) TeX, and converts it to PostScript, taking care of builtin or downloaded PostScript fonts, font reencoding, color, etc. These features are described in other chapters in this document.
There many ways to control Dvips' behavior: configuration files, environment variables, and command-line options.
To use Dvips at its simplest, simply type
dvips foo
where foo.dvi is the output of TeX that you want to print. If Dvips has been installed correctly, the document will probably roll out of your default printer.
If you use fonts that have not been used on your system before, they may be automatically generated; this process can take a few minutes, so progress reports appear by default. The next time that document is printed, these fonts will have been saved in the proper directories, so printing will go much faster. (If Dvips tries to endlessly generate the same fonts over and over again, it hasn't been installed properly. See Unable to generate fonts.)
Many options are available (see the next section). For a brief summary of available options, just type
dvips --help
Dvips has a plethora of command line options. Reading through this section will give a good idea of the capabilities of the driver.
Here is a handy summary of the options; it is printed out when you run Dvips with no arguments or with the standard `--help' option.
Usage: dvips [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]
a* Conserve memory, not time A Print only odd (TeX) pages
b # Page copies, for posters e.g. B Print only even (TeX) pages
c # Uncollated copies C # Collated copies
d # Debugging D # Resolution
e # Maxdrift value E* Try to create EPSF
f* Run as filter F* Send control-D at end
G* Shift low chars to higher pos.
h f Add header file
i* Separate file per section
j* Download fonts partially
k* Print crop marks K* Pull comments from inclusions
l # Last page
m* Manual feed M* Don't make fonts
mode s Metafont device name
n # Maximum number of pages N* No structured comments
noomega Disable Omega extensions
o f Output file O c Set/change paper offset
p # First page P s Load config.$s
pp l Print only pages listed
q* Run quietly
r* Reverse order of pages R* Run securely
s* Enclose output in save/restore S # Max section size in pages
t s Paper format T c Specify desired page size
u s PS mapfile U* Disable string param trick
v Print version number and quit V* Send downloadable PS fonts as PK
x # Override dvi magnification X # Horizontal resolution
y # Multiply by dvi magnification Y # Vertical resolution
z* Hyper PS Z* Compress bitmap fonts
# = number f = file s = string * = suffix, `0' to turn off
c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)
l = comma-separated list of page ranges (e.g., 1-4,7-9)
Email bug reports to tex-k@mail.tug.org.
Many of the parameterless options listed here can be turned off by suffixing the option with a zero (he printer sends back errors.
The `-d' flag to Dvips helps in tracking down certain errors. The
parameter to this flag is an integer that tells what errors are
currently being tracked. To track a certain class of debug messages,
simply provide the appropriate number given below; if you wish to track
multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes you wish to track. To
track all classes, you can use -1. Another useful value is
3650, which tracks everything having to do with file searching
and opening.
Some of these debugging options are actually provided by Kpathsea (see Debugging).
The classes are:
stat calls
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest one-character file (for instance, `\ \bye'), then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler. (Adobe distributes a good one called `ehandler.ps'.) It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript, that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should generate an error message. Dvips tries to work around as many bugs as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but doubtless it misses a few. PowerPage Revision 1, Interpreter Version 20001.001, on a Mitsubishi Shinko CHC-S446i color thermal dye sublimation printer is known to be unable to print with any but builtin fonts.
If Dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the Dvips program itself is broken. Try using the debug options to determine where the error occurred (see Debug options).
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the structured comments. Try the `-N' flag to turn off structured comments and see what happens.
If some documents come out inverted or too small, probably your spooler is not supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This commonly happens on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can force Dvips to do this with the `-F' flag (or `F' config file option), but this generates files with a terminating binary character (control-D). You can also try using the `-s' flag (or `s' config file option) to enclose the entire job in a save/restore pair. See Command-line options, and Config files.
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common error messages is `bop undefined'. This is caused by old versions of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured comments with the `-N' option, but it'd be best to get your spooling software updated.
Another error message is `VM exhausted'. Some printers indicate this error by locking up, others quietly reset. This is caused by Dvips thinking that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the `m' parameter in the configuration file; use the debug option to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate you are trying to include graphics that don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, among other things. Try the PostScript file on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe PostScript printer if you have one, or Ghostscript (see Ghostscript installation); it might be a problem with the printer itself.
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory the pr