pdfTeX

Distribution

The latest stable version of pdfTeX is 1.40.10

1. NEWS
2. README
3. Release announcement
4. pdftex-1.40.10.tar.bz2 contains all the source from the TeXlive distribution needed for pdfTeX. Those not wanting to upgrade pdfTeX alone are strongly advised to get a version of their TeX distribution which has it, e.g. of TeX Live or MikTeX.

Bugs etc.

Please report bugs etc. at our sarovar site.

Latest sources

We have a subversion repository.

Some documentation

1. screen-designed, A4 size, letter size and (TeX source) User Manual for pdfTeX (Han The Thanh, Hans Hagen, and Sebastian Rahtz)
2. pdftex-syntax.txt List of new or extended primitives provided by pdfTeX.
3. pdfTeX mailing list with searchable archive.
4. pdfTeX developer mailing list.
5. Entries for pdfTeX in the UK-TeX-FAQ.

Useful material

1. epstopdf (Sebastian Rahtz). A Perl script to convert EPS files directly to encapsulated PDF, using Ghostscript; or make EPS files suitable for Distiller. You can find it on CTAN in support/epstopdf
2. pdftex.def (originally by Sebastian Rahtz and David Carlisle, now maintained on berlios by the pdfTeX community). LaTeX graphics package config file for pdfTeX, with improved functionality.
3. supp-mis.tex, current version of Context file used in pdftex.def
4. supp-pdf.tex, current version of Context file used in pdftex.def
5. PPower4, a post-processor to make PDF files with Powerpoint-like effects

A set of examples prepared with pdfTeX

1. The Pragma Home Site, the company that produces Context (i.e. Hans Hagen) is probably the richest set of pdfTeX examples
2. calculat.pdf (Hans Hagen) A complete calculator written in PDF and Javascript
3. cmyk-rgb.pdf (Hans Hagen) This one was made to ease the choice of colors. It also shows the clever way in which Adobe manages color. I also have a DVIWINDO version, but its colors cannot cope. BTW, the Distiller version also shows HSB. I can generate pantones too, but they are (I believe) copyrighted.
4. cweb-scr.pdf (Hans Hagen) Here is the cweb demo. This version is a bit stripped because of pdfTeX/reader bugs. The original one is cross linked to the A4 version.
5. gentlesgml.pdf (CV Radhakrishnan) The TEI Gentle Introduction to SGML, nicely designed for the screen in a style reminiscient of HTML frames
6. lamp.pdf (Sebastian Rahtz) All the MetaPost examples from The LaTeX Graphics Companion, and the examples from the Feynmf package
7. scherer-src.pdf (Andreas Scherer) Some excellent examples of MetaPost programming and pdfTeX output, with MP source; plus some more scherer-misc.pdf, without source.
8. A couple of examples on Allin Cottrell's site: (paper in MathTime with diagrams, etc.) and (poem by Mayakovsky in Russian, antiqua cyrillic font)

Articles about pdfTeX

1. Han The Thanh: The pdfTEX Program. EuroTeX 1998. One of the first papers about pdfTeX. It has changed quite a bit since then…

Encryption

Encryption support has been removed from pdfTeX starting with v1.10a, since it made the code too hard to maintain. Here are some tools and links for freely encrypting PDFs:

• pdftk is a command-line tool that can (among other features) encrypt and decrypt PDFs.
• PDFTrans is a PDF utility based on the iText Java library. It can add metadata and encrypt a PDF file.

Miscellaneous links

• PDF Reference at Adobe.
• Using TrueType fonts with TeX (LaTeX) and pdfTeX (pdfLaTeX) probably outdated, but still useful.
• Using TTF fonts in Pdflatex.
• pdfTeX project at freshmeat. You can subscribe to get informed about new versions here. And you can vote on pdfTeX, too.