[tex-k] Portable PS and PDF files

Gernot Salzer salzer@logic.at
Wed, 21 Feb 2001 14:14:45 +0100


Hi,

what is the right way to produce portable and resolution independent
PS and PDF files from TeX that can be both viewed and printed on many/all
platforms?

I tried to use the TT1 verions of CM as well as pdflatex,
but some people still have problems viewing them with acrobat or
printing them. Sometimes tiny 700kB pdf files explode to 60MB
ps file when printed from acrobat.

Thanks for any hints, e.g. for a pointer to the correct place
where to ask

  Gernot

Details:

* tetex-1.0.

* PS files with TT1 fonts are produces with
   dvips -Ppdf
The output shows no more occurrences of the string "Bitmap",
so I think dvips finds the correct fonts.

* To obtain PDF files, I tried two methods:
- dvips -Ppdf; ps2pdf
- pdflatex
Especially the latter tend to explode when printed from
acrobat to PS.

<grumbling>
>From my own experience and from talking with colleagues I've got
the impression that PDF is very much like Java: designed to be
portable and platform independent, but in practice everything
else than that. I really would appreciate if someone could prove
me wrong.
</grumbling>