paper options

[Norbert Preining]

Hi all,

thanks David for the clarification.

Just to add to the excellent explanation of David:

tlmgr paper tries to set the *physical* paper size for a variety of
programs, as you can see with

$ tlmgr paper
Current context paper size (from /home/norbert/tl/2021/texmf-dist/tex/context/user/mkii/cont-sys.rme): a4
Current dvipdfmx paper size (from /home/norbert/tl/2021/texmf-config/dvipdfmx/dvipdfmx.cfg): a4
Current dvips paper size (from /home/norbert/tl/2021/texmf-dist/dvips/config/config.ps): a4
Current pdftex paper size (from /home/norbert/tl/2021/texmf-dist/tex/generic/tex-ini-files/pdftexconfig.tex): a4
Current psutils paper size (from /home/norbert/tl/2021/texmf-dist/psutils/paper.cfg): a4
Current xdvi paper size (from /home/norbert/tl/2021/texmf-dist/xdvi/XDvi): a4

That means, if you create a ps or pdf file using one of the programs and
do not specify anything else, the set paper size will be used.

For latex that means if you don't specify anything, you will get (as
David explained) a letter sized page layed out by latex, printed onto
physical a4 paper.

Usage of packages that detect the backend and set physical page size
from the specified latex page size are recommended.

Best

Norbert

--
PREINING Norbert                              https://www.preining.info
Fujitsu Research  +  IFMGA Guide  +  TU Wien  +  TeX Live  + Debian Dev
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