Generate PDF from LaTeX
This page introduces how to generate pdf files with bookmarks and
hyperlinks from your LaTeX file. For a more complete discussion of pdfLaTeX, please refer to here.
There are two ways of doing this. One way is to use ps2pdf, which
is explained here in this page, and the
other way is to use pdflatex, which is explained here in this page. Using ps2pdf is
very simple. However, if you want more fine control for the generated
pdf file, you should use pdfLaTeX.
Why pdf is better than ps?
I like pdf format because:
- Pdf file is smaller than ps.
- Pdf can have bookmarks for each chapter and section.
- You can search text in pdf viewer.
- You can copy text from pdf files
Setting up hyper links
You need to use the hyperref package to use the hyper links in your
document. Usehyperref is an
example piece of LaTeX code of using hyperref, which is based on the
example in this page. You should
copy it into the preamble of your LaTeX file right before the
\begin{document} part and change the information in the \hypersetup part.
Use latex+ps2pdf generating pdf files
Make sure the ps2pdf option is selected in your hyperref package. After using latex to get an dvi file, you should use this command to
generate the ps file:
dvips -Ppdf -G0 myfile
Then use ps2pdf to convert the ps file to pdf:
ps2pdf myfile.ps
If the generated pdf file has very small top margin, it means dvips
generated A4 size but you expected letter size. Thus you should use
this dvips command:
dvips -t letterSize -Ppdf -G0 myfile
Use pdfLaTeX generating pdf files?
The disadvantage of using pdflatex is that some packages which uses
postscripts (like pstricks) cannot be compiled directly by
pdflatex.
When using pdflatex, you just run pdflatex instead of latex to compile
your LaTeX file. However, pdflatex does not read eps format. Thus you
should convert it to pdf format.
When you include your graphics file, do not give the extension:
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=.5\textwidth, height=!]{myimage}
\caption{My Figure} \label{fig:my}
\end{figure}
When
compiling by LaTeX, the eps file is searched by default. When
compiling by pdfLaTeX, the pdf file is searched by default. Thus you
don't need to change your TeX file when switching between LaTeX and
pdfLaTeX.
The epstopdf command coming from your TeX distribution can convert eps
to pdf. However, due to a bug in GhostScript, the image is rotated by
90 degrees sometimes. Thus you should use this command to do the
conversion. Of course you want to replace my.eps and my.pdf with the
file name of your images.
egrep -v "^%%Orientation:" my.eps | epstopdf --filter --outfile=my.pdf
Here is a Makefile to convert eps to pdf and
use pdflatex and latex automatically.
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