Dvips
Encyclopedia
dvips is a software program that converts the DVI format output of TeX
typography
into a printable or otherwise presentable form. dvips was written by Tomas Rokicki to produce printable PostScript
files from DVI input, and is now commonly used for general DVI conversion.
The TeX typesetting system outputs DVI files which are intended to be independent of the output device
. In particular, they are not understood by printer
s and lack information such as font
shapes. Thus, a converter (i.e., a backend) is needed to translate from a DVI file to a printer language.
Although other DVI backends such as dvilj exist, dvips is, as stated earlier, one of the most common ways of printing DVI files. Another, more recent solution is the use of pdfTeX
to directly generate PDF
files, which have readers for most platforms. Given its importance, dvips is a standard part of most TeX distributions, such as teTeX
, and TeX Live
.
By using TeX
When producing postscript files, dvips embeds fonts inside the file. Most recent distributions will normally embed scalable fonts, also known as Type 1 fonts. Files generated with older distributions, however, may embed raster fonts. To substitute raster for scalable fonts in a postscript file in a situation where the original dvi file is unavailable use a utility called pkfix
.
TeX
TeX is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Within the typesetting system, its name is formatted as ....
typography
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
into a printable or otherwise presentable form. dvips was written by Tomas Rokicki to produce printable PostScript
PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
files from DVI input, and is now commonly used for general DVI conversion.
The TeX typesetting system outputs DVI files which are intended to be independent of the output device
Device independent
A program or file is device independent when its function is universal on different types of device.For the World Wide Web, this means writing simple common denominator Hypertext Markup Language and Cascading Style Sheets so that most Web user agents on most devices can render it acceptably.For...
. In particular, they are not understood by printer
Computer printer
In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a...
s and lack information such as font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
shapes. Thus, a converter (i.e., a backend) is needed to translate from a DVI file to a printer language.
Although other DVI backends such as dvilj exist, dvips is, as stated earlier, one of the most common ways of printing DVI files. Another, more recent solution is the use of pdfTeX
PdfTeX
The computer program pdfTeX is an extension of Knuth's typesetting program TeX, and was originally written and developed into a publicly usable product by Hàn Thế Thành as a part of the work for his PhD thesis at the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Brno...
to directly generate PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
files, which have readers for most platforms. Given its importance, dvips is a standard part of most TeX distributions, such as teTeX
TeTeX
teTeX is a TeX distribution for Unix-like systems. As of May 2006 teTeX is no longer actively maintained and its former maintainer Thomas Esser recommended TeX Live as the replacement....
, and TeX Live
TeX Live
TeX Live is a TeX distribution which is the replacement of its no-longer supported counterpart teTeX.It is now the default TeX distribution for several Linux distributions such as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntuand Gentoo....
.
By using TeX
\special commands, it is possible to directly insert "literal PostScript" into the DVI file and have such snippets of PostScript appear in the final file generated by dvips. This flexibility allows the user to include, say, watermarks on his document (especially via the use of proper packages) or further postprocess the PostScript file.When producing postscript files, dvips embeds fonts inside the file. Most recent distributions will normally embed scalable fonts, also known as Type 1 fonts. Files generated with older distributions, however, may embed raster fonts. To substitute raster for scalable fonts in a postscript file in a situation where the original dvi file is unavailable use a utility called pkfix
Pkfix
The text-producing systems LaTeX and TeX produce DVI files from files written by the user. Those files used to be post-processed by a tool called dvips, which converted those DVI files into PostScript files, which are understood by many printers.Some older versions of dvips with embedded bitmapped...
.