PdfTeX
Encyclopedia
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
. The idea of making this extension to TeX was conceived during the early 1990s, when Jiří Zlatuška and Phil Taylor discussed some developmental ideas with Donald Knuth at Stanford University. Knuth later met Hàn Thế Thành in Brno during his visit to the Faculty of Informatics to receive an honorary doctorate from Masaryk University.
Two prominent characteristics of pdfTeX are character protrusion, which generalizes the concept of hanging punctuation
, and font expansion, an implementation of Hermann Zapf
's ideas for improving the grayness of a typeset page. Both extend the core paragraph breaking routine. They are discussed in Thành's PhD thesis.
pdfTeX is included in most modern distributions of LaTeX
and ConTeXt
(including TeX Live
, MacTeX
, and MiKTeX
) and used as the default TeX engine. The main difference between TeX and pdfTeX is that whereas TeX outputs DVI files, pdfTeX can output PDF
files directly. This allows tight integration of PDF features such as hypertext
links and tables of contents, using packages such as hyperref. On the other hand, packages (such as PSTricks
) which exploit the earlier conversion process of DVI-to-PostScript
may fail, although replacements such as PGF/TikZ
have been written. Perhaps most notably, direct embedding of PostScript graphics is no longer functional, and one has to use a program such as eps2pdf to convert EPS files to PDF, which can then be directly inserted by pdfTeX.
It is possible to obtain DVI output from pdfTeX. This DVI output should be identical to that of TeX, unless pdfTeX's extra microtypography
features have been activated. Moreover, since LaTeX
, ConTeXt
et al. are simply macro packages for TeX, they work equally well with pdfTeX. Hence, pdflatex, for example, calls the pdfTeX program using the standard LaTeX
macros to typeset LaTeX documents, whereas it is the default rendering engine for ConTeXt
documents.
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
pdfTeX is an extension of Knuth
Donald Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.He is the author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms...
's typesetting program TeX
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 ....
, 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
Masaryk University
Masaryk University is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the third Czech university , it now consists of nine faculties and 42,182 students...
, Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
. The idea of making this extension to TeX was conceived during the early 1990s, when Jiří Zlatuška and Phil Taylor discussed some developmental ideas with Donald Knuth at Stanford University. Knuth later met Hàn Thế Thành in Brno during his visit to the Faculty of Informatics to receive an honorary doctorate from Masaryk University.
Two prominent characteristics of pdfTeX are character protrusion, which generalizes the concept of hanging punctuation
Hanging punctuation
Hanging punctuation or exdentation is a way of typesetting punctuation marks and bullet points, most commonly quotation marks and hyphens, so that they do not disrupt the ‘flow’ of a body of text or ‘break’ the margin of alignment. It is so called because the punctuation appears to ‘hang’ in the...
, and font expansion, an implementation of Hermann Zapf
Hermann Zapf
Hermann Zapf is a German typeface designer who lives in Darmstadt, Germany. He is married to calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf von Hesse....
's ideas for improving the grayness of a typeset page. Both extend the core paragraph breaking routine. They are discussed in Thành's PhD thesis.
pdfTeX is included in most modern distributions of LaTeX
LaTeX
LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to...
and ConTeXt
ConTeXt
ConTeXt is a general-purpose document processor. It is especially suited for structured documents, automated document production, very fine typography, and multi-lingual typesetting. It is based in part on the TeX typesetting system, and uses a document markup language for manuscript preparation...
(including 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....
, MacTeX
MacTeX
MacTeX is a redistribution of TeX Live. While TeX Live is designed to be cross-platform , MacTeX includes Mac-specific utilities and front-ends...
, and MiKTeX
MiKTeX
MiKTeX is a typesetting system for Microsoft Windows that is developed by Christian Schenk. It consists of an implementation of TeX and a set of related programs....
) and used as the default TeX engine. The main difference between TeX and pdfTeX is that whereas TeX outputs DVI files, pdfTeX can output 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 directly. This allows tight integration of PDF features such as hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
links and tables of contents, using packages such as hyperref. On the other hand, packages (such as PSTricks
PSTricks
PSTricks is a set of macros that allow the inclusion of PostScript drawings directly inside TeX or LaTeX code.It is originally the work of Professor Timothy Van Zandt and in recent years it has been maintained by Denis Girou, Sebastian Rahtz and Herbert Voss....
) which exploit the earlier conversion process of DVI-to-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...
may fail, although replacements such as PGF/TikZ
PGF/TikZ
PGF/TikZ is a tandem of languages for producing vector graphics from a geometric/algebraic description. PGF is a lower-level language, while TikZ is a set of higher-level macros that use PGF. The top-level PGF and TikZ commands are invoked as TeX macros, but in contrast with PSTricks, the PGF/TikZ...
have been written. Perhaps most notably, direct embedding of PostScript graphics is no longer functional, and one has to use a program such as eps2pdf to convert EPS files to PDF, which can then be directly inserted by pdfTeX.
It is possible to obtain DVI output from pdfTeX. This DVI output should be identical to that of TeX, unless pdfTeX's extra microtypography
Microtypography
Microtypography is the name given to a range of methods for improving the readability and appearance of text, especially justified text. The methods reduce the appearance of large interword spaces and create edges to the text that appear more even.- Methods :...
features have been activated. Moreover, since LaTeX
LaTeX
LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to...
, ConTeXt
ConTeXt
ConTeXt is a general-purpose document processor. It is especially suited for structured documents, automated document production, very fine typography, and multi-lingual typesetting. It is based in part on the TeX typesetting system, and uses a document markup language for manuscript preparation...
et al. are simply macro packages for TeX, they work equally well with pdfTeX. Hence, pdflatex, for example, calls the pdfTeX program using the standard LaTeX
LaTeX
LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to...
macros to typeset LaTeX documents, whereas it is the default rendering engine for ConTeXt
ConTeXt
ConTeXt is a general-purpose document processor. It is especially suited for structured documents, automated document production, very fine typography, and multi-lingual typesetting. It is based in part on the TeX typesetting system, and uses a document markup language for manuscript preparation...
documents.
Features
pdfTeX has several features not available in standard TeX:- Native TrueTypeTrueTypeTrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
and Type 1 font embedding - Micro-typographic extensions such as margin kerningKerningIn typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning is the adjustment of the space between individual letter forms vs. tracking which is the uniform adjustment of spacing applied over a...
and font expansion - Direct access to PDF-specific features such as hyperlinks, tables of contents and document information
External links
- pdfTeX project page
- Micro-typographic extensions to the TeX typesetting system - dissertation by Hàn Thế Thành