Copyright 2007 TeX Users Group. You may freely use, modify and/or distribute this file. Frequently asked questions relating to DVIPSONE: ------------------------------------------------ Q: What is DVIPSONE? A: DVIPSONE is a program that converts device-independent (DVI) files (commonly produced by TeX) into resolution-independent PostScript (PS) files that can be sent to any PostScript printer. The PostScript file produced conforms to Adobe's Document Structuring Conventions (DSC) level 3.0, and implements full page-independence. DVIPSONE is built from the ground up to work with fonts in Adobe Type 1 format. Support for outline fonts is not an afterthought added to a basically bitmap oriented architecture. DVIPSONE is the only program of any kind that uses partial font downloading of fonts in Adobe Type 1 format. DVIPSONE runs on any IBM PC or compatible. Q: Can DVIPSONE use bit-map fonts? A: DVIPSONE normally uses outline fonts. DVI-to-PS converters that use bitmap fonts cannot produce resolution-independent output. However, the utility PKTOPS supplied with DVIPSONE can be used to convert a PK bitmap font into Type 3 PS format, and DVIPSONE can use such a bitmapped font. Q: Are the extra LaTeX & SliTeX fonts available in outline form? A: Yes, Y&Y supplies them also. These are not normally needed to work with DVI files produced using LaTeX. But are handy for working with `picture environments' and for making overhead transparencies. Q: Are the AMS fonts available in outline form? A: The AMS font set from Y&Y includes the 35 most commonly used fonts in the AMS font set, including the math symbol fonts (black board bold letters, for example), Cyrillic and Euler fonts. Q: Are there alternatives to Computer Modern for mathematical text? A: Yes, the LucidaBright + LucidaNewMath font set provides a complete replacement for Computer Modern, even for complex mathematical material. It is easy to use, since the LucidaNewMath fonts are set up to work just the way the Computer Modern math fonts work. Available from Y&Y. Q: Are outline fonts as high in quality of rendering as bitmap fonts? A: Yes, they are arguably truer to the original design of the fonts. And, of course, they are scalable and can be printed in any size and orientation on printers of differing resolution. It must be said, however, that there are also many outline fonts of inferior quality. Such fonts have given some TeX users a bad impression of what outline fonts can do. Note that commercial quality fonts cannot be made using commercially available tools such as Fontographer. Q: Is DVIPSONE available on Unix systems? Is DVIPSONE available on Macintosh? A: NO. DVIPSONE is currently only available for IBM PC compatible computers. Q: What printers can be used to print the output of DVIPSONE? A: Any PostScript printer, such as Apple LaserWriter, QMS, Varityper, Linotronics, Autologic etc. Note that some PostScript `clones' do not have a true Adobe PostScript interpretor and are not able to deal correctly with all varieties of Type 1 fonts. DVIPSONE contains work-arounds for bugs in these interpreters. Specify the printer(s) you will use when you order in case we have information pertaining to that particular printer. Q: What are the minimum requirements for DVIPSONE? A: Enough hard-disk space to store the DVIPSONE files (less than one megabyte), plus space for whatever outline fonts are to be used (the complete set of CM fonts takes about 2 Mbyte). DOS 3.0 operating system or later. DVIPSONE can run in a couple of hundred kilobytes of free memory. Also, a diskette drive is needed to read the DVIPSONE files. Specify whether you prefer 3 1/2" or 5 1/4" format when ordering. Q: How many fonts can DVIPSONE handle? A: In a given DVI file, DVIPSONE allows for as many as 72 fonts. The ultimate limitation is usually the printer memory, rather than any limitation on the part of DVIPSONE. With the advanced font management techniques used by DVIPSONE, such as partial font downloading, even printers with relatively small virtual memory can print files calling for 30 fonts or more. The exact limit is a complicated function of how the fonts are actually used in the DVI file and how the PostScript interpreter on the printer deals with them. Jobs calling for as many as 50 fonts (much more than the typical TeX job) have been run on an Apple LaserWriter II NT. Q: How fast is DVIPSONE? A: The time taken by DVIPSONE to process a DVI file can be broken into two parts: (a) the time to decompress the compact binary outline fonts into hexadecimal format suitable for sending to the printer and (b) the time taken to process individual pages. On an old AT class computer (i.e. with Intel 286 microprocessor) - without coprocessor - DVIPSONE takes about 3 seconds to decompress a font file and about 1 second to process a typical DVI page. On a 486/5o computer processing is over an order of magnitude faster. If printer resident fonts are used, processing is faster yet, since there is then no need to decompress binary font files. Either way, a complete text book of five hundred pages in DVI form can be processed in just one minute on a 486/25. Q: How fast does the PS output execute on a printer? A: Straightforward print jobs usually run close to the rated speed of the print engine, after some initial overhead when the printer's font cache is empty. On a printer that supports across-job font caching (as many do), this initial overhead will be significantly lower after the first print job. In material containing graphic images, included EPS files are typically what limits printing speed. We recommend parallel printer connections when available, rather than serial, as well as print spoolers and RAM caches. When serial connections are used, it is desireable to operate at a high baud rate. The utility MODEX, supplied with DVIPSONE makes it possible to set the baud rate higher than the DOS (and Windows 3.0) imposed limit of 19,200 baud. Many printers support 38400 or 57600 baud on their serial ports. Q: Does DVIPSONE support inclusion of EPS figures? A: Yes, DVIPSONE presently supports all ten of the most commonly used styles of usage for \special to include EPS figures. This includes output generated by several different dialects of PSFIG.TEX, EPSF.TEX, and PSADOBE.TEX macros packages and protocols understood by DVI2PS, DVIPS, and DVITOPS. DVIPSONE does not support usage of \special that depends on internal details of particular DVI-to-PS converters. We wish there was a standard for this! Q: Can DVIPSONE process files produced by Textures on the Macintosh? A: Yes, DVIPSONE recognizes the format of Textures files and can process these as well as ordinary DVI files. (Alternatively you can use DVItool supplied with Textures to convert the files to normal DVI format). Q: Will upgrades of DVIPSONE be available? A: Yes. The version of DVIPSONE now available is release 0.9. Owners of release 0.9 will be able to obtain major upgrades, up to release 1.0, for a nominal fee (cost of media, handling and shipping). Q: Does DVIPSONE support font substitution? A: Yes, substitutes can be specified in a font substitution file. A variety of options can be specified in the font substitution file. This includes on-the-fly reencoding of fonts. On-the-fly reencoding does more than merely permute the character code numbers --- it can make unencoded characters accessible. Standard substitution files are included with DVIPSONE for convenience. Q: Can fonts that do not use TeX's character encoding be remapped? A: Yes, the remapping is specified in a separate file for maximum flexibility. Standard remapping files are included with DVIPSONE for convenience. Q: Does DVIPSONE support printer resident fonts? A: Yes. Printer resident fonts can be used - as is, or remapped. A command line flag can tell DVIPSONE that all fonts called for are printer resident. Q: Does DVIPSONE support fonts in the Adobe font library? A: Yes. Any of the over 1300 Adobe Type 1 font in the Adobe font library can be used - as is, or remapped. Also, any of over 13,000 fonts available in this format from over 30 vendors can be used. Q: Can DVIPSONE use font files in MacIntosh format? A: Yes, DVIPSONE recognizes the special format used for outline font files on the MacIntosh and decodes them correctly. All you need to do is find some way of transferring the font file from the MacIntosh to your PC. Q: What font metric information is required by DVIPSONE? A: Normally, DVIPSONE gets all the metric information it needs from the font file itself. This is a great advantage, since it avoids the kind of disasters that can strike when the TFM file used by TeX does not agree with the TFM file used by the DVI processing program. If a font file cannot be found, and a substitution is called for, then DVIPSONE can use metric information in a variety of formats, including Adobe font metric (AFM) files. DVIPSONE can also use TeX metric files (TFM), and even MicroSoft Windows printer font metric files (PFM). A utility is provided with DVIPSONE that converts AFM files to TFM format, for use by TeX. Q: Can DVIPSONE permanently download fonts? A: The utility DOWNLOAD supplied with DVIPSONE can be used to downloads fonts to the printers virtual memory (VM). Usually it is best, however, to let DVIPSONE manage fonts directly. But if many jobs call for the same set of fonts, it may make sense to download them and tell DVIPSONE that they are now printer resident (by modifying the font substitution file suitably). Q: Does Y&Y offer educational discounts on their products? A: No, since our market is mostly in the educational field - our products are already priced accordingly. GLOSSARY & NOTES: ---------------- TeX is the typesetting language used for technical papers and books. DVI stands for device-independent file format. This is produced by TeX. PS stands for PostScript language. This is what the printer understands. DVI-to-PS conversion. Converting TeX output files into printer input files. CM stands for Computer Modern. These are the fonts that TeX users often use. BSR stands for Blue Sky Research - they sell CM outline fonts. Bitmap fonts. Contain pixel data - made for particular resolution and size. Outline fonts. Contain curves - can be scaled to any size (and rotated). DOS - operating system normally used on IBM PC compatible computers. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Y&Y, Inc., Tuttle's Livery #2F, 45 Walden Street, Concord, MA 01742 (800) 742-4059 --- (508) 371-3286 (voice) --- (508) 371-2004 (fax) *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***