====== Making PDF documents from (La)TeX ======


There are three general routes to PDF output: Adobe's original
"distillation" route (via PostScript output), direct conversion of a
DVI file, and the use of a direct TeX-like PDF
generator such as [[1_generalites:glossaire:qu_est_ce_que_pdftex|pdfTeX]].

For simple documents (with no hyper-references), you can either

  * process the document in the normal way, produce PostScript output and distill it;
  * (on a Windows or Macintosh machine with appropriate tools installed) pass the output through a PDFwriter in place of a printer driver.  This route is only appropriate for simple documents: PDF writers cannot create hyperlinks;
  * process the document with "vanilla" LaTeX and generate PDF direct from the DVI using ''dvipdfm''/''dvipdfmx''; or 
  * process the document direct to PDF with pdfTeX, [[1_generalites:glossaire:qu_est_ce_que_luatex|LuaTeX]], or [[1_generalites:glossaire:qu_est_ce_que_xetex|XeTeX]].

To translate all the LaTeX cross-referencing into Acrobat
links, you need a LaTeX package to redefine
the internal commands.  There are two of these for LaTeX, both
capable of conforming to the [[3_composition:document:comment_faire_un_document_hypertexte|HyperTeX specification]]:
Heiko Oberdiek's [[ctanpkg>hyperref]], and Michael Mehlich's
[[ctanpkg>hyper]].  (In practice, almost everyone uses
[[ctanpkg>hyperref]]; [[ctanpkg>hyper]] hasn't been updated since 2000.)
[[ctanpkg>Hyperref]] can often determine how it should generate
hypertext from its environment, but there is a wide set of
configuration options you can give via ''\usepackage''.  The package
can operate using pdfTeX primitives, the hyperTeX
''\special''s, or DVI driver-specific ''\special'' commands.
Both ''dvips'' and Y&Y's ''DVIPSONE'' can
translate the DVI with these ''\special'' commands into
PostScript acceptable to Distiller, and
''dvipdfm'' and ''dvipdfmx'' have ''\special'' commands of
their own.

If you use Plain TeX, the [[1_generalites:glossaire:qu_est_ce_que_eplain|Eplain macros]] can
help you create PDF documents with hyper-references.
It can operate using pdfTeX primitives, or ''\special'' commands
for the ''dvipdfm''/''dvipdfmx'' DVI drivers.

While there is no free implementation of all of //Adobe Distiller//'s
functionality, any but the implausibly old versions of
[[https://www.ghostscript.com/|Ghostscript]]
provide pretty reliable distillation (but beware of the problems with
[[5_fichiers:pdf:generer_un_fichier_pdf_de_qualite|“dvips” output for distillation]]).

For viewing (and printing) the resulting files, Adobe's
//Acrobat Reader// is available for a fair range of
platforms; for those for which Adobe's reader is unavailable, remotely
current versions of [[https://www.ghostscript.com/|Ghostscript]]
combined with ''gv'' or ''[[http://www.ghostgum.com.au/|gsview]]'' can display and
print PDF files, as can ''xpdf''.

In some circumstances, a ''[[https://www.ghostscript.com/|ghostscript]]''-based
viewer application is actually preferable to Acrobat Reader.  For example, on
Windows Acrobat Reader locks the ''pdf'' file it's displaying: this
makes the traditional (and highly effective) (La)TeX development
cycle of "Edit$\rightarrow$Process$\rightarrow$Preview" become
rather clumsy --- ''[[http://www.ghostgum.com.au/|gsview]]''
doesn't make the same mistake.


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//Source:// [[faquk>FAQ-acrobat|Making PDF documents from (La)TeX]]

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