Tex2pdf/Lyx2pdf Homepage
The major goal of the tex2pdf script is to help people who do not know a lot
about LaTeX or PDF generation (like us :-) to obtain a useable PDF document
without spending a lot of time on this issue.
Additionally, it might be even a useful tool for someone who knows about all
these tricks, tools and everything, but wants to have it quick!
Anyway, we hope people can make use of it.
Description
tex2pdf (formerly lyx2pdf) is a script that generates a PDF document from a
LaTeX or LyX document using pdf(la)tex, hyperref and other tools. There is a
bash shell and Perl implementation available.
The bash port (tex2pdf 2.x) is no longer maintained and is considered
deprecated. However, you can still find it in the
download area of released versions.
tex2pdf is coded in Perl from version 3.0 on.
When the input file is a LyX document the script produces a LaTeX file with the
LyX export function first and than processes the exported LaTeX document.
LaTeX documents are searched for referenced files (other LaTeX docs, images),
prepared for pdflatex, included EPS/PS/PSTEX images are converted to PDF with
epstopdf and finally the script runs pdflatex, bibtex, makeindex, thumbpdf,
authorindex or ppower, depending on the dependencies encountered and the parameter
selection. The entire behavior can be adjusted to your personal needs and
workarounds for known problems with called applications are already integrated.
Primary dependencies
- Perl: As tex2pdf is a Perl script it
requires Perl of course. ;-)
- pdftex: generates PDF
documents from LaTeX. Unfortunately, it cannot handle EPS graphics. This
missing feature is the main reason why the tex2pdf project has started ...
- epstopdf: translates
EPS images in PDF ones.
- hyperref: LaTeX
package to integrate (colored) links in your PDF doc. It's great!
-
Text::Balanced: This Perl modul is used by tex2pdf to parse the LaTeX
code. tex2pdf version 3.1.11 (CVS 1.90) or higher will not work without
it! In the various GNU/Linux distribution the corresponding package could
have different names. Debian:
libparse-recdescent-perl, Suse:
perl-Parse-RecDescent, Red Hat:
perl-Parse-RecDescent.
Other dependencies
Depending on the selected options, tex2pdf supports the
following tools:
- bibtex: handles a bibliograhy and its references.
- glosstex:
handles a glossary using bibtex
- makeindex: creates an index from your LaTeX document.
- authorindex:
creates an author index based on the citations made along the document
- thumbpdf:
creates little images of all your document pages and integrate them.
-
ppower4: A java class to postprocess PDF files adding pause effects
not only in the text but also in the image displaying.
- LyX: A LaTeX word processor. It is
only required when you want to process Lyx documents.
Handled graphic formats
Currently tex2pdf is able to handle automatically the following graphic formats:
- eps/ps: tex2pdf converts eps or ps files to pdf file using eps2pdf
- eps.gz/ps.gz: gzipped eps/ps files are extracted first
- pstex: tex2pdf converts combined ps/latex files to pdf files
- metapost files can be included using includegraphics or \convertMPtoPDF and tex2pdf takes them into account.
In fact the metapost files are managed by pdflatex. xfig 3.2 patchlevel 3d or newer exports metapost files
- multimetapost files: when the resulting pdf file is postprocessed by ppower this format allows the incremental
presentation of graphic information. xfig 3.2 patchlevel 3d or newer exports multimetapost files
- bitmap graphics (jpg/png/tif): jpg, png and tif files with the same
ibase name are recognized and prevent the eps convertation to pdf.
Pdftex can handle bitmaps itself and the result is better this way.
Download
tex2pdf is distributed under the conditions of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
You have to accept this license in order to legally obtain a copy of tex2pdf
or use it. You can find the license
here.
You may download the current release via the
BerliOS Project Info
Site or go directly to the
list with released files there.
We also have a public CVS repository available: You can browse it
here.
More information about our CVS repository can be found on the
developer site
again.
There is also an
anonymous FTP Space with some test data and some more stuff.
Bugs and feature requests
If you find a bug in tex2pdf please do not hesitate contact us by
sending a bug report to the tex2pdf mailing list tex2pdf-friends AT lists.berlios.de.
If you would like to see a new feature supported in forthcoming versions of tex2pdf, please send us a feature request
to the tex2pdf mailing list tex2pdf-friends AT lists.berlios.de.
Feedback and Help
Anyone is invited to help to improve tex2pdf. Therefore any kind of feedback
is welcome. Maybe you even would like to hack the code and send us your
changes. This would help a lot and is highly appreciated. Think about it :-)
Subscribing to the developer mailing list might be a first step (see below).
Please, send it to the
tex2pdf mailing list tex2pdf-friends AT lists.berlios.de.
Thanks in advance.
If you would like to contribute to this project visit its site at BerliOS.
There is also a mailing list: More information is availiable here: listinfo site
Documentation
Forthcoming features
New features are scheduled to be implemented in forthcoming versions of tex2pdf.
Hopefully, the following features will be supported in the next release:
Who We Are
There are currently two 'offical' developers working on tex2pdf:
- Steffen Evers
- Oscar Lopez
However, we are not the only ones: Many people out there have been helping
us to keep up this project. Thanks to all of them!
We would especially like to express our deep gratitude to
Jean-Pierre Chretien, Fernando Perez and Herbert Voss for their frequent
contributions!
Sooooo, have fun with it !!!!
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