Re: [MiKTeX] pdftex problem

[David A. <dra...@me...>]

Bruce Babcock wrote:
> Thanks to those who have made suggestions.  But, still pdftex is not
> working correctly.  :(

On my machine (Windows 7 Ultimate x64, built on 31-Dec-2009 - i.e. recently)
from an elevated prompt I ran:

initexmf --admin --edit-config-file=pdftex
	and put the two lines for US letter
initexmf --admin --dump
	to rebuild formats
pdftex \input story\bye

story.pdf is US Letter. Is the *PDF* definitely the wrong size? The only
well to tell this is to open the file in Adobe Reader (or another PDF
reader) and look in Document -> Properties and see what the page size is
reported as. \pdfpagewidth is totally independent of \hsize (in other words
unless your format does something to set-up \pdfpagewidth and \hsize then
changing \pdfpagewidth in an "A4" TeX will blat an A4 on a US letter sheet).

I only use Plain TeX (or more specifically, formats of my own based on Plain
TeX) and have never had problems with document sizes - but if you're using
Plain TeX then everything is your responsibility!


David


> 
> Here is an update:
> 
> 1.  I did a fresh install of XP on a spare computer and then installed
> MiKTeX 2.8 setting the paper size to LETTER.
> 
> 2.  As suggested, I
> 
> pdflatex sample2e.tex
> 
> and sample2e.pdf looked fine.  Likewise, doing
> 
> latex sample2e.tex following by dvips sample2e.dvi followed by ps2pdf
> sample2e.ps
> 
> gave me a sample2e.pdf which viewed the same as the sample2e.pdf before.
> 
> I also tried
> 
> dvipdfm sample2e.dvi and again the pdf generated view the same as the
> other two.
> 
> 3.  But, the same was not true for pdftex. :(
> 
> When I ran pdftex on a plain tex file, I called the file foo.tex, the
> foo.pdf did not view the same as the foo.pdf generated doing
> 
> tex foo.tex;  dvips foo.dvi;  ps2pdf foo.ps   (*)
> 
> or by doing
> 
> dvipdfm foo.dvi.
> 
> So, at this point I not sure where to go.  If anyone has a plain tex
> file that is not altered when applying pdftex or (*), I would be
> interested in testing it on my machine.
> 
> Any other comments or suggestions are welcome,
> 
> bruce
> 
> George N. White III wrote:
> > On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 8:17 AM, Ulrike Fischer <li...@ni...>
> wrote:
> >> [...]
> >>> When I entered "pdftex" followed by "**\showthe\pdfpagewidth" I got
> >>> the message
> >>>
> >>> entering extended mode
> >>  >> 614.295pt.
> >>
> >> Well this sounds as if the format contains the correct default
> >> settings. So if the pdf still has not the correct page size your
> >> document is responsable. At first check in the adobe reader the
> >> actual size of the pdf.
> >
> > You may be using a package that messes with page size, or you may have
> > some older version of a file that conflicts with the miktex version,
> > in which case even a basic document can get the wrong settings.
> >
> >> Then show us a minimal foo.tex that exhibits the problem.
> >> Put at the begin \showthe\pdfpagewidth and sent the log-file too.
> >
> > Try "sample2e.tex", which is included in the base latex files.  If you
> > don't get a letter size pdf, see:
> > <http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=filesused>
> > for instructions on getting a list of the files used.
> >
> 
> 
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