Installation
If dvips has not already been installed on your system, the
following steps are all that is needed for installation of the program.
After untaring, all installation files are found in this subdirectory.
1. Update Makefile---in particular, the paths. Everything
concerning dvips can be adjusted in the Makefile. Make sure
you set key parameters such as the default resolution, and make sure
that the path given for packed pixel files is correct.
2. Check the file name definitions in mktexpk. If you don't
have METAFONT installed, you cannot use mktexpk to automatically
generate the fonts; you can, however, modify it to generate pk
fonts from gf fonts if you don't have a full set of pk fonts
but do have a set of gf fonts. If you don't have that, you should
probably not install mktexpk at all; this will disable automatic
font generation.
3. Check the configuration parameters in config.ps. You should
also update the default resolution here (default is set to 400 - this
is found in line 13). This file is the system-wide configuration
file that will be automatically installed. If you are unsure how
much memory your PostScript printer has, print the following file:
%! Hey, we're PostScript
/Times-Roman findfont 30 scalefont setfont 144 432 moveto
vmstatus exch sub 40 string cvs show pop showpage
Note that the number returned by this file is the total memory free;
it is often a good idea to tell dvips that the printer has somewhat
less memory. This is because many programs download permanent macros
that can reduce the memory in the printer. In general, a memory size
of about 300000 is plenty, since dvips can automatically split
a document if required. It is unfortunate that PostScript printers with
much less virtual memory still exist.
Some systems or printers can dynamically increase the memory available
to a PostScript interpreter; for these systems, a value of one million
works well.
4. Run make ("make dvips"). Everything should compile smoothly.
You may need to adjust the compiler options in the Makefile if something
goes amiss.
5. Once everything is compiled, make install ("make install"). After
this is done, you may want to create a configuration file for each
PostScript printer at your site.
6. If the font caching is considered a security hole, make the `cache'
directory be something like /tmp/pks, and cron a job to move the
good pk files into the real directory. Or simply disable this
feature by not installing mktexpk.
7. Don't forget to install the new vf files and tfm files. Note
that the tfm files distributed with earlier (pre-5.471) versions
of dvips, and all versions of other PostScript drivers, are different.
Diagnosing Problems
You've gone through all the trouble of installing dvips, carefully
read all the instructions in this manual, and still can't get something
to work. This is all too common, and is usually caused by some broken
PostScript application out there. The following sections provide some
helpful hints if you find yourself in such a situation.
In all cases, you should attempt to find the smallest file that causes
the problem. This will not only make debugging easier, it will also
reduce the number of possible interactions among different parts of the
system.
Debug Options
The -d flag to dvips is very useful for helping to track down
certain errors. The parameter to this flag is an integer that tells
what errors are currently being tracked. To track a certain class of
debug messages, simply provide the appropriate number given below;
if you wish to track multiple classes, sum the numbers of the classes
you wish to track. The classes are:
1 specials
2 paths
4 fonts
8 pages
16 headers
32 font compression
64 files
128 memory
No Output At All
If you are not getting any output at all, even from the simplest
one-character file (for instance, \ \bye),
then something is very wrong. Practically any file sent to a
PostScript laser printer should generate some output, at the very
least a page detailing what error occurred, if any. Talk to your
system administrator about downloading a PostScript error handler.
(Adobe distributes a good one called ehandler.ps.)
It is possible, especially if you are using non-Adobe PostScript,
that your PostScript interpreter is broken. Even then it should
generate an error message. I've tried to work around as many bugs
as possible in common non-Adobe PostScript interpreters, but I'm
sure I've missed a few.
If dvips gives any strange error messages, or compilation on your
machine generated a lot of warnings, perhaps the dvips program
itself is broken. Carefully check the types in dvips.h and
the declarations in the Makefile, and try using the debug options
to determine where the error occurred.
It is possible your spooler is broken and is misinterpreting the
structured comments. Try the -N flag to turn off
structured comments and see what happens.
Output Too Small or Inverted
If some documents come out inverted or too small, your spooler is not
supplying an end of job indicator at the end of each file. (This happens
a lot on small machines that don't have spoolers.) You can
force dvips to do this with the -F flag, but note that this
generates files with a binary character (control-D) in them. You can
also try using the -s flag to enclose the entire job in a save/restore
pair.
Error Messages From Printer
If your printer returns error messages, the error message gives very
good information on what might be going wrong. One of the most common
error messages is bop undefined. This is caused by old versions
of Transcript and other spoolers that do not properly parse the
setup section of the PostScript. To fix this, turn off structured
comments with the -N option, but make sure you get your spooling
software updated.
Another error message is VM exhausted. (Some printers indicate
this error by locking up; others quietly reset.) This is caused by telling
dvips that the printer has more memory than it actually does, and
then printing a complicated document. To fix this, try lowering the
parameter to m in the configuration file; use the debug option
to make sure you adjust the correct file.
Other errors may indicate that the graphics you are trying to include
don't nest properly in other PostScript documents, or any of a number of
other possibilities. Try the output on a QMS PS-810 or other Adobe
PostScript printer; it might be a problem with the printer itself.
400 DPI Is Used Instead Of 300 DPI
This common error is caused by not editing the config.ps file to
reflect the correct resolution for your site. You can use the debug flags
(-d64) to see what files are actually being read.
Long Documents Fail To Print
This is usually caused by incorrectly specifying the amount of memory
the printer has in config.ps; see the description above.
Including Graphics Fails
The reasons why graphics inclusions fail are too numerous to mention.
The most common problem is an incorrect bounding box; read the section
on bounding boxes and check your PostScript file. Complain very loudly
to whoever wrote the software that generated the file if the bounding
box is indeed incorrect.
Another possible problem is that the figure you are trying to include
does not nest properly; there are certain rules PostScript applications
should follow when generating files to be included. The dvips
program includes work-arounds for such errors in Adobe Illustrator and
other programs, but there are certainly applications that haven't
been tested.
One possible thing to try is the -K flag, to strip the comments from
an included figure. This might be necessary if the PostScript spooling
software does not read the structuring comments correctly. Use of this
flag will break graphics from some applications, though, since some
applications read the PostScript file from the input stream looking for
a particular comment.
Any application which generates graphics output containing raw binary
(not hex) will probably fail with dvips.
Can't Find Font Files
If dvips complains that it cannot find certain font files, it is
possible that the paths haven't been set up correctly for your system.
Use the debug flags to determine precisely what fonts are being looked
for and make sure these match where the fonts are located on your system.
Can't Generate Fonts
This happens a lot if either mktexpk hasn't been properly edited
and installed, or if the local installation of METAFONT isn't correct.
If mktexpk isn't properly edited or isn't installed, an error
such as mktexpk not found will be printed on the console. The
fix is to talk to the person who installed dvips and have them fix
this.
If METAFONT isn't found when mktexpk is running, make sure it is installed
on your system. The person who installed TeX should be able to install
METAFONT easily.
If METAFONT runs but generates fonts that are too large (and prints out the
name of each character as well as just a character number), then your
METAFONT base file probably hasn't been made properly. To make a proper
plain.base, assuming the local mode definitions are contained in
local.mf (on the NeXT, next.mf; on the Amiga, amiga.mf),
type the following command (assuming csh under UNIX):
localhost> inimf "plain; input local; dump"
Now, copy the plain.base file from the current directory to where
the base files are stored on your system.
Note that a preloaded cmbase.base should never be used when creating
fonts, and a program such as cmmf should never exist on the system.
The macros defined in cmbase will break fonts that do not use
cmbase; such fonts include the LaTeX fonts. Loading the cmbase
macros when they are needed is done automatically and takes less than a
second---an insignificant fraction of the total run time of METAFONT for a
font, especially when the possibility of generating incorrect fonts is
taken into account. If you create the LaTeX font {\tt circle10,
for instance, with the cmbase macros loaded, the characters will
have incorrect widths.
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