This page contains instructions to convert TeX and LaTeX documents to Acrobat PDF format.
Users of pdfTeX on UNIX/Linux, see below.
To succeed, you must
Users of PCTeX may prefer the advice at the PCTeX website.
Terminology:
Computer Modern: A design of typeface. TeX programs use fonts whose design is based on this.
Standard Font: One of several fonts, such as Times Roman, Helvetica, Courrier, and Symbol, that are available to essentially all desktop computers. There is a "standard 13" (13 fonts tht everyone has) and a "standard 35" (that almost everyone has). Computer modern fonts are not standard (for example, cmr12 is *not* a standard font).
Adobe Type 1: "Outline" fonts specified in a certain standard way. Outline fonts are also called Scalable fonts. They are mathematical descriptions of the shape of each character. The Adobe Type 1 CM/PS fonts, written according to the Computer Modern design, are usually identifiable on your system because they have font names written in capital letters (e.g., CMR12, not cmr12). Even though characters generated by these fonts will look smooth at any size, they look best when displayed at their "desgin size." Thus, it is better to use CMR17, if available, rather than CMR12 when displaying 17pt type, but CMR12 will certainly be readable when scaled to 17pts (or to any size).
Adobe Type 3: "Bitmap" fonts, also called "raster fonts." These are the patterns of dots that are actually used to display a character on screen or to print it on paper. Eventually, every character must be rendered as a bitmap. However, it is not wise to scale a bitmap in size: scale the outline font first and then produce the bitmap at the final size. A scaled bitmap will appear simultaneously jagged and unfocused.
Font Embedding: The process of including a font in a document, so that the document can be sent to another machine that might not have the font installed, and will display properly.
PDF: Portable Document Format, a form of binary-encoded postscript.
Acrobat Distiller: A utility for converting postscript files to PDF files.
ATM: Adobe Type Manager. This utility is used when a "client" machine receives a file in PDF format. ATM decides what fonts to use to display the document. If font information is embedded in the document, ATM uses this information to create bitmaps with which to display the document.
TeX usually uses Computer Modern fonts, a unique design. These are not "standard fonts" (though LaTeX will use standard fonts if you insist). You should therefore embed computer modern fonts in any PDF document you produce; otherwise Acrobat software on the "client" computer will not know how to display your PDF documents, with unpredictable results ensuing.
You should not embed the "type 3" (or "bitmap") fonts that many TeX systems use. The results will vary from unreadable (with Acrobat 3) to marginal (with Acrobat 4). For best quality, embed the Adobe Type 1 versions. These are "outline" fonts. The AMS freely distributes a version of these fonts called CM/PS fonts.
Step 1. Get the Adobe Type 1 outline fonts called CM/PS fonts. Some post-1997 TeX systems come with these fonts. To csee if you already have them, open your system fonts folder and see if you have several dozen fonts denoted by capital letter names; e.g. CMR12, not cmr12. If you don't have the fonts, download them. You need two sets:
In each case, choose the font set appropriate to your system (obvious from the names of the files at these locations).
Step 2. Install the fonts properly. Unzip the downloaded files and temporarily place the contents in folders on your desktop.
Miktex users: Use DVIPS to produce your .ps file. In the "Extra DVI Options" dialogue box that opens during printing, type:
-Ppdf
That's all there is to it!
OzTeX users. Edit the Default config file (in the OzTeX>Config folder, in OzTeX's case). Find the line that reads:
printing_config=""
and modify it so the name of the appropriate config file appear in quotes:
printing_config="Add CM/PS Fonts"
This is *not* the same as selecting "Add CM/PS Fonts" from OzTeX's Config menu; the latter action affects only local viewing with the dvi previewer, and does not affect printing or saving to ps.
Edit the config.ps file in the DVIPS>inputs folder. Find the line that reads
p +psfonts.CMPS
and make sure it is not commented out (remove any asterisk or other symbol in front of the first letter).
That's it.
Open Acrobat Distiller and feed it your .ps file. When finished, open the resulting .pdf file in Exchange and choose File>Document Info>Fonts. You should see some Computer Modern fonts with capital letter font names appearing in the table. Next to them, you should see the terms "Embedded Subset" and "Type 1." If not, it didn't work.
I am not an expert in this program, but the following recipe seems to work.
type1_default=true
Here's a copy of updmap.