ARCHIVED: In LaTeX or TeX in Unix, how do I create and print a document?

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To create a TeX or LaTeX file, use a Unix editor (such as Pico, Emacs, or vi) to create a file with embedded TeX commands. Then, save the file with the extension .tex (e.g., chapter1.tex).

At the Unix prompt, enter one of the following:

  tex filename

  latex filename

Replace filename with the name of your file.

If your file is syntactically correct for TeX, you won't see any error messages, but you will see some informational messages. These appear on the screen and are written to a file with the .log extension.

If TeX or LaTeX can process your file, it will create a file with the extension .dvi (Device Independent), which is a binary file and cannot be displayed on the screen. Do not try to edit this file.

If you need to correct errors, make the changes to the .tex file and run latex or tex again.

Once you have a .dvi file, create a PostScript file with the dvips command. At the prompt, enter:

  dvips filename -o filename

You will again see informational messages on the screen. The PostScript file is a large text file that contains PostScript commands.

To print your file, use the print command appropriate to your system. This will be either lp or lpr, depending on whether your system uses BSD or System V (many systems use both). In BSD, enter:

  lpr -Pprintername filename

The System V equivalent is:

  lp -d printername filename

Replace printername with the name of the printer you're using and filename with the name of your PostScript file. For more help with printing, see ARCHIVED: In Unix, how do I print files and list or remove print jobs?

You may also use dvips as a filter and pipe it into the print command, for example:

  dvips -f dvifile | lpr -Pprintername

The -f option to the dvips command makes it a filter, allowing you to use it in a pipeline and avoid generating temporary files. In the above example, you would replace dvifile with the name of your own DVI format file, and printername with the name of the printer you're using.

For further information on these topics, check the online manual pages. At the Unix prompt, enter one of the following:

  man dvips
  man lpr
  man lp

At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see Get help for Linux or Unix at IU.

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Last modified on 2018-01-18 08:52:43.