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Asked: 2026-05-11T01:33:36+00:00

Not sure this is a programming question, but we use LaTeX for all our

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Not sure this is a programming question, but we use LaTeX for all our API documentation and user documentation, so I hope it will go through.

Can someone please explain what are the relative merits of using pdflatex as opposed to the ‘classic’ technique of

latex foo dvips -Ppdf foo ps2pdf foo.ps

From time to time I run into people who have difficulty because things don’t work in pdflatex, and I know that using pdflatex gives up two things I have grown to value:

  • Can’t use the very speedy xdvi viewer
  • Can’t use the PStricks package

I should add that I typically get PDF with hyperlinks by using something on the order of

\usepackage[ps2pdf,colorlinks=true]{hyperref}

so it’s not necessary to use pdflatex to get good PDF.

So

  1. What are the advantages of pdflatex that I don’t know about?
  2. What are the disadvantages of the old tools that I’ve overlooked?
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  1. My favorite pdflatex feature is the microtype package, which is available only when using pdflatex to go directly to PDF, and really produces stunning results with no effort on my part. Apart from that, the only caveats I run into are image formats:

    • pdflatex supports PDF, PNG, and JPG images.
    • the postscript drivers support (at least) EPS.

    Also, if you want to install fonts, the procedures are slightly different depending on what fonts that driver supports. (Hint: use XeTeX to instantly enable OpenType fonts.)

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