Package Basics

TDS, TeX Directory Structure http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?question=41

TDS is a standard way of organising all the \TeX -related files on a computer system.

The TDS reserves the name texmf as the name of the root directory (folder) of the hierachies. Files supplied as part of the distribution are put into the standard hierarchy. The location of the standard hierarchy is system dependent, but on a Unix system it might be at /usr/local/texmf, or /usr/local/share/texmf, or /opt/texmf, or a similar location, but in each case the TeX files will be under the /texmf subdirectory.

There can be multiple 'local' hierarchies in which additional files can be put. In the extreme an installation can have a local hierarchy and each user can also have an individual local hierarchy. The location of any local hierarchy is not only system dependent but also user dependent. Again, though, all files should be put under a local /texmf directory.

In Linux, there in only one dir named texmf under /usr, which is for the standard packages. It is at /usr/share/texmf/tex

xspace, as an example, is at: /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex/tools/xspace.sty and you can get the help from ftp://ftp.rge.com/pub/tex/macros/latex/required/tools/xspace.dtx

*Q*: how about /var/lib/texmf/?

kpsewhich chicago.sty

Installing a new package http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?keyword=&question=43

Ordinarily, you should download the whole distribution directory;

A small package <smallpack> might be just a single .sty file

In the doc system, the user manual and documented package code is in the .dtx file, and the .ins file contains LaTeX instructions on what code should be extracted from the .dtx file. To unpack a doc package <pack>, do the following:

Almost the final stage of the installation is to put the package file(s) 'where LaTeX can find them'.

The final stage is to tell LaTeX that there is a new file, or files, that it should be able to go and find.

document in which you want to use the pack package.

A4 paper has the dimensions (width x height) 210 mm x 297 mm, whereas Letter paper has the dimensions 8.5" x 11" (= 215.9 mm x 279.4 mm). As you can see, A4 paper is longer but narrower than Letter paper. Thus, to get a correct printout, it should be sufficient to set \paperwidth to 210 mm, \paperheight to 11", and \textwidth and \textheight accordingly.

Udo Zallmann

I use the "psresize" utility (part of the "psutils" package, on your friendly CTANs). The man page says:

<snip>

EXAMPLES The following command can be used to convert a document on A4 size paper to letter size paper:

Maurizio Loreti

I have the same problem. What I do is:

In other words, I'm using letterpaper and telling geometry to make it narrower, instead of using A4 and telling geometry to make it shorter. I don't know why they wouldn't both work.

Laura

Postscript measures from the bottom of a page, TeX from the top. If dvips is told the paper is A4, it will start with a large vertical movement to get the to the top of the text. If you want the SAME ps file to print on both letterpaper and A4, this vertical movement needs to be less than the height of letterpaper.

Dvips will see to this if you tell it the paperheight is the same as letterpaper.

For the horizontal, both TeX and Postscript measure from the left, so you just need to be sure that the left margin plus textwidth is less than A4 size.

So I would either: set everything in letterpaper, but make sure the width fits in A4, or: tell both LaTeX and dvips to use a custom papersize with the A4 width, and the letterpaper height.

With the hope this might give you some ideas Peter W.

I think that all the document classes allow you to set the "letterpaper" size in the heading, eg

We europeans have been saying "a4paper" for ages.

Timothy Murphy

Or try with "dvips -t letter …" to override the defaults, and look if something changes.

Maurizio Loreti