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A Texinfo file can be formatted and typeset as a printed book or manual. To do this, you need TeX, a powerful, sophisticated typesetting program written by Donald Knuth.1
A Texinfo-based book is similar to any other typeset, printed work: it can have a title page, copyright page, table of contents, and preface, as well as chapters, numbered or unnumbered sections and subsections, page headers, cross references, footnotes, and indices.
You can use Texinfo to write a book without ever having the intention of converting it into online information. You can use Texinfo for writing a printed novel, and even to write a printed memo, although this latter application is not recommended since electronic mail is so much easier.
TeX is a general purpose typesetting program. Texinfo provides a
file texinfo.tex that contains information (definitions or
macros) that TeX uses when it typesets a Texinfo file.
(texinfo.tex tells TeX how to convert the Texinfo @-commands
to TeX commands, which TeX can then process to create the typeset
document.) texinfo.tex contains the specifications for printing
a document. You can get the latest version of texinfo.tex from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo.tex.
In the United States, documents are most often printed on 8.5 inch by 11
inch pages (216mm by 280mm); this is the default size. But
you can also print for 7 inch by 9.25 inch pages (178mm by
235mm, the @smallbook size; or on A4 or A5 size paper
(@afourpaper, @afivepaper). (See Printing "Small" Books. Also, see Printing on A4 Paper.)
By changing the parameters in texinfo.tex, you can change the
size of the printed document. In addition, you can change the style in
which the printed document is formatted; for example, you can change the
sizes and fonts used, the amount of indentation for each paragraph, the
degree to which words are hyphenated, and the like. By changing the
specifications, you can make a book look dignified, old and serious, or
light-hearted, young and cheery.
TeX is freely distributable. It is written in a superset of Pascal called WEB and can be compiled either in Pascal or (by using a conversion program that comes with the TeX distribution) in C. (See TeX Mode, for information about TeX.)
TeX is very powerful and has a great many features. Because a Texinfo file must be able to present information both on a character-only terminal in Info form and in a typeset book, the formatting commands that Texinfo supports are necessarily limited.
To get a copy of TeX, see How to Obtain TeX.
You can also use the
texi2roff program if you
do not have TeX; since Texinfo is designed for use with TeX,
texi2roff is not described here. texi2roff is not part of
the standard GNU distribution and is not maintained or up-to-date with
all the Texinfo features described in this manual.