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PDF Output

You can generate a PDF output file from Texinfo source by using the @command{pdftex} program to process your file instead of plain @command{tex}. Just run `pdftex foo.texi' instead of @samp{tex foo.texi}, or give the `--pdf' option to @command{texi2dvi}.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format, and was invented by Adobe Systems. The file format definition is freely available, as is a free viewer for the X window system. Since PDF is a binary format, there is no `@ifpdf' or `@pdf' command by analogy with the other output formats.

Despite the `portable' in the name, PDF files are nowhere near as portable in practice as the plain ASCII formats (Info, HTML) Texinfo also supports (portability relative to DVI is arguable). They also tend to be much larger and do not support the bitmap fonts used by TeX (by default) very well. Nevertheless, a PDF file does preserve an actual printed document on a screen as faithfully as possible, unlike HTML, say, so have their place.

PDF support in Texinfo is fairly rudimentary.


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