LyX, LaTeX, PS, PDF

[Tom Buskey]

bscott at ntisys.com said:
>
>  Yes, the alphabet soup in the subject line is actually intended.  :-)
>
>  I have been playing with LyX (http://www.lyx.org) to write documentation.  
>It appears to be more or less what I am looking for, the lack of
>user-definable character styles notwithstanding.  As part of a recent
>project, I wanted to generate PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format output for
>distribution.  LyX includes an option to generate PDF output.  However, when
>viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader, the visual quality of the text rendering
>sucks.
>
>  By exporting various formats, and using various conversion tools directly,
>I have been able to determine that the LaTeX output from LyX is valid, and
>produces a DVI file that looks fine when viewed with "xdvi".  If I convert
>said DVI file to PostScript using "dvips", the PostScript looks fine on
>screen, or when printed on our HP LaserJet.  So far, so good.
>
>  If I convert said PostScript to PDF using "ps2pdf", and view it in
>Acrobat, it looks bad on screen.  But if I *print* from Acrobat, the
>resulting PostScript looks fine on-screen in GhostView, or on paper from our
>printer.
>
>  So the issue is somewhere between ps2pdf and Acrobat Reader (inclusive).  
>One thing that occurs to me as a possibility would be if ps2pdf is somehow
>choosing a font that Acrobat Reader does not have (or has a poor version
>of), but GhostScript and our printer do have.
>
>  Anyone know what I might do to fix this?
>
>  (Note that I have zero knowledge of LaTeX and TeX, other than to say I
>know what they are used for.)
>
>  My goal here, FWIW, is to distribute documentation written in LyX so that
>it can be viewed on Linux, Unix, Mac, Windoze, etc, etc.  PDF generally
>works well for this, while still maintaining a fair degree of accurate page
>reproduction.  I can (and currently do) fall-back on plain-text or HTML, but
>such formats do not look as "slick" as a PDF does.
>

If you don't mind adding a step, look around the various TeX sites for 
something called pdfTeX.  It renders directly to PDF files.  
http://www.tug.org is a good starting point.

Also try playing with fonts.  I'd guess Acrobat has a limited selection.

-- LaTeX user since '87




>  Software environment:
>
>  Red Hat Linux 7.3
>    XFree 4.2.0-8
>    TeTeX 1.0.7-47
>    GhostScript 6.52-9.4
>  LyX 1.2.0, built from pristine sources
>  Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.x, on both Linux and Windows
>
>  advTHANKSance
>
>-- 
>Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
>| The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not |
>| necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or  |
>| organization.  All information is provided without warranty of any kind.  |
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>gnhlug-discuss mailing list
>gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
>http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
>

-- 
-------
Tom Buskey