convert .tex file

**hanamilani** · 22-Oct-2009, 03:03

Hi,

I have no knowledge of working with latex yet. But what I need now is to convert the files with .tex format to pdf.

Is there a sofware to do it for me?

Regards,

**ken_yap** · 22-Oct-2009, 03:33

.tex files are not so much a format as input for a typesetting program. Your files could be TeX or LaTeX input, you have to find out. These would be processed by the tex and latex commands respectively. Your files may also include some additional style files, so you need those installed. The output from tex or latex is DVI format, which can be converted to Postscript using dvi2ps. From there you can generate PDF using pstopdf (or is it ps2pdf?).

If you process using a variant of latex called pslatex, it will use the Postscript native fonts instead of the TeX fonts, and this will make your output more portable to printers, often look better, and have less hassles with fonts.

Christian Riechers · 22-Oct-2009, 05:51

On 10/22/2009 12:36 PM, ken yap wrote:
>
> .tex files are not so much a format as input for a typesetting program.
> Your files could be TeX or LaTeX input, you have to find out. These
> would be processed by the tex and latex commands respectively. Your
> files may also include some additional style files, so you need those
> installed. The output from tex or latex is DVI format, which can be
> converted to Postscript using dvi2ps. From there you can generate PDF
> using pstopdf (or is it ps2pdf?).
>

Assuming a Latex environment is installed, I have found xTeXShell to be
a nice and simple GUI for the commands above.
http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~gerald/ftp/xtexsh/
There's a RPM available for download and easy installation. Also Tcl/Tk
will be needed to run it. It's part of the openSuSE distribution and can
easily be installed.

--
Christian

**vodoo** · 22-Oct-2009, 06:59

.tex files are not so much a format as input for a typesetting program. Your files could be TeX or LaTeX input, you have to find out. These would be processed by the tex and latex commands respectively. Your files may also include some additional style files, so you need those installed. The output from tex or latex is DVI format, which can be converted to Postscript using dvi2ps. From there you can generate PDF using pstopdf (or is it ps2pdf?).

It would be ps2pdf. As an alternative you can use the commands pdftex or pdflatex to convert your *.tex input directly into a *.pdf file. The method suggested by ken_yap has one big advantage though: If your input file includes eps pictures, they will be preserved in the final PDF. If not and you want small file sizes go the direct way.

**john_hudson** · 22-Oct-2009, 11:59

The program you need is pdftex but I am not sure about its dependencies as it is normally supplied as part of Texlive, the LaTeX distribution.

Try YaST>Software Management to see if you can download pdftex as a freestanding program; if not, install LaTeX; add LyX and import it into LyX if you prefer a GUI interface.