PhD Students who intend to use our services in the future will be provided with the necessary LaTex style files as soon as we receive their written confirmation, just send an email to: info@uponline.nl

TeX Page Layout Packages

>Since the original LaTex class files are based on American page sizes, European users have developed several packages that adapt the page layout parameters for metric sizes. In his package VPAGE, Volker Kuhlmann, for instance, provides commands to set the margins for all kinds of paper sizes, apart from the usual A4 and A5.

To use Kuhlmann's package, you must first select a paper size with \setpapersize [orient]{size}, where size can be anything. You specify your own paper size.

An example: \setpapersize{custom}{170mm}{240mm}

The page margins are set with the command:

\setmargins{leftmargin}{topmargin}{textwidth}{textheight}%
{headheight}{headsep}{footheight}{footskip}

To overrule the standard A4 format used by dvips, you can either add some extra parameters in DVIPS itself or add the \special command in the LaTex source file, i.e.

\special{papersize=170mm,240mm}

White Space A very important parameter is the amount of white space surrounding the text. As dissertations are to be bound, enough white space should be left in the inner margin of the text. Some PhD students, however, think too far ahead and already use different parameters for the odd- and evenside margins in the preamble of their {La}TeX style file. This is a serious mistake! The left and right margins should be equal. It is only when your PS file is processed by our phototypesetter that the final layout is made for two-sided printing.

The page size of your dissertation should be 17 x 24 cm, and all margins should be defined with respect to this standard size, not with respect to A4 or B5. So please use the correct statements in the BoundingBox (0 0 482 680). The left,right, and top margins should measure appr. 2 cm.

Most TeX documents are designed to use the standard A4 size, and, as a result, the standard DVIPS converter defaults to this paper size. Fortunately, the dvips driver has a plethora of command line options. For our purpose two of them are very important: t s (paper format) and T c (specification of the desired page size). Do not forget to use them properly!

Quite a few promovendi still use the Computer Modern math family of fonts. As a result, their books look unbalanced since the various typographic characteristics of Times-Roman, cmsy, and cmmi are quite different ( cm fonts look to too high and their x-height is also different).

To obtain far better visual results you can try the MATHTIME font package of Michael Spivak. This family of Type 1 PostScript fonts has been designed specifically to typeset mathematics that blend well with Times-Roman. Alan Jeffrey, moreover, has developed the PSTIMESM package, which together with some macros by Spivak himself replace the cm math fonts with mathtime's.

Another solution is to completely replace all TeX fonts with the LucidaBright and LucidaNewMath fonts. The LUCIDBRB (or lucidbry) package provides all the definitions for typesetting your complete book with this font family. It includes all of the symbols needed by both LaTex and AMS-TeX.

It goes without saying that you can also use a more recent program, as long as the final file will result in a better printing quality.

Adapted from "The Latex Companion" by Goossens, Mittelbach and Samarini.

Document Formatting with TeX and LaTeX

Those who would use TeX or LaTeX to format their manuscripts need to pay close attention to the typefaces used. This attention is needed because the default TeX (Computer Modern Roman) typefaces do not convert satisfactorily to scalable PostScript typefaces, resulting in poor reproduction of the electronic version of your paper. (The default TeX typefaces are converted to non-scalable Type 3 PostScript bitmaps in the DVI-to-PostScript step of the process.)

There are several solutions to this problem, some simpler than others. If you use "dvips" to convert your DVI file to PostScript, inclusion of the "times.sty" file in your LaTeX document will facilitate this substitution. Older versions of LaTeX would use this syntax:

\documentstyle[times]{thesis}

Newer versions of LaTeX would use this syntax:

\documentclass{thesis}
\usepackage{times}

Type 1 PostScript versions of the Computer Modern Roman typefaces (such as "BaKoMa") are available online through one of the CTAN archives.CTAN Installation of these typefaces, and integration of them into the existing TeX environment, is best left to the person who installed or maintains your TeX environment.

TIP:Use the option -Ppdf to produce PostScript optimized for distilling to PDF.
The command:
dvips -Ppdf mydoc.dvi
causes Dvips to use BlueSky/AMS/Y&Y Type 1 fonts and an alternative rule drawing algorithm.

Replacing Type 3 fonts in PostScript

One often comes across a PostScript file generated by dvips which contains embedded PK fonts; if you try to generate PDF from such a file, the quality will be poor.

Of course, the proper solution is to regenerate the PostScript file, but if neither the sources nor the DVI file are available, one must needs resort to some sort of patching to replace the bitmap fonts in the file by outline fonts.

The program pkfix (by Heiko Oberdiek) will do this patching, for files created by "not too old versions" of dvips: it finds the fonts to be replaced by examining the PostScript comments dvips has put in the file. For each font, pkfix puts appropriate TeX commands in a file, which it then processes and runs through dvips (with switch -Ppdf) to acquire an appropriate copy of the font; these copies are then patched back into the original file.

Another program, dvistrip, is available from Y&Y's web site for Windows users who also have Adobe Acrobat Distiller available. Dvistrip simply removes the fonts: the idea is that you then reinstate them in the course of a run through distiller (which only works if distiller 'knows' about the fonts: it can be instructed via its Settings-> Font Locations tool).

dvistrip

Download from http://www.yandy.com/download/dvistrip.exe

pkfix

support/pkfix.tar.gz

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Several online resources may help you (or the TeXpert at your site) with the correct configuration of the tools available to you to make the task of generating usable PostScript documents:

Practical information about Type 1 fonts may be found through the following (German) site Fonts for TeX. Please bear in mind that all non-commercial products come without any quarantee. The commercial fonts of Y&Y, on the other hand, can be used without any problem and are the favourite of a great many scientific typesetters around the world.

The PostScript Type 1 implementation of the Computer Modern fonts produced by and previously distributed by Blue Sky Research and Y&Y, Inc. are now freely available for general use. This has been accomplished through the cooperation of a consortium of scientific publishers with Blue Sky Research and Y&Y. Members of this consortium include:

• Elsevier Science
• IBM Corporation
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
• Springer-Verlag
• American Mathematical Society (AMS)

Publisher-provided TeX and LaTeX Styles Often an immediate reason for starting with TeX/LaTeX is a publication of a paper or book. If the publisher sends instructions asking for a specific style, you should ask them for a ready-made style package! Here are the examples of some of these:

• AAAI Press publications: How to Obtain AAAI Macros and Templates (LaTeX)
• Academic Press: Preparation and Transmission of Electronic Materials (LaTeX)
• American Mathematical Society Author Packages for Publishing with the AMS (AMS-TeX and AMS-LaTeX).
• Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP - Manuscript preparation: Technical instructions for LaTeX.
• Cambridge University Press: The Journal of Functional Programming (LaTeX)
• Elsevier Science Publishers: Elsevier LaTeX package (LaTeX).
• IEEE Publications: IEEE information for authors (LaTeX).
• Kluwer Academic Publishers: Journal Author Instructions (LaTeX).
• Reviews of Modern Physics: LaTeX Macros for Compuscript Submissions
• SIAM Publications: SIAM TeX resources (TeX, LaTeX and AMS-TeX).
• Springer Verlag: Welcome to Authors (TeX and LaTeX)

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More information:

Postscript Type I, Free Font

PDF Output from LaTex

Effective Scientific Electronic Publishing

Leo Breebaart from Delft University sets a good example by making available not just his finished thesis, but also the full LaTeX source archive. Thus, others do not have to reinvent the wheel. "It took me years to write" - Tips for PhD Writers using LaTex