(dvips.info)Why Dvips

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1 Why use Dvips?
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The Dvips program has a number of features that set it apart from other
PostScript drivers for TeX.  This rather long section describes the
advantages of using Dvips, and may be skipped if you are just interested
in learning how to use the program.  Note: Installation, for details
of compilation and installation.

   The Dvips driver generates excellent, standard PostScript, that can
be included in other documents as figures or printed through a variety
of spoolers.  The generated PostScript requires very little printer
memory, so very complex documents with a lot of fonts can easily be
printed even on PostScript printers without much memory, such as the
original Apple LaserWriter.  The PostScript output is also compact,
requiring less disk space to store and making it feasible as a transfer
format.

   Even those documents that are too complex to print in their entirety
on a particular printer can be printed, since Dvips will automatically
split such documents into pieces, reclaiming the printer memory between
each piece.

   The Dvips program supports graphics in a natural way, allowing
PostScript graphics to be included and automatically scaled and
positioned in a variety of ways.

   Printers with any resolution are supported, even if they have
different resolutions in the horizontal and vertical directions.  High
resolution output is supported for typesetters, including an option that
compresses the bitmap fonts so that typesetter virtual memory is not
exhausted.  This option also significantly reduces the size of the
PostScript file and decoding in the printer is very fast.

   Missing fonts can be automatically generated if Metafont exists on
the system, or fonts can be converted from GF to PK format on demand.
If a font cannot be generated, a scaled version of the same font at a
different size can be used instead, although Dvips will complain loudly
about the poor aesthetics of the resulting output.

   One of the most important features is the support of virtual fonts,
which add an entirely new level of flexibility to TeX.  Virtual fonts
are used to give Dvips its excellent PostScript font support, handling
all the font remapping in a natural, portable, elegant, and extensible
way.  Dvips even comes with its own Afm2tfm program that creates the
necessary virtual fonts and TeX font metric files automatically from the
Adobe font metric files.

   Source is provided and freely distributable, so adding a
site-specific feature is possible.  Adding such features is made easier
by the highly modular structure of the program.

   There is really no reason to use another driver, and the more people
use Dvips, the less time will be spent fighting with PostScript and the
more time will be available to create beautiful documents.  So if you
don't use Dvips on your system, get it today.

   Tom Rokicki wrote and maintains the original Dvips program.