Content deleted Content added
grammar: "software program" → "computer program" |
m Disambiguating links to Back end (help needed) using DisamAssist. |
||
Line 7:
'''dvips''' is a [[computer program]] that converts the [[DVI file format|Device Independent file format (DVI)]] output of [[TeX]] [[typography]] into a printable or otherwise presentable form. <tt>dvips</tt> was written by [[Tomas Rokicki]] to produce printable [[PostScript]] files from DVI input, and is now commonly used for general DVI conversion.
The TeX typesetting system outputs DVI files which are intended to be [[device independent|independent of the output device]]. In particular, they are not understood by [[computer printer|printer]]s and lack information such as [[font]] shapes. Thus, a converter (i.e., a [[backend]]{{dn|date=November 2016}}) is needed to translate from a DVI file to a printer language.
Although other DVI backends such as [[dvilj]] exist, <tt>dvips</tt> is, as stated earlier, one of the most common ways of printing DVI files. Another, more recent solution is the use of [[pdfTeX]] to directly generate [[Portable Document Format|PDF]] files, which have readers for most platforms. Given its importance, <tt>dvips</tt> is a standard part of most TeX distributions, such as [[teTeX]], and [[TeX Live]].
| |||