dvipng 1.9 review

This program makes PNG and/or GIF graphics from DVI files as obtained from TeX and its relatives. If GIF support is enabled, GIF o

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Jan-?ke Larsson

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This program makes PNG and/or GIF graphics from DVI files as obtained from TeX and its relatives.

If GIF support is enabled, GIF output is chosen by using the `dvigif' binary or with the `--gif' option.

dvipng is intended to produce anti-aliased screen-resolution images as fast as is possible. The target audience is people who need to generate and regenerate many images again and again. The primary target is the preview-latex (X)Emacs package, a package to preview formulas from within (X)Emacs. Yes, you get to see your formulas in the (X)Emacs buffer, see `http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/#preview-latex'.

Another example is WeBWorK, an internet-based method for delivering homework problems to students over the internet, giving students instant feedback as to whether or not their answers are correct, see `http://webwork.math.rochester.edu'.

Other applications may also benefit, like web applications as latex2html and WYSIWYG editors like LyX.

Here are some key features of "dvipng":
Speed. It is a very fast bitmap-rendering code for DVI files. On a fairly low-end laptop, it takes less than a second to generate 150 one-formula images. This makes dvipng suitable for generating large amounts of images on-the-fly, as needed in preview-latex, WeBWorK and others.

It does not read the postamble, so it can be started before TeX finishes. There is a -follow switch that makes dvipng wait at EOF for further output, unless it finds the POST marker that indicates the end of the DVI.

Interactive query of options. dvipng can read options interactively through stdin, and all options are usable. It is even possible to change the input file through this interface.

Supports PK, VF, PostScript Type1, and TrueType fonts, color specials and simple PostScript inclusion specials.

and more...