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Previewing TeX/Latex dvi files

It is a waste of paper to use the printer to check out how your output looks. The ideal situation is to have access to an X display (bobcat, X terminal, sparcstation) where you can use 'xdvi' to preview the dvi file.

xdvi file.dvi

usually works. If the file includes postscript (e.g., you are using tree-dvips.sty), you can run it through dvips first and then use gs (on the bobcats) or ghostview (on everything else) [ghostview is preferable but tends to bomb on the bobcats].

dvips -o file.ps file.dvi
ghostview file.ps

gs file.ps

xdvi will still show files with postscript in them it just won't always show the postscript.

See the man pages on xdvi, dvips, ghostview, and gs.

If you only have an ascii terminal, you can use dvi2tty for a rough look

dvi2tty -q file.dvi | more

See man page on dvi2tty for more information.

If you must use the printer try to limit the number of pages you need to print. Use dvips to select pages for instance

dvips -Pescher -pp 10-14 -pp 20 -pp 33-40

for instance prints the pages 10-14, 20, and 33-40 to escher. See man page for dvips for more information.

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Emma Pease

Last modified: Fri Nov 12 15:14:36 PST 1999 by emma@csli.Stanford.EDU