tex.md

(La)TeX Dev Notes

Converting PDF file to a certain compatibility level

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.10 -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=new_file.pdf old_file.pdf

TeXShop

Specifying the TeX engines

%!TEX TS-program = [xelatex | pdflatex | pdflatexmk | xelatexmk ]

 
Or

% !TEX program
%!TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode

 
The setting of the XeTeX front-end engine of TeXShop can be found under the folder /Library/TeXShop/Engines/XeTeX.engine.

A new engine can also be created. For instance, for using XeTeX with the  --shellescape option, we can duplicate the original XeLaTeX.engine to create a new file under the aforementioned folder, namely XeLaTeX-shellescape.engine.

Then in the .tex file we can indicate the new engine using the following directive:

% !TEX TS-program = XeLaTeX-shellescape.

  
In TeXShop 3.21, the BibTeX engine can be selected on a file-by-file basis using the syntax

% !BIB TS-program = 

or

% !BIB program = 

 
The item after the equal sign gives the name of the program (for instance "biber") and any required flags.

TeXLive

Update

tlmgr update --self  
tlmgr update -- list 
tlmgr update --all --dry-run --no-auto-remove --no-auto-install --no-depends --no-depends-at-all --force 

 

Show configuration

tlmgr conf [texmf | tlmgr] 
tlmgr info pkg
tlmgr install pkg [--file file ] --dry-run --force
tlmgr reinstall ...
tlmgr remove -- no-depends --no-depends-at-all --force --dry-run
tlmgr list --only-installed

Uninstalls the entire TeX Live installation

tlmgr uninstall [--force]

 

Set paper size

tlmgr paper [a4|letter]

 

Platform

tlmgr platform list|add|remove|set [platform] # repositories
tlmgr repository list path|tag
tlmgr repository add|remove|set path [tag]
tlmgr repository add http://tlcontrib.metatex.org/2013 tlcontrib
tlmgr option repository http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de /ftp/pub/mirror/ctan/systems/texlive/tlnet

 

Search

tlmgr search --global --word --list --taxonomy --keyword --all

Useful Commands

Spaces

Page

• \columnsep -- the gap between columns
• \topmargin -- the gap above header
• \topskip -- the gap between header and text
• \textheight -- the height of the main text
• \textwidth -- the width of the text
• \oddsidemargin -- odd page left margin
• \evensidemargin

Paragraphs

• \parindent -- the indentation of paragraphs
• \parskip -- the gap between paragraphs

Floats

• \floatsep -- the space left between floats. (multi column layout => \dblfloatsepinsted)
• \textfloatsep -- the space between last top float or first bottom float and the text ( use \dbltextfloatsep if it is a multi column layout).
• \intextsep -- space left on top and bottom of an in-text float.
• \abovecaptionskip -- master the space above caption
• \belowcaptionskip

Math

• \abovedisplayskip -- the space before maths
• \belowdisplayskip -- the space after maths
• \arraycolsep -- gap between columns of an array

Lists

• \topsep -- space between first item and preceding paragraph
• \partopsep -- extra space added to \topsep when environment starts a new paragraph
• \itemsep -- control the space between successive items – I use this one offen