dvi2bitmap
==========

%%VERSION%% 0.9-6

dvi2bitmap is a utility to convert TeX DVI files directly to bitmaps,
without going through the complicated (and slow!) route of conversion
via PostScript and PNM.  The prime motivation for this is to
prepare mathematical equations for inclusion in HTML files, but I
expect there are plenty of uses beyond that.  It can generate XBM and
GIF bitmaps, plus PNG, if you have the libpng library installed.  It
uses the same kpathsea font-searching library as other TeX programs,
again as long as you have the appropriate library installed.

The program is written in C++, and incidentally provides a reasonably
good (I think) object interface for DVI and PK files.

See <http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/norman/star/dvi2bitmap/>

Configuring and building
------------------------

To configure and build:

    ./configure
    make

You can override the C++ compiler the configure script will choose by
setting the environment variable CXX, either via `CXX=cxx ./configure'
or `env CXX=cxx ./configure', depending on your shell.

To install, just copy the executable dvi2bitmap wherever you want it
to live.

Since this program uses `standard' TeX fonts, but at resolutions
appropriate for screens rather than paper, there is a certain fuss
involved in generating, and after that, finding, these fonts.  If you
have the `kpathsea' library installed, then this should Just Work.
Failing that, you might have to set an environment variable.  See the
section of the manual entitled `Finding fonts' for some discussion of
this.  As well, it's a good idea to give the command

    make test

after you've built the distribution.  As well as testing the program,
this attempts to give you some advice about what you need to do on
your particular system to tell dvi2bitmap where its fonts are.

If you want it to be able to generate GIFs, then give the configure
option `--enable-gif'.  The GIF format is the copyright of CompuServe.
As far as I understand it, one does not need a licence from CompuServe
if one is distributing non-commercial, not-for-profit software, such
as this.  You probably shouldn't enable GIF support when you build
this program unless you're in that category as well.  But don't listen
to me: there's a much fuller account of the whole sorry business in
the comp.graphics.misc FAQ at, for example,
<http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/archive/graphics.fileformats-faq.part1.html>

If you want it to be able to generate PNG files (much better, since
they're free of the GIF copyright problems), then give the configure
option `--enable-png'.  This will check you have the libpng library
and headers somewhere the compilers can find them, and build in
support if it finds them.  The PNG library is not distributed with
this utility: you can find it at <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/>.

The program can work with the kpathsea library.  This is the same
path-searching library which several TeX implementations use to find
fonts (and more).  If you wish to use this (you should, if you can),
then give the option `--with-kpathsea' to the configure command, and
if the library is installed on your machine, the program will use it.

The program builds successfully on (at least) the following
machine/compiler combinations.  It should be written in
standards-conforming C++, so if it doesn't build then (1) it's not as
conformant as I think it is (in which case please tell me), (2) your
compiler is not as conformant as you think it is (in which case please
don't tell me), or (3) you need to invoke some magic to get the
compiler to be conformant (in which case tell me, if there's something
I can do in the autoconfigure script).

    i686-pc-linux-gnu           egcs-2.91.66
    powerpc-mac-linux-gnu       gcc 2.8.1?
    sparc-sun-solaris2.7        egcs-2.91.66
    sparc-sun-solaris2.7        gcc 2.8.1
    sparc-sun-solaris2.7        WorkShop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C++ 5.0
    alpha-dec-osf4.0f           Compaq C++ V6.2-024 for Digital UNIX V4.0F


Documentation
-------------

See directory doc/ -- there are fuller installation instructions
there.  There's also a man-page in dvi2bitmap.1, but this is not
necessarily as up-to-date as the main documentation.


Copyright
---------

Copyright 1999, 2000, Council for the Central Laboratories of the
Research Councils.  Free for non-commercial use.  See the file
LICENCE, or the URL
<http://www.starlink.rl.ac.uk/store/conditions.html>, for details.