Viewing DVI files with Acrobat Reader — DVIPDF gives birth to AcroDVI —
Sergey Lesenko, Laurent C. Siebenmann · 1999
The free DVIPDF program of the first author converts from TEX’s DVI output files (called DVI since DeVice Independent) to Adobe’s PDF (= Portable Document Format). Although DVIPDF has existed as a prototype for about three years, the uses to which it will be put by the TEX community are only gradually emerging. This article presents one concrete application. DVIPDF has been adapted under the Windows 9X/NT operating systems to allow immediate viewing of DVI files with Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader. We call the resulting viewer AcroDVI: it involves DVIPDF and Acrobat Reader operating in concert. AcroDVI is intended for viewing legacy DVI files and thus aims to support the the commonest \special additives. Since the mid 1980s, it has been traditional to present, along with a DVI file, all auxiliary graphics as files in format EPS (= Encapsulated PostScript). To integrate and view such auxiliary EPS files, AcroDVI needs help from a PostScript interpreter such as the freely distributed Ghostscript. This makes viewer performance sluggish. To fix this, we are recommending an evolutive change of electronic publishing practice: the EPS format should be replaced by various ‘optimal’ formats: JPEG or PNG for bitmaps, and PDF for vector graphics. When AcroDVI is exploited via the convenient drag-and-drop interface of MS Windows, each of these is instantly integrated, or separately viewable, or editable, or printable, or convertible to EPS. As an alternative to the monolithic PDF format, we are promoting DVI with such additives. This evolutive format’s polyvalence and compactness make it preferable to PDF where CD-ROM distribution or modem transfer are concerned.