dvipng
******

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

   The package is released under the GNU Public License (GPL), see the
file COPYING.

   I am aware that there are quite a few tools capable of doing this,
most notably dvips->"gs -sDEVICE=png16m", but for many speed is not as
good as it could be. This is especially true when making many png's.
Even more so in an environment where this goes on all the time, as is
the case in preview-latex, a package to preview formulas from within
(x)emacs. Yes, you get to see your formulas in the (x)emacs buffer.
See http://preview-latex.sf.net


Benefits of dvipng
==================

* Speed. It is the fastest bitmap-rendering code for DVI files that I
  know of. On my fairly low-end laptop, it takes less than a second to
  generate 150 one-formula images.

* 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.

* Supports PK, VF and PostScript type1 fonts, color specials and
  simple PostScript inclusion specials.

* and more...


Installation
============

   You need zlib, libpng, gd (available from
http://www.boutell.com/gd) and kpathsea. Type 

    ./configure; make; make install


Usage
=====

  dvipng [OPTION]... FILENAME[.dvi]

Options are chosen to be similar to dvips' options where possible:
  -d #      Debug (# is the debug bitmap, 1 if not given)
  -D #      Resolution
  -M*       Don't make fonts
  -l #      Last page to be output
  -mode s   MetaFont mode (default cx)
  -o f      Output file (currently disabled)
  -O c      Image offset
  -p #      First page to be output
  -pp #,#.. Page list to be output
  -q        Quiet operation
  -r        Reverse order of pages
  -t c      Paper format (also accepts e.g., '-t a4')
  -T c      Image size (also accepts '-T bbox' and '-T tight')
  -v        Verbose operation
  -x #      Override dvi magnification
  -         Interactive query of options

These do not correspond to dvips options:
  -bd #     Transparent border width in dots
  -bg s     Background color (TeX-style color)
  -fg s     Foreground color (TeX-style color)
  -follow   Follow mode
  -Q #      Quality (~xdvi's shrinkfactor)

     # = number   f = file   s = string  * = suffix, '0' to turn off
         c = comma-separated dimension pair (e.g., 3.2in,-32.1cm)


Availability
============

   The dvipng package is available at SourceForge, at
'http://sourceforge.net/projects/preview-latex'. This is the project
page of preview-latex. Anonymous CVS is available as well.


Todo
====

* TrueType fonts. The new Gd has a link to FreeType, so perhaps it's
  not too much work.

* Non-integer shrinkfactors.

* Consider changing maxdrift, which is currently 0 by recommendation
  since the output is usually low-res, but 1 would perhaps give better
  results for sub/superscripts.

* Further speed improvements, such as less PNG compression, faster
  font scaling, and perhaps more efficient code overall.

* Other output specials and source specials.
 

Contacts
========

   Bug reports should be sent to
<preview-latex-bugs@lists.sourceforge.net>.

   Questions, suggestions for new features, pleas for help, and/or
praise should go to <preview-latex-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> (the
preview-latex devel team).  For more information on this mailing list,
send a message with just the word `help' as subject or body to
<preview-latex-devel-request@lists.sourceforge.net> or look at
`http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/preview-latex-devel'.

   Offers to support further development will be appreciated.  For
developer access, ask on <preview-latex-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.
