2

My system:

  • Windows 10
  • MikTeX 22.3 (I think that's what it tells me when it starts. First there is a nerd joke about pdfLaTeX 3.14159...)
  • WinEdt 10.2
  • Workflow: .tex -> .dvi -> .ps ->.pdf

I am about to finalize the process of porting my TeX-system to a new laptop. The only difference (I think) to the previous set up is the MikTeX upgrade from last summer.

The hopefully last hurdle I just ran into is the following. Suddenly my powerdot slides come out on a paper in portrait orientation as opposed to the expected landscape. The contents is still in landscape as it should, see the image below.

enter image description here

So either the orientation or the page width is out of whack (the script may also be larger, but I'm not 100 per cent sure). But shouldn't the powerdot package make the necessary modifications as a matter of course. What the hell is wrong in my configuration? The exact same source file worked fine last year with an older MikTeX but otherwise the same system (barring the possibility of an incomplete WinEdt customization).

Possibilities:

  1. Something wrong in my WinEdt configuration. I have zero trust in my understanding of the zillion options there. Yet, I don't recall running into this problem ever before.
  2. The unusual thing is that in the last step of my workflow ps2pdf gives me the following message:

%%%% WARNING: Transparency operations ignored - need to use -dNOSAFER

This is something I don't recall seeing earlier either, so it is probably related. Unfortunately I cannot make head or tails of that. If I gave Google the buzzwords ps2pdf and -dNOSAFER it asks whether I really want to search for -dSAFER instead, and only gives hits to generic ps2pdf manuals, which does not help me one bit.

Any suggestions?

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    try to run dvips with the option landscaperotate: dvips -landscaperotate yourfilename Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 20:11
  • Thanks @UlrikeFischer! That fixes the problem. In WinEdt I had to insert that into the appropriate box in Options -> Execution modes. I also checked that this won't affect the output when the usual portrait output is expected (with a different source file). I don't recall having to use that option in the older versions, but now it works anyway (too late an hour for me to fire up the older laptop and check the options there). You are welcome to post that as an answer also. Your call, of course :-) Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 20:24

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

call dvips with the option -landscaperotate

dvips -landscaperotate file

Newer version of dvips no longer rotate the media box if landscape is used. (See e.g. https://tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2021-July/047291.html and the discussion in the dvips manual)

That means to get a landscape page one must setup the page size correctly with landscape values but powerdot still relies on the now deprecated rotation from dvips.

Improve this answer
3
  • Ok. So a feature as opposed to a bug :-) Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 20:29
  • well as I triggered the change I naturally think that it is a feature. But you should report it to powerdot, they should probably adapt to the change. Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 20:33
  • Ok. In WinEdt -landscaperotate seems to be a permanent option, i.e. affecting every call to dvips. I am slightly worried about the option doing some damage to some other file that would be better off without. The first test did not reveal anything like that, so likely there is a safeguard. I'm happy with this. Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 20:37
1

A friend had the same issue when he was using paper=screen. I could reproduce in my computer and I found that changing to paper=a4paper seems to work.

Regarding:

%%%% WARNING: Transparency operations ignored - need to use -dNOSAFER

I did just what it was suggested:

ps2pdf -dNOSAFER my-file.ps

And the warning was gone but, as far as I can see, there's no visible difference in the final PDF. Perhaps it's just a red herring.

Improve this answer
1
  • paper=a4paper works for me. :-) Commented Jan 4, 2024 at 19:58

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.