[OS X TeX] Default paper size problem

[David Orme]

Hi,

I'm using TexShop with an i-installer version of TeX and I can't get  
the default page size to be A4. Using 'a4paper' in the documentclass  
arguments works so this isn't a major problem but I can't work out how  
to get A4 by default. I have tried re-configuring through i-installer  
but, despite choosing 'A4', I'm still getting US Letter pdf files by  
default. The System Preferences page size is set to A4.

If I use the terminal to use a DVI to postscript route, then I get an  
A4 postscript document. If I put the postscript through ps2pdf then I  
end up with US Letter again, even though the mediabox lines in the pdf  
suggest A4. If I use pdflatex from the terminal, I get US Letter. (see  
below for the terminal output for all this)

It looks like US letter size is getting in via ghostscript for the  
ps2pdf - does pdftex use ghostscript or rely on a ghostscript config  
file?

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
David Orme


> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ latex GTB_Hotspots.tex
> This is e-TeXk, Version 3.141592-2.1 (Web2C 7.5.2)
>  %&-line parsing enabled.
>  (/usr/local/teTeX/share/texmf.tetex/web2c/cp8bit.tcx)

[Output clipped]

> (see the transcript file for additional information)
> Output written on GTB_Hotspots.dvi (12 pages, 52380 bytes).
> Transcript written on GTB_Hotspots.log.
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ dvips -f GTB_Hotspots.dvi >  
> test.ps
> This is dvips(k) 5.94a Copyright 2003 Radical Eye Software  
> (www.radicaleye.com)
> ' TeX output 2004.07.28:1648' ->
> <texc.pro><8r.enc><f7b6d320.enc><bbad153f.enc><74afc74c.enc><texps.pro> 
> .
> <cmbxti10.pfb><cmsy8.pfb><cmti10.pfb><cmsy10.pfb><cmr10.pfb>[1] [2]  
> [3] [4]
> [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ lp -o pages=1 test.ps
> request id is Sagittarius_on_129.31.3.165-286 (1 file(s))
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ grep "BoundingBox" test.ps
> %%BoundingBox: 0 0 596 842
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ ps2pdf test.ps
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ grep -a "MediaBox" test.pdf
> <</Type/Page/MediaBox [0 0 595 842]
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ # BUT PRINTS AS LETTER...
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ pdflatex GTB_Hotspots.tex
> doibook:~/Work/ADHoC/GTB_Data dorme$ grep -a MediaBox GTB_Hotspots.pdf
> /MediaBox [0 0 612 792]

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