[OS X TeX] Default paper size problem

[Maarten Sneep]

On 29 jul 2004, at 15:46, Gerben Wierda wrote:

[snip]

> In summary:
> 1. TeX needs to be told the format and the LaTeX classes are default US
> Letter, hence you need a4paper as an option in every LaTeX document.
> 2. The i-Package configuration A4 setting only influences what dvips 
> and
> pdfTeX take as page size on which the TeX result is *placed* (and out 
> of
> the box the default is A4 because that is the default for TeX Live).
> 3. ps2pdf/ghostscript have nothing to do with the effect.

In addition to the above, if you need to produce something other than 
your default,
you may want to use the LaTeX geometry package. It puts some 
\special{}s in the
DVI file for dvips that set the paper size directly, allowing you to 
set any size: for
example the aspect ratio for a screen presentation, ... The package 
also works for
pdflatex, and sets the medium size correctly in this case.

In any case you need to tell LaTeX what the paper size will be (so that 
it may format
the pages correctly).

The geometry package supports the use of a configuration file, so that 
merely loading
the package will set a default paper-size (A4 or otherwise).

HTMH,

Maarten

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