[OS X TeX] Custom LaTeX Formats

[Joachim Kock]

>How can I create custom LaTeX formats?

This has been explained several times on this mialing list.
Tha most recent couple of explanations were more complicated
than necessary though...  (It should never be necessary to
modify the standard latex source files, I think...)

This works for me (with the TL2004 distribution):

1: Prepare a file (say thislatex.tex) with the preamble
you want to dump into a fmt file.

2: Do

etex --ini "&latex" "thislatex\dump"

(including the quotes).

3: Move the resulting file thislatex.fmt into ~/Library/texmf/web2c

4: To use this new format, comment-out the preamble from your tex
file and do

etex "&thislatex" yourfile


Alternatively, use David Carlisle's mylatex.ltx to genarate the
format directly from your file, without having to separate the
preamble:

1: Create the new format by

etex "&latex" mylatex.ltx yourfile

2: Use it by

etex "&mylatex" yourfile

This second method is not compatible with all packages, but usually
it works well.

Cheers,
Joachim.
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