[OS X TeX] Page origin problem with TeXLive and dvips

[Bruno Voisin]

Does anybody experience different page origin positioning using  
pdfTeX on one hand, TeX + dvips + ps2pdf on the other hand, with TeX  
Live 2007 (as installed by MacTeX).

Take the following LaTeX input, on a system configured for A4 paper:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
% Set text width
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{0pt}
\setlength{\evensidemargin}{\oddsidemargin}
\setlength{\textwidth}{\paperwidth}
\addtolength{\textwidth}{-2in}
% Set text height
\setlength{\topmargin}{0pt}
\setlength{\headheight}{0pt}
\setlength{\headsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\textheight}{\paperheight}
\addtolength{\textheight}{-2in}
\addtolength{\textheight}{-\headheight}
\addtolength{\textheight}{-\headsep}
\addtolength{\textheight}{-\topskip}
\addtolength{\textheight}{-\footskip}
\divide\textheight by\baselineskip
\newcounter{tempcounter}
\setcounter{tempcounter}{\textheight}
\setlength{\textheight}{\value{tempcounter}\baselineskip}
\addtolength{\textheight}{\topskip}
% Let the fun begin
\begin{document}
Sample text.
\end{document}

It's supposed to produce a page with one-inch margins on all sides,  
and no headers. Hence the text "Sample text" is supposed to start at  
exactly one inch from the top and left side of the page.

If I typeset the above on gwTeX, I get the expected result with  
TeXShop in both pdfTeX and "TeX and GhostScript" modes.

If I use TeXLive-2007 instead, I get the expected result with pdfTeX.  
But with "TeX and GhostScript", the text starts closer to the top of  
the page, by 2/3 of an inch, say.

Can somebody reproduce this? Or does somebody know which config file  
is responsible for this "feature" or "bug"? I looked at /usr/local/ 
texlive/2007/texmf-config/dvips/config/config.ps, but I cannot make  
sense of it. TeX I can speak, but not PostScript!

The problem is not specific to LaTeX, by the way. In plain TeX I get  
exactly the same behaviour with:

\input ifpdf.sty
\ifpdf
   \pdfpagewidth=210mm \pdfhorigin=1in
   \pdfpageheight=297mm \pdfvorigin=1in
\fi
\hsize=210mm \advance\hsize by-2in
\vsize=297mm \advance\vsize by-2in \advance\vsize by-24pt
Sample text.
\bye

(the code within the \ifpdf conditional is redundant with the  
specification of A4 paper when installing TeX Live, I include it only  
to be on the safe side).

The problem does not occur with XeTeX, using either xdv2pdf or  
xdvipdfmx. It really seems specific to dvips.

Bruno Voisin 

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