[OS X TeX] Differing PDF output on similarly configured Macs

[Christopher Menzel]

On Jun 12, 2011, at 5:56 AM, Herbert Schulz wrote:
>>> On Jun 11, 2011, at 12:09 AM, Christopher Menzel wrote:
>>>> Greetings OS X TeX folk,
>>>> 
>>>> I am having trouble figuring out why I'm getting funky PDF output on my Macbook air when I use a custom package (jp.sty) together with pgfpages (*not* pdfpages). 
>>> Howdy,
>>> 
>>> Is there any way you could create a minimal but compilable sample file that we could test?
>> 
>> Sure thing.  Attached is a ... LaTeX file that compiles nicely to three PDF pages — 2 document pages per PDF page — on my iMac and Linux boxes but which, on my Mac Air, compiles to the mess that can be seen at http://cmenzel.org/pgfpagestest-MacAir.pdf.  (The correctly rendered PDF file that is generated by the attached LaTeX file on my iMac can be found at http://cmenzel.org/pgfpagestest-iMac.pdf.)  I've once again attached the custom jp.sty file that works in concert with pgfpages to get the 2-up PDF output (when things work as they're supposed to).
>> 
>> Thanks for your willingness to have a look.
>> 
>> Chris Menzel
> 
> Howdy,
> 
> Stop using the pdfsync package!

Herb, that was exactly the problem!

> It has been deprecated and is known to change page layout.

I did not realize that. I've been using pdfsync for so long that it is simply included in my default preamble; I hadn't for a moment considered it might be the culprit.

> There are several Editor/Previewer combinations (I use TeXshop but there are others on this list that use TeXworks or some other plain text editors (e.g., BBEdit, TextMate, Emacs, Vim) with TeXShop or Skim as the pdf Viewer. These will be able to use synctex, which is built into typesetting engines in recent TeX Distributions, to do Source<->PDF synchronization.

Yes, I use Aquamacs and LyX for all my writing.  I didn't even have to make any configuration adjustments; synctex appears to be called by both programs by default when they compile, as I still have full source<->PDF sync.

Thanks very much!

Chris Menzel