I am in the process of converting an author's paper into a journal template and I am having a great deal of difficulty understanding what this portion of their preamble does.
\usepackage[dvips]{hyperref}%needs to be last package listed; use dvips -z.
\input{epsf}
As for dvips:
I have tried to read about it online, and it seems to have something to do about making the article look nicer when it is printed? I don't think I understand the purpose because the advantages I have read about seem inconsequential because the output of the code is going to be a pdf document anyway. I don't think I have the level of technical expertise necessary to understand what this package does in the documentation I've found online.
For epsf:
I cannot figure out what this command does. I believe it has something to do with the way figures are displayed. In particular, the figures are inserted using code as follows:
\begin{figure}%1, 2 before
\[
\begin{array}{ccc}
\noindent\epsffile{8d.eps} &\epsffile{8e.eps} &\epsffile{8a.eps}
\\%40, 30%
\mbox{(a)} &\mbox{(b)} &\mbox{(c)}
\end{array}
\]
but I have never seen \epsfile used before. After searching, I am under the impression that this is an outdated command, but I would like to be sure. Is there any difference between this and replacing \epsffile with \includegraphics?
Best Answer
hyperref
makes links and references active, and manages pdf bookmarks and forms and things. thedvips
option is like the similar option tographicx
and tells the package to use\special
commands for thelatex
/dvips
processing chain rather than usepdftex
commands for direct manipulation of the pdf output withpdftex
. It is almost always best to omit this option: If latex is being used it is the default anyway, and if pdflatex is being used, you do not want the option.epsf
was the original tex macro set for postscript figure inclusion for dvips, it has been superseded by thegraphicx
package for the last 20 years or so, but still works:-)You could use
graphicx
instead and then change\epsffile{8d.eps}
to\includegraphics{8d.eps}
which will do the same thing if using latex but make it easier to switch to pdflatex should you wish to do that.\noindent
in that context does nothing at all., and using\[
andarray
to center the collection rather than use\centering
and atabular
is rather eccentric at best.