DVI (TeX)

DVI is a Format of open file used by the type-setting system of text TeX. DVI is the abbreviation of device-independent , which means “independent of the type of unit (or peripheral)”. Thus, a file DVI can be printed on almost any type of typographical output device.

Files DVI can be visualized or printed with the programs xdvi , Steam Generator or kdvi under UNIX and yap under Microsoft Windows.

In addition, they can be transformed into many other formats like PostScript, pdf.

The most traditional treatment to print a file DVI consists in converting it into PostScript using Dvips. In particular, for the inclusion of the graphs, as for the use of certain police forces (make), it is the tool of reference. The tools for visualization as xdvi tries to reproduce its behavior, but do not reach that point always, for example for the management of the color.

In certain cases, it is possible to recover the contents text of initial the LaTeX file starting from DVI . For that, to convert into pdf by dvipdf then to convert starting from pdf worms of the rough text by pdftotext (Attention, the labels and formulas are thus lost).

Format DVI produces files in general small, but less portable than its name indicates it. In particular, a document DVI is not autonomous: it contains neither the pig iron and cast iron nor the images used by the document. On a computer where this pig iron and cast iron/images is absent, the document will appear deformed or with holes.

Format DVI is precisely documented at several places. In particular in the sources of the programs dvitype, metafont, and TeX. These programs are written in a data-processing language mixing the code itself with its documentation. They are appeared as files carrying the extension Web. The program weave transforms them into documents TeX (TeX, and not LaTeX), compilable, which correspond to the source documented formatted. The best documentation of format DVI is obtained in this way, for example starting from the source of the program dvitype.

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