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+<head>
+<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label papergeom</title>
+</head><body>
+<h3>Getting the right paper geometry from (La)TeX</h3>
+<p/>If your output is the wrong size, and you&rsquo;ve checked that it&rsquo;s not due
+to the <a href="FAQ-acroantics.html">ministrations of Adobe <i>Reader</i></a>,
+the problem is probably that your (La)TeX system is producing output
+that specifies the wrong paper size. Paper sizes can be a pain:
+they&rsquo;re a forgotten backwater &mdash; Knuth seems not to have considered
+paper size as something the TeX engine needs to know about. As a
+result, there is no DVI command to specify the paper on which
+the document should be printed, which has led a dichotomy where macros
+shape the text according to the needs of the author&rsquo;s chosen paper
+size, and device drivers&rsquo; choice happens independently of the macros&rsquo;
+ideas.
+<p/>In practice, one usually finds that macro packages (such as Plain TeX and
+LaTeX) assume American &ldquo;letter&rdquo; paper size, by default; and since
+most distributions nowadays originate in Europe, the drivers usually
+default to ISO &ldquo;A4&rdquo; paper size.
+<p/>This is (of course) pretty unsatisfactory. Users may select a
+different paper size for their document (current LaTeX offers a
+range of sizes as options in the standard classes), pretty easily.
+Nevertheless, the user also has to be sure that each time
+<i>xdvi</i>, <i>dvips</i> (or whatever) runs, it uses the
+paper size the document was designed for.
+<p/>The default paper size for DVI drivers may be changed by a
+distribution management command (<i>texconfig</i> for TeX Live,
+the <i>Options</i> application for MiKTeX), but this still
+doesn&rsquo;t provide for people using the &ldquo;wrong&rdquo; sort of paper for some
+reason.
+<p/>A different issue arises for users of PDFTeX &mdash; the
+PDF format <em>does</em> have the means of expressing paper size
+and PDFTeX has system variables <code>\</code><code>pdfpagewidth</code> and
+<code>\</code><code>pdfpageheight</code>, that are written into the output PDF file.
+Unfortunately, most of the core software predates PDFTeX, so not even
+PDFLaTeX sets the correct values into those variables, to match the
+paper size specified in a <code>\</code><code>documentclass</code> option.
+<p/>The DVI drivers <i>dvips</i> and <i>dvipdfm</i> define
+<code>\</code><code>special</code> commands for the document to specify its own paper size;
+so in those cases, as when PDFTeX or VTeX is being used, the
+paper size can be programmed by the document. Users who wish to, may
+of course consult the manuals of the various programs to write the
+necessary code.
+<p/>The <i>geometry</i> package (whose main business is defining
+typeset page areas), also takes notice the size of the paper that the
+document is going to be printed on, and can issue the commands
+necessary to ensure the correct size of paper is used. If
+<i>geometry</i> is used when a document is being processed by
+PDFLaTeX, it can set the necessary dimensions &ldquo;in the output&rdquo;.
+If the document is being processed by LaTeX on a TeX or e-TeX
+engine, there are package options which instruct <i>geometry</i>
+which <code>\</code><code>special</code> commands to use. (Note that the options are
+ignored if you are using either PDFLaTeX or VTeX.)
+<p/>So, the resolution of the problem is to add
+<blockquote>
+<pre>
+\usepackage[dvixxx,...]{geometry}
+</pre>
+</blockquote><p>
+(where <code>dvixxx</code> is your current favourite DVI
+driver &mdash; <i>geometry</i> knows about <code>dvips</code> and
+<code>dvipdfm</code>), and the document will run correctly with
+LaTeX. If you&rsquo;re using PDFLaTeX, load with
+<blockquote>
+<pre>
+\usepackage[pdftex,...]{geometry}
+</pre>
+</blockquote><p>
+<p/>Needless to say, both the &ldquo;big&rdquo; classes (<i>koma-script</i> and
+<i>memoir</i>) provide their own ways to get the paper size
+&ldquo;right&rdquo;.
+<p/>The <i>typearea</i> package is the <i>Koma-script</i>
+distribution&rsquo;s way of providing page layout functionality. Load it
+with the <code>pagesize</code> option and it will ensure the correct
+paper is selected, for PDF output from PDFLaTeX, and for
+PostScript output from LaTeX via <i>dvips</i>.
+<p/><i>Memoir</i> has the standard classes&rsquo; paper-size selections
+(<code>a4paper</code>, <code>letterpaper</code> and so on), but also
+permits the user to choose an arbitrary paper size, by setting the
+length registers <code>\</code><code>stockheight</code> and <code>\</code><code>stockwidth</code>. The commands
+<code>\</code><code>fixdvipslayout</code> (for LaTeX processing), and <code>\</code><code>fixpdflayout</code>
+(for PDFLaTeX processing) then instruct the processor to produce
+output that specifies the necessary paper size.
+<dl>
+<dt><tt><i>geometry.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/geometry.zip">macros/latex/contrib/geometry</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/geometry.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/geometry/">browse</a>)
+<dt><tt><i>memoir.cls</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir.zip">macros/latex/contrib/memoir</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/">browse</a>)
+<dt><tt><i>typearea.sty</i></tt><dd>Distributed as part of <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script.zip">macros/latex/contrib/koma-script</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script/">browse</a>)
+</dl>
+<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=papergeom">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=papergeom</a>
+</body>