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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label dvi</title>
</head><body>
<h3>What is a DVI file?</h3>
<p/>A DVI file (that is, a file with the type or extension
<code>.dvi</code>) is TeX&rsquo;s main output file, when we use
&ldquo;original&rdquo; TeX (later TeX systems, such as PDFTeX &mdash; see
<a href="FAQ-whatpdftex.html">PDFTeX</a> may use other formats).
<p/>&lsquo;DVI&rsquo; is supposed to 
be an acronym for DeVice-Independent, meaning
that the file can be processed for printing or viewing on most
kinds of typographic output device or display.  The DVI file
may be processed by a <a href="FAQ-driver.html">DVI driver</a> to produce
further output designed specifically for a particular printer, or it
may be used by a previewer for display on a computer screen.
DVI files use an internal coding designed for TeX; a TeX
input file should produce the same DVI file regardless of which
implementation of TeX is used to produce it.
<p/>A DVI file contains all the information that is needed for printing 
or previewing except for the actual bitmaps or outlines of fonts, and 
possibly material to be introduced by means of
<a href="FAQ-specials.html"><code>\</code><code>special</code> commands</a>.
<p/>The canonical reference for the structure of a DVI file is the
source of Knuth&rsquo;s program <i>dvitype</i> (whose original purpose,
as its name implies, was to view the content of a DVI file).
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>dvitype</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/systems/knuth/dist/texware/dvitype.web">systems/knuth/dist/texware/dvitype.web</a>
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=dvi">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=dvi</a>
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