LATEX packages
LATEX packages
This page presents macro packages for use with LATEX. Some of them can also be used with plain TEX.
Users will probably ask: “Why another page layout
package? Is not geometry all what we need?” The
answer to this question is not easy. The geometry
package provides a lot of features, maybe even too many
features. However, some features are missing. Packages for crop
marks can also be found but correct positioning of the crop
marks requires cooperation with the page layout package. It is
therefore natural to integrate both these functions into a
single package.
This package was developed as a typographers toolbox offering the most important features for everyday work. First it allows setting the paper size as well as the page layout. The next important feature is the ability of printing crop marks both with TeX+dvips or (x)dvipdfm(x) and with pdfTeX. Finally it is possible to reflect pages both horizontally and vertically.
Typographers often have to prepare leaflets of different kind. It is necessary to prepare the marks for folding. The package allows to print such marks for the most frequent types of leaflet folding.
The package is useful also for preparation of book covers. It places the marks showing the position of a spine and optionally flaps. If you want to see whether the spine and the front and back cover contents are properly aligned, you can display the frames. Moreover, it is often necessary to create a proof of the cover while the book is not yet finished and the thickness of the spine is not known and can be only approximated. You can thus leave the paper width empty and the package will calculate it from the page width, the flap width and the spine thickness. Whenever the final value of the spine thickness is known, you change it in the list of options and the whole layout will adapt automatically.
Colour printing often requires black overprint. This feature is also implemented. Unlike in the overprint.sty package (not available in TeX Live), this package offers overprinting not only in pdfTeX and dvips but also in (x)dvipdfm(x) family of drivers. It is thus available also in XeLaTeX. Overprinting support is disabled by default because it can lead to undesired results. It must be enabled explicitely as a package option and in addition must be switched on at proper places.
The detailed description can be found in the documentation that is shipped with the package.
Information in the TeX catalogue
This package adds nonbreakable spaces after
nonsyllabic prepositions in Czech and Slovak making use of
encTEX. It is based upon the code of
vlna.tex supplied by Petr
Olšák. In addition to converting it to the LaTeX package the
following changes were made:
"`v
lese"'. The package adds this possibility to the list
of templates where the nonbreakable space should be added.
microtype package. At that time
encTEX is switched off.
The package is available from CTAN and will be distributed with TeXLive 2008.
Download encxvlna.zip, 247 KiB
Information in the TeX catalogue
The format of ISBN was changed since 1 January 2008
so that it is equal to EAN13. Package ean13isbn
prints the EAN13 bar code with ISBN using this new format. The
package can be found on CTAN and will be distributed with
TeXLive 2008.
Download ean13isbn.zip, 310 KiB
Information in the TeX catalogue
The package contains macros for printing various 2/5 bar codes and Code 39 bar codes. The macros do not use fonts but create the bar codes directly by vrules. It is therefore possible to vary width to height ratio, ratio of thin and thick bars. The package is therefore convenient for printing ITF bar codes as well as bar codes for identification labels for HP storage media.The package can be found on CTAN and will be distributed with TeXLive 2008.
Download makebarcode.zip, 274 KiB
Information in the TeX catalogue
Note: This package is no longer maintained. Its functionality is implemented in the zwpagelayout package.
This package can be used both in LATEX and plain TEX. Its purpose is generating cropmarks for phototypesetting both black&white and colour documents. It contains definition of a (La)TEX macro and a PostScript header file. The manual including licence appears in the file manual.pdf. The package may be used under various licences, one of such licences can be found here.
zwcrop.zip (23 March 2002), 859 KB
This package enables creation of PDF files from LATEX documents through PostScript making use of the Adobe Acrobat Distiller. It supports even generation of multiline hypertext references. Unfortunately the English documentation has not been written yet. It was described (in Czech) in Zpravodaj Československého sdružení uživatelů TEXu No. 1-2/1999, which is already available in PDF.
pdfhdr.zip, 10 KB
This package modifies Velthuis Devanagari for TEX so that it is possible to create searchable PDF. The package with examples and documentation is available from the page entitled Searchable PDF with Devanagari texts.
The package enables to advance the date selected number of days. It can be used on
invoices, payment orders etc. It takes advantage of the \today macro, therefore it is
multilingual. The package is available from CTAN.
This project is published on its own page MakeIndex reimplementation via XSLT 2.0.
This topic presents and describes the installation package of new Czech, Slovak, and Hindi modules into the Babel system. Detailed instructions are available from a separate page.
I gave lecture "Examples of application of TEX and other software (in Czech) on the occasion of the general assembly of CSTUG.You can download the slides including some demo files. Everything is in Czech, sorry...
texuse4cstug.zip, 3.5 MB
You can also download movie of my lecture in the AVI format from the CSTUG web page.
You can find here prereleases of packages mentioned in my lecture (see above).
Redistribution of these packages is prohibited! I do not wish to limit your rights to use these files. The reason is that this is a prerelease where any feature may be changed or even removed without notification. Every user should know where to get the distribution version whenever it is released. Everyone must therefore obtain the packages directly from this page.
prerelease.zip, 8 KB
Another package for working with graphics can be obtained from http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/epspltools