README for pdfcrop 2008/04/05 v1.9

TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
A. Description
B. Copyright, Disclaimer, License
C. Files
D. Requirements
E. Installation
F. User Interface
G. Author
H. Acknowledgement
I. Questions, Suggested Improvements
J. Known Problems
K. History
L. ToDo

A. DESCRIPTION
==============
PDFCROP takes a PDF file as input, calculates the BoundingBox
for each page by the help of ghostscript and generates a output
PDF file with removed margins.

B. COPYRIGHT, DISCLAIMER, LICENSE
=================================
Copyright (C) 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008 Heiko Oberdiek.

This program may be distributed and/or modified under the
conditions of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.2
of this license or (at your option) any later version.
The latest version of this license is in
  http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt
and version 1.2 or later is part of all distributions of LaTeX
version 1999/12/01 or later.

C. FILES
========
The project `pdfcrop' consists of two files:
pdfcrop.pl: This perl script is the main program. The extension
            `.pl' may be omitted.
README:     Documentation, the file you are reading.

Following temporary files are produced if `pdfcrop' is invoked:
tmp-pdfcrop-*.tex:  input file for pdfTeX
tmp-pdfcrop-*.log:  log file of pdfTeX run
tmp-pdfcrop-*.pdf:  result after pdfTeX run

D. REQUIREMENTS
===============
* Perl5 (version 5 of the perl interpreter)
* Ghostscript (>= 8.0 if PDF file contains rotated pages)
* pdfTeX, version >= 1.0 (because of page selecting and \pdfximage syntax)

E. INSTALLATION
===============

1. Perl script `pdfcrop.pl':

   TDS 1.1 location:
   * texmf/scripts/pdfcrop/pdfcrop.pl
   * and a directory that is part of PATH contains a wrapper script
     or link with name "pdfcrop".

   Unix
   * It is allowed to rename `pdfcrop.pl' to `pdfcrop':
       mv pdfcrop.pl pdfcrop
   * Ensure that the execute permission is set:
       chmod +x pdfcrop
   * Move the file to a directory where the shell can find it
     (environment variable PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin/).

   Dos/Windows/(OS2)
   * See requirements. I do not expect that the perl script
     run under DOS or Windows. With cygwin it can work however.

2. Documentation `README':

   Copy it to an appropriate place, for example
   `/usr/local/share/doc/pdfcrop/README'.
   I is allowed to rename it to `pdfcrop.txt'.

   TDS location:
     somewhere below texmf/doc/... (?)

F. USER INTERFACE
=================
* ToDo: User manual
* Online help:
    pdfcrop --help
* Ghostscript's calculation of the bounding box is faster,
  if --resolution 72 is used instead of ghostscript's implicite
  default setting of 4000 DPI (hint from Ionut Georgescu).
  Of course the calculation with higher resolution settings are
  more accurate.

G. AUTHOR
=========
Heiko Oberdiek
Email: oberdiek@uni-freiburg.de

H. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
==================
Anthony Williams
Scott Pakin <pakin@uiuc.edu>
Ionut Georgescu
Yves J\"ager

I. QUESTIONS, SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS
====================================
If you have questions, problems with `pdfcrop', error reports,
if you have improvements or want to have additional features,
please send them to the author.

My environment for developing and testing:
* linux, SuSE 9.0
* perl v5.8.1
* pdfeTeX 3.141592-1.21a-2.1
* Ghostscript 8.x

J. KNOWN PROBLEMS
=================
* Perl must support open("-|"). Not every perl port supports this
  for older windows (win95, win98).

K. HISTORY
==========
2002/10/30 v1.0: First release
2002/10/30 v1.1: Option --hires added.
2002/11/04 v1.2: "nul" instead of "/dev/null" for windows.
2002/11/23 v1.3: Use of File::Spec module's "devnull" call.
2002/11/29 v1.4: Option --papersize added.
2004/06/24 v1.5: Clear map file entries so that pdfTeX
                 does not touch the fonts.
2004/06/26 v1.6: Use mgs.exe instead of gswin32c.exe for MIKTEX.
2005/03/11 v1.7: Support of spaces in file names
                 (open("-|") is used for ghostscript call).
2008/01/09 v1.8: Fix for moving the temporary file to the output
                 file across file system boundaries.
2008/04/05 v1.9: Options --resolution and --bbox added.

L. TODO
=======
* Description of user interface.
* Documentation in other formats, eg. man or info pages.
* Improved error checking.
* Units support for option --margins.
* Perhaps other drivers than pdfTeX, especially VTeX.