18 Formatting and Printing with TeX

Running the texi2dvi or texi2pdf command is the simplest way to create printable output. These commands are installed as part of the Texinfo package.

In more detail, typesetting and printing a Texinfo file is a multi-step process in which you use the TeX program to create a file for printing (called a DVI or PDF file), and then print the file. Optionally, you may also create indices using the texindex command after first running TeX; and then you must run TeX again. texi2dvi takes care of all of this, running TeX and texindex as needed (see Format with texi2dvi).

When you use the shell commands, you can either work directly in the operating system shell or work within a shell inside GNU Emacs (or some other computing environment). You can give formatting and printing commands from a shell within GNU Emacs, just like any other shell command. To create a shell within Emacs, type M-x shell (see Shell in The GNU Emacs Manual). If you are using GNU Emacs, you can also use commands provided by Texinfo mode instead of shell commands. See Formatting and Printing with Emacs.

For specifing details of the printed output such as paper size, see Global Document Commands.