Does anyone here post preprints to arXiv?

I used \voffset=-0.5in at the beginning of a document to get the text to
move up the page.  Since there was enough margin at the top, this allows
it to print OK on US-size paper without having any text cut off.  But
this no longer works; the \voffset is apparently annoyed.

Phillip Helbig---undress to reply <hel...@astro.multiclothesvax.de> wrote:
Well, I take lots of stuff from there.

Forget about it (accommodating letter size). Everyone I know
who has that pesky a4/letter problem with arxiv just downloads
the ps and psresize's it (or sometimes similarly with the pdf).
I also download source, but mostly for my own edification.
--
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j...@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

You can avoid doing any resizing by using a different mirror of arXiv.  The
paper size for the ps and pdf files from arXiv depends on which mirror you
use.  From a site located in the US (e.g., arXiv.org itself) the files use
letter paper size.  From other sites (e.g., de.arXiv.org) they use A4.

With the standard document classes (article, revtex, JHEP, etc), the
margins are big enough to allow proper formatting on both A4 and letter
paper.  From what I have seen, authors' attempts to do better often fail.

To deal with the paper size issue I have found it better to use pdf files
rather than postscript (whether from arXiv.org, or coauthors, or
elsewhere).  With acroread set to scale pages to the printable area, I am
not bothered by different document paper sizes.

John Collins

In article <jhb848$c84...@tr22n12.aset.psu.edu>, John Collins

Just to be clear: I'm not talking about DOWNloading something, but
rather UPloading something.  It is in A4.  Basically, I want anyone to  
be able to print it out without losing any text without fiddling with
it.  Since letter is wider than A4, no problem there.  However, letter
is a bit shorter, and if I do nothing then printing it on A4 will cut
off a couple of lines at the bottom.  However, the top margin is
relatively large, so I can move the text up a bit.

Actually, I think the \voffset=-0.5in still works, but for some reason
(perhaps due to moving to a newer version of ghostview) I didn't see
this in the same way I had in the past.

On 12/02/12 22:34, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
I wouldn't put offsets by hand. For texts, not sent to a journal, I
usually use the anysize package to set the margin size. This works
independently of the actual page format. I don't think that this causes
any trouble on the arXiv, although I've never tried to send such a text
to the arXiv.

On the other hand, if you prepare manuscripts to be published in a
journal, you usually use the journal's LaTeX class file, and there I
wouldn't fiddle around with margin sizes at all. It's just formatted
such as the journal wants it to be! Usually, I've no trouble with such
papers sent to the arXiv, and one can download them from the appropriate
mirror for your "paper-format region", and then it's adapted to either
letter or a4.

--
Hendrik van Hees
Frankfurt Institute of Advanced Studies
D-60438 Frankfurt am Main
http://fias.uni-frankfurt.de/~hees/

In article <9q4fj1Fqd...@mid.dfncis.de>, Hendrik van Hees

Actually, arXiv themselves recommend it.

Yes, that's the case here.

I don't when sending it to the journal or publisher, but when it is on
arXiv I want to avoid someone printing it out on letter-size paper and
having some of the text missing from the bottom.  Since there is some
extra space at the top, shifting it up should make it OK on both
formats.

The original problem appears to have gone away.

Are you sure about this?  This would mean that different mirrors are not
"literal" mirrors but rather have slightly different formats depending
on where they are.

In any case, during the processing of the LaTeX file warnings are issued
when using a style file for A4 paper with a hint to look at the arXiv
help page for paper size, where they recommend \voffset.

Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:

Actually, that's not a general recommendation; it's a suggestion for the
simplest solution when there are papersize/layout problems (in
http://arxiv.org/help/faq/dvips).  With standard classes and no setting or
overriding of the layout parameters, and no setting of the papersize, the
layout is suitable for both paper sizes.

It's probably not optimal advice.  In my experience, what often causes
problems is if you use an A4paper or letterpaper option to the class.
Removing that option gives better results.  (The problem is that latex
adjusts the layout according to the papersize, but dvips does not respect
the papersize setting.)

Yes.  As an example, compare http://de.arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0204127 (A4
paper), and http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0204127 (letter paper).  Note that
the textwidth and textheight are unchanged between the two mirrors, so that
the actual layout of the text is unchanged, only the margins are different.

Note that a papersize option for the document class was removed before
submission to arXiv.

Then don't use a style file for A4 paper, and don't use a paper size option
for the class.  You'll get better results without these, and you should
find that the warning disappears.  In the document above, if I give an
a4paper option, and process the document by latex and dvips, I get a bad
layout on letter paper.  If I use no option for papersize, i.e., neither
A4paper nor letterpaper, the document works for both papersizes, as shown
by the pdf and ps files downloaded from the different mirrors.

You could instead force the use of pdflatex, which implies that the
document will use the papersize you choose.  This can be done by setting
\pdfoutput=1 at the beginning of the file -- see
http://arxiv.org/help/submit_tex   I think arXiv also automatically uses
pdflatex if included graphics files are in pdf, jpg or png format.

John Collins