Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> In article <
9q4fj1...@mid.dfncis.de>, Hendrik van Hees
> <
he...@fias.uni-frankfurt.de> writes:
>
>>> 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.
>>>
>> I wouldn't put offsets by hand.
>
> Actually, arXiv themselves recommend it.
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.)
>> 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.
>
> 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.
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.
> 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.
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