VSI-AXPVMS-XPDF-V0300-4B-1-RNOTES.PDF

This document describes the VSI OpenVMS Xpdf viewer, based on Xpdf version 3.04, which is available on the VSI OpenVMS Documentation CD.

Key Points:

• Prerequisites: Installation requires VSI OpenVMS (Integrity or Alpha), HPE TCP/IP Services (V5.7-13ECO5+) or MultiNet TCP/IP, an ODS-5 system disk, specific free disk space (66,000 blocks for Alpha, 122,000 for Integrity), DECWindows Motif v1.6+, and DECW$DISPLAY defined.
• Licensing: No license is required.

• Installation:

  1. Insert and mount the OpenVMS Documentation CD.
  2. Locate the self-extracting Xpdf viewer installation kit (e.g., .EXE_AXPVMS or .ZIP), which must be inflated on an OpenVMS system. Kits for Alpha are in [ALPHA.XPDF-VIEWER] and for Integrity in [IA64.XPDF-VIEWER].
  3. Install using the PRODUCT INSTALL command.
  4. Post-installation: Add Xpdf startup (XPDF$STARTUP.COM) and shutdown (XPDF$SHUTDOWN.COM) procedures to SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP.COM and SYS$MANAGER:SYSHUTDWN.COM respectively. Run xpdf$define_commands.com to set up DCL global symbols, typically in SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGIN.COM or a user's LOGIN.COM.

• Display Setup: Before starting the viewer, a display device must be defined. This can be a local XWindows terminal (DEFINE DECW$DISPLAY WSAn:) or a remote device (SET DISPLAY/CREATE...). Alternatively, a display can be specified via the -display command-line argument when launching xpdf.

• Starting the Viewer:

  • $ xpdf: Launches the viewer with a main menu.
  • $ xpdf my-file.pdf: Opens a specific PDF file.
  • xpdf -h: Displays available command options.

• Utilities: The Xpdf package includes several command-line tools for PDF manipulation, such as pdfdetach (extract embedded files), pdffonts (list fonts), pdfimages (save images), pdftohtml (convert to HTML), and pdftotext (convert to text).

• Performance Note: Moving document files from the CD to a local disk can improve performance.
• Release Notes:
  • Installation requires an ODS-5 disk.
  • Font substitution warnings (e.g., "Substituting font 'Times-Roman'...") may appear but can be safely ignored.