VTeX/Free v8.44.2 - the free VTeX distribution for OS/2 and Linux
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VTeX/Free is a TeX distribution, which is built around the VTeX program. VTeX
is an implementation of the TeX typesetting engine, including the eTeX
extensions. VTeX can generate PDF or PostScript output immediately from the TeX
source file. The distribution includes Plain TeX, a LaTeX system with many
additional packages and fonts, and the Bibtex and Makeindex programs.
In contrast to traditional TeX systems, no intermediate DVI files need to be
generated, no DVI driver programs are required, and there is no need to take
care of their sometimes fussy setup. The common PostScript and PDF viewers
Ghostscript and Adobe Reader (Acrobat) are to be used for (pre)viewing and
printing. Output from VTeX is immediately suitable for public distribution,
e.g., over the www, since PDF and PostScript are standardized document formats.
VTeX/Free comes in two variants:
- VTeX/2 is for the OS/2 operating system
- VTeX/Lnx is for Linux (on the x86 platform only)
VTeX has a built-in Postcript interpreter (GeX) and supports
- inclusion of PostScript images,
- inclusion of PDF images,
- inclusion of bitmap images (PNG, JPG, TIFF and others),
- inline PostScript programming.
Packages such as PStricks, PSfrag
and draftcopy can be used with VTeX. and are part of the distribution. The
Hyperref features are supported in both PDF and PostScript mode. PDF
encryption is available without external tools.
Beside the standard Computer Modern fonts, VTeX/Free includes lots of other
free Type 1 fonts and the macro packages to use them:
- European Computer Modern (EC/TC fonts)
- the 35 PostScript base fonts (URW version)
- the Pazo math fonts to match Palatino
- Charter
- Utopia with matching Fourier math fonts
- the AMS math fonts (Symbols, Euler, Fraktur and others)
- various special math fonts: RSFS, WASY, St-Mary-Road, Doublestroke, esint,
esvect
- the Ibycus 4 system and its Greek typefaces
- the ArabTeX system with Arab and Hebrew typefaces
- the CJHebrew package with Hebrew typefaces
- TIPA (phonetic) typefaces
- BrushScriptX-Italic
- various symbol fonts: MarVoSym, Cheq, Context navigation symbols, MF
logo
Actually, VTeX/Free is a partial port of the VTeX/Win TeX system by MicroPress Inc. It does, however, not
include the shell and/or visual tools and does not support HTML and SVG
generation. The good news is that VTeX/Free comes for free.
- Version 8.44b of the VTeX compiler for OS/2, version 8.46a on Linux
- PSNFSS 9.2, Fourier fonts v1.4,
- Ibycus 4.5, Ibycus-Babel interface,
- CB fonts,
- PS-Tircks 2004 release,
- ... and more, see the file NEWS.

The number of
files in the distribution as well as their names have changed, as compared with
the previous releases.
Requirements
VTeX/2 requires Warp 3, Warp4.x or eComStation, and at least 16Mb of
physical memory.
Installation instructions
VTeX/2 can either be installed as a standalone TeX system for OS/2 or on top
of an existing emTeX/TDS, version 0.56. See the file readme-os2.eng
for the installation instructions. Please, read this before downloading.
Download
- vtexinst.cmd
- REXX installation script
- vtex2-8442.zip
- (1.7 MB).
- vtex-base-8442.zip
- (7.1 MB)
- vtex-base2-8442.zip
- (4.8 MB)
- vtex-fonts-8442.zip
- (12.8 MB)
- vtex-fonts2.zip
- (24.5 MB; unchanged since version 7.53)
- vtex-special-8442.zip
- (2.4 MB)
- vtex-doc-8442.zip
- (1.4 MB;)
- vtex-koma.zip
- (2.7 MB, optional; includes only the KOMA-Script collection for LaTeX
)
- vtex-cbfonts.zip
- (8.9 MB, optional; Greek Computer Modern fonts)
- vtex-sem.zip
- (0.4 MB, optional; includes only the LaTeX packages Seminar and
Prosper)
- vtex-gex.zip
- (6.6 MB, optional; includes only the documentation for VTeX's
built-in PostScript interpreter)
Requirements
VTeX/Lnx requires Linux on the Intel (x86) platform with the glibc libraries,
and at least 16Mb of physical memory.

VTeX/Lnx 8.x may
require a not too old Linux distribution to work properly. This includes, for
instance, SuSE 7.1 or later. If you experience any problems running VTeX/Lnx
with your Linux, please, report to the maillist, so we can
try to provide a workaround.
Installation instructions
See the file readme-linux.eng
for the installation instructions. Please, read this before downloading!
Download
- vtexlnx-8442.zip
- (1.9 MB).
- vtex-base-8442.zip
- (7.1 MB)
- vtex-base2-8442.zip
- (4.8 MB)
- vtex-fonts-8442.zip
- (12.8 MB)
- vtex-fonts2.zip
- (24.5 MB; unchanged since version 7.53)
- vtex-special-8442.zip
- (2.4 MB)
- vtex-doc-8442.zip
- (1.4 MB;)
- vtex-koma.zip
- (2.7 MB, optional; includes only the KOMA-Script collection for LaTeX
)
- vtex-cbfonts.zip
- (8.9 MB, optional; Greek Computer Modern fonts)
- vtex-sem.zip
- (0.4 MB, optional; includes only the LaTeX packages Seminar and
Prosper)
- vtex-gex.zip
- (6.6 MB, optional; includes only the documentation for VTeX's
built-in PostScript interpreter)
The above links point to the original
distribution site, i.e., the CTAN node at Hamburg, Germany. Alternatively,
download from one of the the mirror sites:
Note that updated files may need 24 hours to propagate from the
original distribution site to the other CTAN nodes.
The EPM TeX Front End is a
powerful integrated TeX environment for OS/2, which is based on the EPM editor.
It can be used with VTeX/2 as well as with emTeX. Using the latest version 4.x
is recommended.
The NTG hosts a mailing list that can be used both to ask questions and to
report bugs in the software and/or installation. New version will also be
announced there. The list has a web interface to
subscribe, unsubscribe, browse the list archive etc.
If you are using the software, being on the maillist is a very good idea.
This is the way to be informed about the newest features, about problems others
encountered (and how they were solved), it is also the way to voice your opinion
about our development and have it count.
Your feedback is very valuable to us. We have spent a plenty of efforts in
making this software and the distribution and we need your feedback to know how
to make it yet better. If you encounter a bug, or a inconsistency in the
documentation, or if you see a way to make things work smoother, please share it
with us on the maillist.
The VTeX compiler can use a variety of fonts; many support font packages were
written by Walter Schmidt and are available from his home page.
MicroPress also provides a number of commercial font addons, which can be found
here.
MicroPress is currently developing a prototype of "the next thing" after TeX: a fully
WYSIWYG TeX-based system. While MicroIMP is currently Windows-only, it is known to run
on Linux under Windows emulators like VMWare and Wine. You can learn more about
MicroIMP and download a beta copy of it at the MicroIMP
site.
The OS/2 and Linux ports have been done primarily by Michael Vulis. The distribution and the
documentation are maintained by Walter Schmidt. Additional thanks to Domald
Arseneau, Jon Babcock, Denis Girou, Taco Hoekwater, Christoph Kloeters,
Alexander Mai, Bernd Mulansky, Reinhard Zierke, DANTE e.V., and others for
their help and advice. Special thanks to Heiko Oberdiek for constantly improving
the Hyperref support and to Herbert Voss for maintaining the Linux-specific part
of the distribution.
Legal stuff
MicroPress and VTeX are trademarks of MicroPress, Inc. The
MicroPress' components of the VTeX/2 distribution are
Copyright (C) 1998-2005 by MicroPress Inc.
The
MicroPress' components of the VTeX/2 distribution are free for personal use,
subject to the following restriction:
Redistribution is allowed only as a part of a complete VTeX/2 or
VTeX/Lnx system, and only if the above-mentioned files remain unchanged and
are distributed as a whole.
Adobe, Acrobat and PostScript are
trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Last modified: 2005-02-11 (WaS)