2.7 Printing

Typesetting and printing a Texinfo file is a multi-step process in which you first create a file for printing (called a DVI file), and then print the file. Optionally, you may also create indices. To do this, you must run the texindex command after first running the tex typesetting command; and then you must run the tex command again. Or else run the texi2dvi command which automatically creates indices as needed (see section Format with texi2dvi).

Often, when you are writing a document, you want to typeset and print only part of a file to see what it will look like. You can use the texinfo-tex-region and related commands for this purpose. Use the texinfo-tex-buffer command to format all of a buffer.

C-c C-t C-b

M-x texinfo-tex-buffer

Run texi2dvi on the buffer. In addition to running TeX on the buffer, this command automatically creates or updates indices as needed.

C-c C-t C-r

M-x texinfo-tex-region

Run TeX on the region.

C-c C-t C-i

M-x texinfo-texindex

Run texindex to sort the indices of a Texinfo file formatted with texinfo-tex-region. The texinfo-tex-region command does not run texindex automatically; it only runs the tex typesetting command. You must run the texinfo-tex-region command a second time after sorting the raw index files with the texindex command. (Usually, you do not format an index when you format a region, only when you format a buffer. Now that the texi2dvi command exists, there is little or no need for this command.)

C-c C-t C-p

M-x texinfo-tex-print

Print the file (or the part of the file) previously formatted with texinfo-tex-buffer or texinfo-tex-region.

For texinfo-tex-region or texinfo-tex-buffer to work, the file must start with a ‘\input texinfo’ line and must include an @settitle line. The file must end with @bye on a line by itself. (When you use texinfo-tex-region, you must surround the @settitle line with start-of-header and end-of-header lines.)

See section Formatting and Printing Hardcopy, for a description of the other TeX related commands, such as tex-show-print-queue.