TeXipedia

pdftex

Enables direct generation of PDF documents from TeX source files, offering enhanced features and modern output capabilities.

Overview

Serves as a fundamental engine that extends traditional TeX by allowing direct PDF creation without intermediate DVI files, while maintaining complete backward compatibility. The technology integrates modern PDF features while preserving high-quality typesetting.

  • Supports direct embedding of PNG, JPEG, and PDF graphics
  • Enables micro-typography features like character protrusion and font expansion
  • Forms the foundation for most modern TeX workflows and distributions
  • Powers popular formats like pdfLaTeX, making it essential for contemporary document production
  • Widely used in academic publishing, technical documentation, and professional typesetting where PDF output is required

Getting Started

The pdftex package is a TeX engine extension that allows direct creation of PDF documents. It is not a LaTeX package that you include with \usepackage, but rather an alternative engine for compiling your documents.

To use pdfTeX with LaTeX (pdfLaTeX), simply compile your document with the pdflatex command:

pdflatex document.tex

No special setup is required in your document itself, as all major TeX distributions (TeX Live, MacTeX, MiKTeX) include pdfTeX by default.

Examples

Creating a simple PDF document with pdfTeX-specific features like hyperlinks.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\title{PDF Features with pdf\TeX}
\author{Author Name}
\maketitle

This document demonstrates pdf\TeX's capability to create PDF documents with hyperlinks.

\section{Hyperlinks}
Click \href{https://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/}{here} to visit the pdf\TeX website.

\section{PDF Bookmarks}
The sections in this document automatically become PDF bookmarks when viewed in a PDF reader.

\end{document}