New release of the free TeX System VTeX/Free

[Reinhard Zierke]

----- Forwarded message from Walter Schmidt -----
============================================================
           VTeX/Free 8.44/8.46 for OS/2 and Linux
============================================================


A new release of the free TeX System VTeX/Free for OS/2 
and Linux (x86) is available from 

  ftp://dante.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/vtex

and will soon propagate to the other CTAN nodes.


About VTeX/Free
----------------
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.  VTeX is developed by 
MicroPress Inc.

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.

Actually, VTeX/Free is a port of MicroPress' commercial TeX
system VTeX for the Windows platform, see
<http://www.micropress-inc.com>.  However, the free
distribution does not include the GUI and certain tools of
VTeX/Win, and it does not support HTML and SVG generation.

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 and supports 

* inclusion of PostScript images,
* inclusion of PDF images,
* inclusion of bitmap images (PNG, JPG, TIFF and others),
* inline PostScript programming.

Thus, 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 Type1 fonts and the macro
packages to use them:

* European Computer Modern (EC/TC fonts)
* URW's clones of the 35 PostScript base fonts
* Pazo 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


What is new in the currect release?
-----------------------------------
* v8.44 of the VTeX compiler for OS/2, v8.46 on Linux
* latest LaTeX
* additional fonts: Fourier, CJHebrew, esint
* ... and more, see the file
  <ftp://dante.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/vtex/NEWS>


NB:  The previous distribution site ftp.uni-erlangen.de 
is NO LONGER IN USE.  Please, do not attempt to download
VTeX/Free from this site any longer!
----- End forwarded message -----

Reinhard Zierke
for the CTAN team