B.2 Requirements

B.2.1 Which version of (X)Emacs is needed?

See also the table at the end of the section.

preview-latex requires explicitely GNU Emacs with a version of at least 21.1. However, Emacs 22 (currently under development) offers superior performance and wider platform support. XEmacs versions before 21.4.9 should not be used to avoid display problems.

B.2.2 Which versions of GhostScript and AUCTeX are needed?

We recommend to use GNU or AFPL GhostScript with a version of at least 6.51. Versions above 7.xx have better antialiasing.

We also recommend strongly to use at least AUCTeX-11.14. Versions prior to that may work but are known to cause problems with multiple directories, as well as with detection of text locations for previews generated by partial TeX compilations. The latter problem can be patched for version 10.0g, see the patches directory of the preview-latex distribution. Proper PDFLaTeX support will require AUCTeX version 11.50 or later.

B.2.3 I have trouble with the display format...

We recommend keeping the variable preview-image-type set to dvipng (if you have it installed) or png. This is the default and can be set via the Preview/Customize menu.

All other formats are known to have inconveniences, either in file size or quality. There are some Emacs versions around not supporting PNG, the proper idea to deal with that is to complain to your Emacs providers. Short of that, checking out PNM or JPEG formats might be a good way to find out whether the lack of PNG format support might be the only problem with your Emacs.

B.2.4 For which OS does preview work?

It is known to work under the X Window System for Linux and for several flavors of Unix: we have reports for HP and Solaris.

Under Windows, you should try the most recent versions of preview-latex since a lot of typical Windows problems have been ironed out lately. Under XEmacs, both Cygwin and native ports should work. Image support for GNU Emacs under Windows is expected with Emacs 22 which has not yet been released at the time of this writing. CVS versions of it already work, however.

The entry "X11/Unix" currently means Linux, Solaris or HP/UX, as well as the X-specific version for Mac/OSX.

OS	Emacs version	XEmacs version
X11/Unix	21.1	21.4.9
Win9x cygwin	21.4?	21.4.8
Win9x native	21.4?	21.4.8

With display errors, XEmacs versions as early as 21.1.14 might also work.