Kiledvips: ! Bad DVI file: first byte not preamble

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olliody
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:24 pm

dvips: ! Bad DVI file: first byte not preamble

Post by olliody »

Hello,
I tried to find something similar with the search-function but no result. When i try to convert the dvi-file into a pdf-file with the following command:

dvipdf bla.tex > bla.pdf

i get the error-message:

dvips: ! Bad DVI file: first byte not preamble

Does anybody know how to fix this?

Olli

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localghost
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Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:06 pm

dvips: ! Bad DVI file: first byte not preamble

Post by localghost »

This is very confusing. You try to convert with dvipdf but you give an error message that comes from dvips. Where is the connection?


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frabjous
Posts: 2064
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:20 am

dvips: ! Bad DVI file: first byte not preamble

Post by frabjous »

It's more confusing than just that.

It looks like you're trying to convert a .tex file to .ps or .pdf using dvi(ps)(pdf).

dvips is, as its name implies, a tool for converting a .dvi file to a .ps file.

(And dvipdf is for converting a .dvi file to a .pdf file.)

If you're starting from a .tex file, you need to latex it first.

latex bla.tex

That should create bla.dvi. Then you can run

dvips bla.dvi

(to create bla.ps --- or dvipdf bla.dvi to create bla.pdf).
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