Installing MS TrueType core fonts on Linux

Instructions obtained from:
http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/

1. Install cabextract and fedora-rpmdevtools:
   

   $ sudo yum install cabextract fedora-rpmdevtools



2. Create the build tree:
   

    $ fedora-buildrpmtree 



3. Get the SPEC file:
   

    $ cd ~/rpmbuild/SPEC && wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec 



4. Get the fonts and create the RPM package:
   

    $ rpmbuild -bb msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec 



5. Install the fonts package:
   

    $ sudo rpm -ivh ../RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm 

Restart any running application to use the new fonts.

Making slides in LaTeX using the Beamer package

Prosper is excellent - no doubt about that. But this package also has some promising features and a very, very slick look and feel. Take a looksie at the samples and tutorial here. It also works with pdflatex.

Using LaTeX expressions in Xfig

This is a really cool method to get those awesome LaTeX expressions working with Xfig figures.

Before you enter a mathematical expression, make sure to turn "Special Flags" to "special" under "Text Flags".

Complete your figure with the drawings and don't forget to enter your expressions in math mode (i.e. $...$).

Save the figure as a *.fig file.

Now, export the figure using the "combined PS/LaTeX (both parts)" language.

Next, make a file name_of_fig.tex and put this in it:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{epsfig}
\usepackage{color}
\setlength{\textwidth}{100cm}
\setlength{\textheight}{100cm}
\begin{document}
\pagestyle{empty}
\input{name_of_file.pstex_t}
\end{document}

Run LaTeX.

You will have a name_of_fig.dvi file.

Run the following to convert to *.eps:

[silverstreak@localhost]$ dvips -E name_of_file.dvi -o name_of_file.eps

You can now include this in your LaTeX document using the usual method.