Instructions on how to download articles of this bulletin


The Web format for the published articles is

HyperText (html) document,

postscript (PS) (gzip compressed) and

portable document format (PDF).


HyperText documents will be displayed by your browser directly.

Postscript files can be read with ghostview on workstations running X-windows and PCs running linux or GSview on PCs. The program should already be installed on those systems. If not, you can download the software and obtain information from the ghostscript home page.

To read files in the PDF format you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If it is not already installed on your system you can download a free version of that software and obtain instructions on how to install the program from the Adobe WWW server.


Which viewer to use is pretty much a question of personal preference. However, if you are reading the ICFA Instrumentation Bulletin (IIB) with a browser that is running on a X-windows workstation we recommend that you use ghostview to read the articles in compressed postscript format (the files are usually smaller than the PDF versions). On the other hand, if you are reading the IIB with a browser that is running on a PC with MS windows or on a Mac we recommend that you use the Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the articles in PDF format.

The primary use of the Hypertext format is fast and easy viewing of an article without the need for a special previewer - it is therefore the best choice for you if your computer and/or browser is not properly configured for the PostScript and PDF formats and you experience problems when you want to download the file.
However, the html format was generated automatically from the submitted LaTeX, MS Word and PostScript files. This means that errors may have occured during the conversion that cause special characters and references within a document to be inaccurate. Furthermore, since all figures are converted to the GIF format, the printed output will be of poor quality. Therefore, we recommend that you do not print out the html version of an article but download the PostScript or PDF version for printing instead.

The PDF version of most of the documents was distilled from a PostScript file sometimes created from LaTeX source which used Type 3 fonts. The resultant PDF may be unreadable on the screen at the default viewing magnification (fonts will appear bitmapped, jagged), though the type will be legible at higher magnifications. Despite the cosmetic problems resulting from the use Type 3 fonts in the original source file, such PDF files print without problems; likewise, the onscreen text is searchable and selectable.

In case of problems - Netscape maintains a nice set of pages to help you to find and download the viewers you need and to configure your browser to call the appropriate application.


Last modified: 4 Apr 2000, J. Schwiening.