[mdlug] [OT] Perspective

[Michael Corral]

2007-07-21, Monsieur A. Kalten a ecrit:
> Michael Corral wrote:
>> Things like groff and LaTeX handle all that for you, I think they
>> are definitely worth learning. For example, save the following text
>> between the dashed lines in a file called letter.tex, then run
>> this command: pdflatex letter.tex
>> This will produce a letter.pdf file, open it and see how everything
>> is formatted for you.
>
> Sure.  That's easy.
>
> But what good is an official letter without a bona fide signature?

Well, I have this crazy practice of putting my signature on letters
by printing the letter out and then, using this thing called a "pen",
writing my signature by hand on the letter. ;)

> To include your "John Hancock" you are going to have to create
> an image file, ultimately in eps format, and then work it in to
> that LaTex template using the \includegraphics{} directive.

Huh? First of all, an electronic "John Hancock" is *not* a "bona fide
signature". Where did you ever get that notion? Whether it's done by
using a cursive font or by scanning a handwritten signature into an
image file, that electronic version is not your legal signature. In
fact, putting such a thing in an electronically submitted document
file just makes you look silly, because there's no need for it. I've
never seen it required anywhere. Seriously, doing that is the kind of
thing that clueless lusers do because they think it's "kewl". I am
shocked and dismayed that a user who considers himself experienced and
knowledgeable would even think of doing such a silly thing.

Secondly, it's not even true that if you did include such an image file
that it would have to be in eps format. With pdflatex, you can include
png, jpg and gif image files. They don't even get converted to eps,
since PDF does not support eps natively.

As far as different letter formats in LaTeX, it's fairly easy to either
modify the default settings or use alternate templates. The defaults
have always been fine for me and the people I've sent letters to.

Michael