# bmeps 2.1.2

- Overview
- Download / Installation
- Usage
- Examples
- bmeps GUI
- mkpdfsls
- FAQ
- Change log
- Other projects
- PDF manual (en)
- PDF manual (de)
- Doxygen docu

## mkpdfsls

- Overview
- The project file
- The [options] section
- The [files] section
- Example file
- Running mkpdfsls.pl

### Overview

A user requested additional functionality to create a PDF presentation (i.e. to show holiday photos) from a list of images in one simple step.
I do not like to program this in C in the bmeps source code, so I wrote a Perl script instead.

There are three general ways to produce a slide show using mkpdfsls.pl:

- Convert each image file to PDF and use pdftk to bundle the images in one PDF file.
  The ``pdftk'' program is required.
- Convert each image to PDF, create a LaTeX source referencing these images and run LaTeX. The resulting PDF file attempts to change to full-screen mode and just shows the images.
  A LaTeX distribution is required.
- Convert each image to PDF, create a LaTeX source referencing these images and run LaTeX. The resulting PDF file attempts to change to full-screen mode and shows the images in a presentation where each slide shows the image, a description, a slide show name and the authors name.
  A LaTeX distribution and the ``beamer'' class for LaTeX are required.

To run the mkpdfsls.pl script you must have Perl installed.

### The project file

The project file consists of an optional ``[options]'' section to set options and a ``[files]'' section listing the images and optionally short descriptions for the images.

#### The [options] section

The options section is optional and can be used for setup and can contain the following entries:

- presentation maker = maker
  chooses one of the ways to create the final PDF file.
  Use either ``pdftk'', ``plain'' or ``beamer''.
- theme = theme
  chooses a beamer theme, i.e. ``Madrid''. Only used if ``presentation maker = beamer''.
- background = color
  chooses a background color. Specify one of the color names defined in the xcolor package, i.e. ``black''. Only used if ``presentation maker = beamer''.
- input encoding = encoding
  specifies an input encoding for use with LaTeX, i.e. ``latin1'' or ``utf8''.
  By default the mkpdfsls.pl script inspects the LANG environment variable and uses ``utf8'' if the variable ends on ``.UTF-8'', ``latin1'' otherwise.
  Only used if ``presentation maker = beamer'' or ``plain''.
- babel options = options
  chooses options for the babel package.
  Only used if ``presentation maker = beamer''.
- author = author
  specifies the slide show author.
  Only used if ``presentation maker = beamer''.
- title = title
  specifies a title for the slide show.
  Only used if ``presentation maker = beamer''.
- make mode = flag
  turns make mode on or off.
  In make mode the script only converts images to PDF if necessary (if the PDF file does not yet exist or is older than the source image).
  The make mode is enabled by default.
- use exif = flag
  enables/disables the use of ``Comment'' EXIF tags in JPEG files as image descriptions.
  Note: The Image::ExifTool and DKrause::LaTeXEncoder Perl modules are needed.

#### The [files] section

The files section lists the source image files to use, one per line.
You can specify optional comments, separate file name and comment by ``=''.

#### Example file

    [options]
    presentation maker		=	beamer
    theme			=	Madrid
    background			=	black
    author			=	John Doe
    title			=	Holidays in Scotland
    use exif		=	yes
    # input encoding is not explicitly specified, inspect LANG variable
    # No babel options -> No use of babel package
    # make mode not specified, enabled by default

    [files]
    scot01.jpg
    scot02.jpg
    scot03.jpg

### Running mkpdfsls.pl

Create a project file, i.e. ``holiday.mks'' and run

    mkpdfsls.pl holiday.mks