[XeTeX] \XeTeXpdffile problem solved - slightly OT but interesting

[Stephen Moye]

I created a small 1.7 inch square graphic in Illustrator, being careful to make the document size 1.7in by 1.7in. I saved the graphic as a PDF out of Illustrator. To make sure everything was OK I opened the graphic in Acrobat to look at it -- there it was nicely centered in a box 1.7 inches on a side.

When I placed the PDF in XeTeX using \centerline{...}, however, it was shifted to the right by about .3in. Odd.

To cut a long story short, after much searching I found that I had neglected to reposition the rulers in Illustrator so that (0in,0in) corresponded to the lower left-hand corner of the graphic -- they were off by about .3in in both directions.

I adjusted the rulers, re-exported the file, and everything worked perfectly and as expected. The PDF as viewed in Acrobat appeared to be unchanged, but behaved differently when placed.

Live and learn.

Stephen Moye