Table of contents


Recommended Updating Procedure

From the Help Menu within PCTeX, select Help..Updates..Check for updates now

The software will connect to our servers over the Internet, check for available updates, download the appropriate updates, and automatically install them.

If you have a firewall installed, it may prevent the PCTeX Updater from communicating with our servers. If you cannot configure your firewall to grant our updater access to the Internet, then you will need to manually download the update and install it yourself. Follow the instructions in the section below.

Manual Updating Procedure

All updates for Version 6 (the currently shipping version) are listed below. Each link below contains all prior updates, so to bring your PCTeX software up-to-date all you need to download is the most recent update.

Click on the link to download the update.

If you wish to run the update directly, choose "Open" when prompted by your browser. To run the update later, choose "Save" when prompted by your browser. The updater is completely self-contained in the single file. You may copy it to removable media to update computers that are not part of a local network.

Updates for PCTeX Version 6


November 15, 2012

11 November 2012 (http://pctex.com/update/6/PCTeX6update-2012-11-15.exe)

  • PDF viewer connection fixes, will work with Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 9 & 10
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

August 3, 2011

3 August 2011 (http://pctex.com/update/6/PCTeX6update-2011-08-03.exe)

  • Faster package loading when working offline.
  • Fixed Packages..Uninstall button.
  • Fixed bug where NUL written into .log file by TeX gave erroneous messages
  • Fixed bug with TeXSpell default language, so that it can be changed and remembered
  • Fixed bug where ".log" file is added to project

April 16, 2010

16 April 2010 (http://pctex.com/update/6/PCTeX6update2010-04-16.exe)

  • Eliminated font map warnings in typeset log
  • Fixed problem with displaying text colors
  • Fixed INITeX bug which gave a "bad path?" error
  • Updater will now fetch files from a faster server

February 10, 2010

10 February 2010 (http://pctex.com/update/6/PCTeX6update-2010-02-10.exe)

  • Changed to version "6.1"
  • Added projects for LaTeX Quick Start (printed guide)
  • Fixed ps: specials bug
  • Editor - Fixed right-click word selection bug
  • Fixed Insert Graphic --- will not ask to copy graphics file if it is in a subdirectory of project directory
  • "LaTeX source files more than ..." (n years old) will not abort INITeX
  • Other bug fixes

June 24, 2009

24 June 2009 (http://pctex.com/update/6/PCTeX6update2009-06-24.exe)

  • Added a word count feature for DVI files --- use Tools..Word Count, see below for a description.
  • Added Insert>>Reference dialog to allow referring to a LaTeX label.
  • Added \ref{...} hotspot in editor to allow editing labels. Will work with \pageref, \autoref, \xxxref (or anything containing "ref") as well.
  • Added Insert>>Cite dialog to allow referring to a bibliographical citation.
  • Added \cite{...} hotspot in editor to allow editing citation keys. Will work with \nocite, \xxxcite (or anything containing "cite") as well.
  • Fixed EPS figures display in DVI mode
  • Fixed minor bug in editor spell check
  • Fixed problems with displaying graphics files
  • Allow tif, gif, png in DVI mode graphics
  • For graphics files, will look for them in Figure or Input path from Settings..TeX Directories
  • Fixed editor to better underline misspelled words that occur after several spaces at the beginning of a line
  • Fixed Include Graphics dialog to allow graphics height and width down to 0.01 in
  • The PCTeX Registration key now applies to all users of a machine
    • For this to work, use Help..Registration and re-enter the 25-character product code. If you are using Windows Vista, log in as Administrator.
  • A PDF file created from a DVI file is now added to the project and opened in the PDF viewer. This applies to PDF files created by pressing the PDF button in the DVI view or by choosing File..Export..PDF (from DVI and PostScript).


Word count for DVI files

With a DVI file showing in PCTeX, choose Tools..Word Count to get a word count. You may also count words in a selected a block of text, for example a paragraph.

To check what was counted, there is a log file that shows words counted for each page. If your DVI file is abc.dvi, the log file is called "abc.wcl". This file appears in the Workspace under "Other files".

The method used for this first version is:

  1. Words begin with a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and ligatures (fi, fl, ...), and continue until a word space is found.
  2. A word space is a horizontal or vertical movement that is larger than the usual character or line spacing for the current font. For example, in a 10 point font, a word space is a horizontal movement of more than 10/7 points or a vertical movement of greater than 10 points.
  3. If a hyphen occurs at the end of a line, any letters occurring on the following line are added to the word. The word will show up in the log file as "move-ment", for example.
  4. No provisions are made for math fonts or other specialized fonts.
  5. All characters are considered as if from a font with ASCII codes. Word characters have codes 65..90, 97..122, 48..57 (numbers), and 11..15 (ligatures).

October 17, 2007

17 October 2007

  • Landscape orientation detected from DVI file
    • When opening a file in DVI mode, the page orientation (portrait or landscape) view will be automatically adjusted
    • The print orientation is also set automatically
  • Graphics inclusion will use Figure Files path
    • When including figures or graphics, the Figure Files path in Settings..Directories will be searched
  • Graphics Wizard will use different units, e.g. cm, pt, ...
    • The Graphics Wizard dialog will allow the use of different units when resizing the graphic image
  • Caption & Reference fields in Graphics Wizard are more TeX-friendly
    • The contents of these fields will be checked and adjusted so that there will not be errors when the document is typeset

September 16, 2007

16 September 2007

  • Fixed bug with landscape display and printing in DVI mode

August 23, 2007

23 August 2007

  • Fixed bug where large files BoundingBox information was misinterpreted.
  • Fixed eps bounding box computation for Include Graphic dialog display
  • Fixed bugs with loading missing language dictionaries
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

June 27, 2007

27 June 2007

  • Updated package archives to the TeX Live 2007 set
    • The original PCTeX6 released in February 2007 was provided with the TeX Live 2005 package archive
    • For those users who have this version, the working archive will continue to be the TeX Live 2005 - it will not change automatically to TeX Live 2007
    • Rationale: this avoids mixing packages from two archives, avoiding possible conflicts.
    • To update to the TeX Live 2007 package archive you will have to uninstall PCTeX6, delete all PCTeXv6 directories, and then install the June 27 release (this will be available to beta testers on June 27 and will be in distribution shortly after).
  • PCTeX will allow multi-language spell checking - over 20 dictionaries are available
    • Use Settings..Default Settings..TeXSpell to set the default language for spell checking
    • Use the Insert..Language wizard to set the spell check language for a document
    • Allows editing the custom dictionary for each language word list
    • Spell custom dictionaries were moved to ispell/ispell_<lang>.dic . For example, CUSTOM.DIC is moved to spell/ispell_american.dic
    • TeXSpell dialog titles show which dictionary is being used, e.g. "american"
    • On Insert..Language will add \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
  • PCTeX will now try to load missing package files either from the internet or from local archives
  • It uses a new strategy to load missing packages, and maintains a local database of packages
  • Added an "Enable Net Access" checkbox to Packages dialog to inhibit accessing the internet archives if desired
  • Fixed bug: when reading files from the internet archive, will not hang if net access not available
  • Will find BoundingBox in eps files more successfully - previously eps files with large headers would not load into the Insert Graphic dialog
  • Will find LaTeX preamble more successfully
  • Fixed bug with spellcheck replace - will keep case of original word. For example, replace "Lod" with "load" gives "Load".
  • Fixed bug accessing Adobe Acrobat 8.1 as PDF reader
  • Fixed bug in source->DVI find - previously this was not consistent
  • Fixed bug with graphics inclusion file names - this was giving false invalid file name warnings
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

April 18, 2007

18 April 2007

  • Added Settings..Editor option to turn on/off auto-complete LaTeX commands
  • Added Settings..Editor option to turn on/off auto-spellcheck
  • Added full key/value options to Class and Package configuration wizards. For an example see the package geometry
  • Set Settings..TeX Fonts to always typeset Character Table in DVI mode
  • Fixed PDF mode logic to allow re-typesetting if references are unresolved
  • Removed restriction on PS->PDF conversion in PCTeX 6 Regular
  • Added TeX-friendly captions & references in Insert Graphics
    • Before, adding the file "graph_13.eps", for example, would provide the caption "Caption for graph_13". The "_" would cause a typesetting error. Now gives "Caption for graph\_13".
  • Fixed ctrl-] to do match brace (wasn't working)
  • Fixed miscellaneous bugs

February 13, 2007

13 February 2007

  • Initial release

MathTimePro 2 fonts update

February 2009 update


Most recent Version 5 Install image

Install Version 5

Most Recent Update (contains this and all previous updates):

No updates at this time.

PCTeX Updates for Version 5

26th Oct 2005

  • More robust communication with typesetter and PS/PDF engine to address remaining freezes during typesetting and postscript rendering.


13th Jul, 2005
  • Recovers gracefully from missing EPS files
  • Support for GIF/LZW and TIFF/LZW (now patent-free) formats
  • Fix for MFC Error when topmost project file removed from disk
  • Support for pdfetex as primary TeX Engine


25th Jan, 2005
  • Fix support for "true" dimensions in specials
  • Fix clipping support in specials
  • Allow larger page sizes, include A0-A6 as presets
  • Selection column toggling for Braille reader
  • Fix for Export to PDF error when running as a restricted user
  • Integrated newer version of Edit control for JAWS Braille reader
  • F3 in Editor fixed


30th Nov, 2004
  • Updated help file, new getting started topic
  • Allow non-emacs line kill
  • BibTeX options passed through
  • Wait Cursor behavior better on slower machines
  • PDF distilling producing lines around graphics fixed
  • Page displacement of 2-up pages behavior fixed
  • Enhanced project customization
  • Clipboard DIB scaling information passed Find window moves out of the way
  • Fix for source files being removed out from under project files


3rd Sep, 2004
  • Case sensitivity issue in PDF previewer


2nd Sep, 2004
  • Help file revisions
  • Help file extensions Win9x support


28th Aug, 2004
  • Load packages directly from the internet
  • New help file
  • Fatal bugs w/ empty projects vs maximization fix
  • Advanced pane: fix TEX/DVI file association button
  • Package manager: Right pane reinstall bug
  • Package manager: Right pane repositioning fixed
  • Package manager: Right pane uninstall bug
  • Package manager: Descriptions for web files
  • Bug 566: File->New to not force .tex file creation
  • Bug 447: default view size, maximization, etc.
  • Bug 416: workspace remembers view page
  • Bug 539: Tools and env vars (emacs works!)
  • Allow use of 5-6-5 encoded 16bit bitmaps
  • Fix for parentheses in directory names confusing dvips
  • Fix for certain specials not being inserted correctly in large documents
  • Editor reverse scrolling behavior in word-wrapped paragraphs
  • Migrate to not using My PCTeX Files by default.
  • Automatically install licenses on a per-machine basis
  • Fix "user.map" warning after update when no user fonts installed
  • Printing multiple copies to non-PS printer drivers made more efficient
  • Font installer finds Native Windows fonts under Win95/98/ME
  • Font installer now handles some non-standard font encodings (symbol, etc)


21st May, 2004
  • Font installer is now active, and allows adding TrueType (TTF) and PostScript (PFB) font files
  • Font installer warns about installing "naked fonts"
  • Font installer distinguishes between 8A and 8R encodings
  • Font list dialog "decimal only" bug fixed
  • Editor will now jump from source text to DVI/typeset view
  • Support was added for printing to Acrobat Distiller 3,4,5,6
  • An option was added to allow embedding of PS35 standard fonts during PDF export
  • Standalone preview of troublesome EPS files fixed
  • PDF output refinements were implemented, including automatic landscape detection
  • Antialias "Always" is now the default in the PS mode viewer
  • Antialias radio buttons problem in View Settings fixed
  • Evaluation watermark revised, and moved to bottom of display page
  • The evaluation dialog appears at every startup (Evaluation licenses only)
  • Writer level now correctly allows AI export
  • Reader level now correctly allows PS export
  • Update/Install location fixed for ease in managing multiple installations


26th February, 2004
  • Fix for crashes in certain printer drivers
  • Fix for slow PDF distillation when using transparent images


28th January, 2004
  • Fix for dvips filename truncations


23rd January, 2004
  • Support for applying DVI-level \magnification to \special graphics
  • Add odd/even, reversed printer support
  • Settings->Directories bugs w/ text limits and abbreviations
  • Legacy special commands (eps:) support
  • Honors printer dialog selections (n-up, copies, collation, etc.) for postscript printing
  • Enhanced project-based tiling
  • fix for "unable to initialize RIP" during PDF export
  • Advanced support for selecting method of PS rasterization
  • Workaround for users with bad Win2k network file shares (lacking Modify access)


25th November, 2003
  • fixed support for low bit-depth bitmaps transparencies in Postscript/PDF
  • Some bitmap heights could go get scaled to zero when exporting PS/PDF


20th November, 2003
  • More intuitive File->New and File->New->Browse behavior
  • Guard against legacy path searching variables
  • TTF support in all view/print modes
  • Text dragged in Output windows causes errors fixed
  • Viewing of large documents with many graphics sped up in PS-mode
  • BMP (16bit depth) to Postscript conversion fixed
  • WMF, EMF graphics transparencies fixed
  • Improved support for binary/DOS preview EPS files
  • Printing routines sped up
  • Math mode coloring more intuitive
  • Better compatibility with problematic printer drivers
  • Better DVI recovery when TFM files missing
  • Add support for PDF internal compression
11th November, 2003
  • AMSPlain, MLAMSPlain format problem caused incremented page numbering
22nd October, 2003
  • Fix reference point in seteps.tex and setps.tex to be v4 compatible
16th October, 2003
  • Corrects for some printer drivers which corrupt output
  • PCTeX Helper buttons corrected
  • Support for printing directly to Adobe Distiller

Updates for Older Versions

PCTeX Versions Prior to 5.0

Personal TeX no longer provides support for these versions.

Please take advantage of our generous upgrade options.