> \special を直接ソースに書き込むのはあまり勧められないのかもしれませんが、
………
> geometry にやってもらうのが一番簡単なのかも知れません。
偶然ほぼ同時期に comp.text.tex でも，クラスファイルでの用紙サイズと pdf の用紙サイズの関係について似たようなことが回答されていましたので，ご参考まで．
（以下は欧文の標準クラスファイルの話なのでデフォルトがレターペーパーと書かれていますが，日本語の標準クラスファイルのデフォルトの用紙サイズはレターペーパーではありません．念のため．）
----------
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
From: Heiko Oberdiek
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 00:10:36 +0200
Subject: Re: sourcing pdf configuration forces letter size
The standard classes does not provide the configuration of the paper
size. The default is letterpaper.
> > If you want something different, you have to specify it, e.g.:
> > \documentclass[a4paper]{article}
> if you want to go back to my OP, i presented two example runs of
> pdflatex
>
> in the first one i haven't given any a4paper option, i haven't input
> pdftex.def and pdflatex produces a pdf document for a4 paper
No, the page layout is letterpaper, but the standard classes
don't tell this the output driver. Thus the output driver does
not know the page size and uses its default (a4, that can be
configured by TL). Thus you end up with a page, layouted
for letterpaper on a PDF page in A4. Depending on the
margins this might not too bad, but try a3paper, a5paper, ...
> should i readdress my question/perplexity to a different, more debian
> specific forum? have you a suggestion?
The only bug I see is that LaTeX2e ignores the PDF format.
But LaTeX2e predates PDF and is frozen. Thus nothing will
change here. :-(
On your side, tell the class the correct paper size:
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
and use a package (or class) that tells the paper size to the output
driver (package geometry, typearea, pdftex.def (loaded by packages
color, graphicx), hyperref, ...)
Example:
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{geometry}
--
Heiko Oberdiek
----------