Pgfplots graphics tick label positioning issue with latex->dvi (but not with pdflatex->pdf)

Question

I'm trying to plot an image file in a pdfplots axis. This is a minimal example (the files fig2a.eps and fig2a.png both contain the image that should be plotted):

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}
\addplot graphics[xmin=-0.15, xmax=0.15, ymin=0.0, ymax=0.2] {fig2a};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

When compiling with pdflatex, I get exactly what I want. With latex (producing a dvi file), the tick labels are all on top of each other inside the image, so something goes wrong with the positioning.

I suppose version information is useful in this case -- from the output to the screen I have this when running both latex and pdflatex:

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.4-1.40.13 (TeX Live 2012)

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The dvi output is just an intermediate format; it cannot be viewed.

I suppose that you looked at the resulting .pdf or .ps? If so, how did you convert the .dvi to .pdf (or .ps)? TikZ needs to know this so-called "driver" in order to produce a proper output dvi. Without the correct driver, the output will be screwed up.

Here is a brief list of the most common drivers:

% needed for latex; dvipdfm
%\def\pgfsysdriver{pgfsys-dvipdfm.def}

% needed for pdflatex and/or lualatex (it is detected by default)
%\def\pgfsysdriver{pgfsys-pdftex.def}

% needed by latex; dvips (it is detected by default)
%\def\pgfsysdriver{pgfsys-dvips.def}

% needed by latex; dvipdfmx
%\def\pgfsysdriver{pgfsys-dvipdfmx.def}

% needed by xelatex 
%\def\pgfsysdriver{pgfsys-xetex.def}
\usepackage{pgfplots} % or \usepackage{tikz}; same thing.

If you use latex; dvips or pdflatex or lualatex, the driver is detected automatically. In all other cases, you'd need to write the correct driver statement.