Nuclear Astrophysics Data Files Format Choice

Some nuclear astrophysics data files are very large. It may take a while to download them to your system. Some files are available in Text, Portable Document Format (PDF) or PostScript (PS) formats. Here, we provide some descriptions of these formats to help you choose the type to read or download.

Text:

Text files are straightforward to use. They are smaller than the PDF or PS files. However, figures are not available in text format.

PDF:

Portable Document Format files (files with the extension ".pdf") were produced with Adobe Acrobat software, and can be viewed with the Acrobat Reader and some versions of Ghostview. If you are using a PC or a Macintosh, it may be more convenient to read the PDF files than the PS files. The Acrobat Reader for Mac., PC, and most unix machines can be downloaded at no cost from the WWW, where instructions for configuring your Web browser to recognize PDF files are also provided by Adobe.

PS:

Postscript files are often large, so it can take a long time to download. A fast UNIX or VAX workstation with a Ghostview can display PS files adequately. Postscript files can be embedded into TeX files, and imported into some paint programs and edited. They can be downloaded and printed to a postscript printer even if you don't have a PS viewer.