NAME¶
mpost - MetaPost, a system for creating graphics
SYNOPSIS¶
mpost [
options] [
commands]
mpost --dvitomp dvifile[
.dvi]
[
mpxfile[
.mpx]]
DESCRIPTION¶
MetaPost interprets the MetaPost language and produces PostScript (EPS) or
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) pictures. The MetaPost language is similar to
Knuth's Metafont with additional features for including
tex(1) or
troff(1) commands and accessing features of PostScript not found in
Metafont.
MetaPost is normally used with some preloaded macros, and it will use its
executable name as the name of the preload file to use. For example, when
called as
mpost the
mpost.mp file is used, which is identical to
plain.mp. When the
--ini option is given, preloading does not
happen.
The
commands given on the command line to the MetaPost program are passed
to it as the first input line. (But it is often easier to type extended
arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble up or
misinterpret MetaPost's favorite symbols, like semicolons, unless you quote
them.) The normal usage is to say
mpost figs to process the file
figs.mp. The basename of
figs becomes the ``jobname'', and is
used in forming output file names. If no file is named, the jobname becomes
mpout. The default extension,
.mp, can be overridden by
specifying an extension explicitly.
When the
--dvitomp option is given, MetaPost acts as DVI-to-MPX converter
only. See dvitomp (1) for details.
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for
this version of MetaPost can be found in the User Manual that should have been
installed along with the program and is also available from
http://tug.org/metapost. See the FILES section below.
The MetaPost language is similar to Metafont, but the manual assumes no
knowledge of Metafont. MetaPost does not have bitmap output commands or
Metafont's online display mechanism.
FILES¶
- plain.mp
- The standard preload file.
- mfplain.mp
- The Metafont-compatible preload file.
- $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/base/*.mp
- The standard MetaPost macros included in the original
distribution.
- $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/*
- Various tables for handling included tex and
troff.
- $TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/trfonts.map
- Table of corresponding font names for troff and
PostScript.
- psfonts.map
- Table of corresponding font names for tex and
PostScript.
- $TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/*
- The MetaPost manual and tutorial source, also including
sample figures
SUGGESTED READING¶
Donald E. Knuth,
The Metafontbook (Volume C of
Computers and
Typesetting), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
SEE ALSO¶
dvitomp(1),
epstopdf(1),
mf(1),
mptopdf(1),
tex(1),
MetaPost source code ⟨URL:
http://foundry.supelec.fr/gf/project/metapost/
⟩.
MetaPost home page ⟨URL:
http://tug.org/metapost/ ⟩.
AUTHORS¶
MetaPost was designed by John D. Hobby, incorporating algorithms from Metafont
by Donald E. Knuth. It was originally implemented on Unix, incorporating
system-dependent routines from
web2c, while not relying on it except
for the actual Web-to-C translator.
Ulrik Vieth adapted MetaPost to take advantage of the advanced path searching
features in more recent versions of
web2c and worked towards fully
integrating MetaPost into the canonical Unix TeX distribution.
The current, CWEB based version of MetaPost is maintained by Taco Hoekwater.
The manual and tutorial are maintained by Stephan Hennig and Troy Henderson.
BUGS¶
Email bug reports to metapost@tug.org.