[comp.text] Query: Easy \picture drawing in LaTeX

kerce@nu.cs.fsu.edu (Kingsley F. Kerce) (12/02/89)

I just completed my first composition of a couple of figures using
LaTeX's \picture environment, and was wondering if this is actually
the way that LaTeX'ers produce pictures.  There must be a better way
than adjusting and viewing, adjusting and viewing, ... ???

Is it feasible to produce pictures with an on-screen graphics-based
drawing tool and convert the result to LaTeX (or TeX) commands?  Has
this been done?

I'd appreciate any comments.
Kingsley
--
Kingsley Kerce             USnail: Dept. of Computer Sci. (or Dept. of Psych.)
Email: kerce@nu.cs.fsu.edu         Florida State University
Work Phone: (904) 644-5436         Tallahassee, FL  32306

beck@hermod.cs.cornell.edu (Micah Beck) (12/02/89)

In article <KERCE.89Dec1223207@nu.cs.fsu.edu> kerce@nu.cs.fsu.edu (Kingsley F. Kerce) writes:

>Is it feasible to produce pictures with an on-screen graphics-based
>drawing tool and convert the result to LaTeX (or TeX) commands?  Has
>this been done?

Yes.  I'd suggest you look into the Fig graphics editor and the TransFig
backend which translates into LaTeX-compatible forms.

TransFig is avialable via anonymous FTP from svax.cs.cornell.edu
in ~ftp/pub/fig/transfig.tar.Z, or by mail from the archive server
at sun.soe.clarkson.edu.

Micah Beck
Cornell CS