PIC2GRAPH
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 4 November 2014
Page Index
NAME
pic2graph - convert a PIC diagram into a cropped image
SYNOPSIS
pic2graph
[
-unsafe
]
[
-format fmt
]
[
-eqn delim
]
DESCRIPTION
Reads a PIC program as input; produces an image file (by default in
Portable Network Graphics format) suitable for the Web as output.
Also translates
eqn(1)
constructs, so it can be used for generating images of mathematical
formulae.
PIC is a rather expressive graphics minilanguage suitable for
producing box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind frequently used in
technical papers and textbooks.
The language is sufficiently flexible to be quite useful for state
charts, Petri-net diagrams, flow charts, simple circuit schematics,
jumper layouts, and other kinds of illustration involving repetitive
uses of simple geometric forms and splines.
Because PIC descriptions are procedural and object-based, they are
both compact and easy to modify.
The PIC language is fully documented in
Making Pictures With GNU PIC,
a document which is part of the
groff(1)
distribution.
Your input PIC code should
not
be wrapped with the .PS and .PE macros that normally guard it within
groff(1)
macros.
The output image will be clipped to the smallest possible bounding box
that contains all the black pixels.
Older versions of
convert(1)
will produce a black-on-white graphic; newer ones may produce a
black-on-transparent graphic.
By specifying command-line options to be passed to
convert(1)
you can give it a border, force the background transparent, set the
image's pixel density, or perform other useful transformations.
This program uses
pic(1),
eqn(1),
groff(1),
gs(1),
and the ImageMagick
convert(1)
program.
These programs must be installed on your system and accessible on your
$PATH for
pic2graph
to work.
OPTIONS
- -unsafe
-
Run
pic(1)
and
groff(1)
in the 'unsafe' mode enabling the PIC macro
sh
to execute arbitrary commands.
The default is to forbid this.
- -format fmt
-
Specify an output format; the default is PNG (Portable Network Graphics).
Any format that
convert(1)
can emit is supported.
- -eqn delim
-
Change the fencepost characters that delimit
eqn(1)
directives
($
and
$,
by default).
This option requires an argument, but an empty string is accepted as a
directive to disable
eqn(1)
processing.
Command-line switches and arguments not listed above are passed to
convert(1).
FILES
- /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/eqnrc
-
The
eqn(1)
initialization file.
ENVIRONMENT
- GROFF_TMPDIR
-
The directory in which temporary files will be created.
If this is not set
pic2graph
searches the environment variables
TMPDIR,
TMP,
and
TEMP
(in that order).
Otherwise, temporary files will be created in
/tmp.
BUGS
Due to changes in the behavior of ImageMagick
convert(1)
that are both forward and backward-incompatible,
mismatches between your
pic2graph
and
convert(1)
versions may produce zero-sized or untrimmed output images.
For this version of
pic2graph
you will need a version of
convert(1)
that supports the
-trim
option; older versions of
pic2graph
used
-crop~0x0,
which no longer has trimming behavior.
SEE ALSO
eqn2graph(1),
grap2graph(1),
pic(1),
eqn(1),
groff(1),
gs(1),
convert(1).
COPYING
This documentation is released to the public domain.
AUTHORS
Eric S. Raymond
based on a recipe by W. Richard Stevens.