1 .\" Id: pic2graph.man,v 1.5 2003/10/28 07:46:24 wlemb Exp
2 .\" This documentation is released to the public domain.
3 .TH PIC2GRAPH @MAN1EXT@ "@MDATE@" "Groff Version @VERSION@"
6 pic2graph \- convert a PIC diagram into a cropped image
23 Reads a PIC program as input; produces an image file (by default in
24 Portable Network Graphics format) suitable for the Web as output.
26 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
27 constructs, so it can be used for generating images of mathematical
30 PIC is a rather expressive graphics minilanguage suitable for
31 producing box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind frequently used in
32 technical papers and textbooks. The language is sufficiently flexible
33 to be quite useful for state charts, Petri-net diagrams, flow charts,
34 simple circuit schematics, jumper layouts, and other kinds of
35 illustration involving repetitive uses of simple geometric forms and
36 splines. Because PIC descriptions are procedural and object-based,
37 they are both compact and easy to modify.
39 The PIC language is fully documented in "\fIMaking Pictures With GNU
40 PIC\fP", a document which is part of the
44 Your input PIC code should \fInot\fR be wrapped with the .PS and .PE macros
45 that normally guard it within
49 The output image will be a black-on-white graphic clipped to the
50 smallest possible bounding box that contains all the black pixels.
51 By specifying command-line options to be passed to
53 you can give it a border, set the background transparent, set the
54 image's pixel density, or perform other useful transformations.
57 .BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),
58 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),
59 .BR groff (@MAN1EXT@),
64 These programs must be installed on your system and accessible on your
65 $PATH for \fBpic2graph\fR to work.
72 .BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@)
75 in the `unsafe' mode enabling the PIC macro
77 to execute arbitrary commands. The default is to forbid this.
80 Specify an output format; the default is PNG (Portable Network Graphics).
83 can emit is supported.
86 Change the fencepost characters that delimit
87 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
92 by default). This option requires an argument, but an empty string is
93 accepted as a directive to disable
94 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
97 Command-line switches and arguments not listed above are passed to
102 .TP \w'\fB@MACRODIR@/eqnrc'u+2n
105 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
112 The directory in which temporary files will be created.
115 searches the environment variables
121 Otherwise, temporary files will be created in
126 .BR eqn2graph (@MAN1EXT@),
127 .BR grap2graph (@MAN1EXT@),
128 .BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),
129 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),
130 .BR groff (@MAN1EXT@),
136 Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>, based on a recipe by W. Richard Stevens.