1 .\" $Id: pic2graph.man,v 1.7 2008/09/29 21:55:15 wl 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.
33 The language is sufficiently flexible to be quite useful for state
34 charts, Petri-net diagrams, flow charts, simple circuit schematics,
35 jumper layouts, and other kinds of illustration involving repetitive
36 uses of simple geometric forms and splines.
37 Because PIC descriptions are procedural and object-based, they are
38 both compact and easy to modify.
40 The PIC language is fully documented in
41 .IR "Making Pictures With GNU PIC" ,
42 a document which is part of the
46 Your input PIC code should
48 be wrapped with the \&.PS and \&.PE macros that normally guard it within
52 The output image will be clipped to the smallest possible bounding box
53 that contains all the black pixels.
56 will produce a black-on-white graphic; newer ones may produce a
57 black-on-transparent graphic.
58 By specifying command-line options to be passed to
60 you can give it a border, force the background transparent, set the
61 image's pixel density, or perform other useful transformations.
64 .BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),
65 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),
66 .BR groff (@MAN1EXT@),
71 These programs must be installed on your system and accessible on your
81 .BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@)
84 in the `unsafe' mode enabling the PIC macro
86 to execute arbitrary commands.
87 The default is to forbid this.
90 Specify an output format; the default is PNG (Portable Network Graphics).
93 can emit is supported.
96 Change the fencepost characters that delimit
97 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
103 This option requires an argument, but an empty string is
104 accepted as a directive to disable
105 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
108 Command-line switches and arguments not listed above are passed to
113 .TP \w'\fB@MACRODIR@/eqnrc'u+2n
116 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
123 The directory in which temporary files will be created.
126 searches the environment variables
132 Otherwise, temporary files will be created in
137 Due to changes in the behavior of ImageMagick
139 that are both forward and backward-incompatible,
140 mismatches between your
144 versions may produce zero-sized or untrimmed output images.
147 you will need a version of
151 option; older versions of
155 which no longer has trimming behavior.
159 .BR eqn2graph (@MAN1EXT@),
160 .BR grap2graph (@MAN1EXT@),
161 .BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),
162 .BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),
163 .BR groff (@MAN1EXT@),
169 Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>, based on a recipe by W. Richard Stevens.