bionic (1) mpost.1.gz

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 ⟨http://foundry.supelec.fr/gf/project/metapost/⟩.
       MetaPost home page ⟨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.

       The  primary  author of the current MetaPost was Taco Hoekwater, with assistance from Hans Hagen and many
       others.  It is currently maintained by Luigi Scarso.

       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.

BUGS

       The MetaPost home page is http://tug.org/metapost.