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.

       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.

       The current, CWEB based version of MetaPost is maintained by Taco Hoekwater.

       The manual and tutorial are maintained by Stephan Hennig and Troy Henderson.

BUGS

       Email bug reports to metapost@tug.org.