fig2mpdf(1)

NAME
fig2mpdf - creation of multilayer pdf or eps figures from fig files using latex for typesetting

SYNOPSIS
fig2mpdf [OPTION]... FILE

DESCRIPTION

This tool can create pdf or eps figures using fig files as source. For beamer presentations, for example, you can use the multilayer mode to create multiple figures that can be overlayed to get a dynamic figure. For proper appearance you can use latex to typeset some or all texts, possibly containing formulas. The default interpretation of the given fig FILE depends on its suffix.

fig Normal conversion of a fig file. All texts are interpreted as postscript texts and all elements of the figure are included in the resulting figure.

lfig
    LaTeX interpretation of the file. All texts of the input file that have the special bit set are typeset by pdflatex resp. latex (see: Option -|+l).

mfig
    Multilayer file interpretation. Depending on the used depths of the figure it is split into multiple parts. For each part an output file is created (see: section MultiLayerOutput).

mlfig or lmfig
    Combination of multilayer and LaTeX interpretation of the input (see: Suffix lfig and mfig).

The default interpretation of the input can be changed by using the options below.

OPTIONS

-e  produce an eps output file. Instead of creating a pdf file (the default) an eps figure is produced.

-|+l
    force calling (pdf)latex (-) or do not use (pdf)latex (+) for typesetting the text marked with the special flag. With this option you can change the default behavior given by the input file suffix.

-|+m
    force set (-) or unset (+) the multilayer interpretation (see: MultiLayerOutput below) which was previously set by the input file suffix.

-p ranges
    explicitly set the ranges of depths for splitting the input figure in multilayer mode. ranges is a colon separated list of ranges of the form upper-lower or depth where upper is the top and lower the bottom depth in the range. If you use the depth form the range consist of just that depth.

-i  include the the bottommost range (that is, the one with the highest depth) into all output figures. This is for compatibility to older versions of this tool.

-I  turn on pyramid mode. The figure of a corresponding range in multilayer mode includes all lower ranges too.

-g gapwidth
    set the allowed gapwidth between two used depths to decide if these depths should be grouped together in one range. With this option you get more flexibility to insert objects with new depths. The default width is zero (no gap = consecutively numbered depths are grouped together).

-s style
    replace the default style for selecting a font family in LaTeX mode. If this option is omitted the style `times' is set by default.

-H header
    replace the default header sequence for creating temporary LaTeX documents in LaTeX mode. To get maximum flexibility you can set the entire document header in the file header (see: Customized Headers below).

-G  in multilayer mode change the default output file pattern to the PDF format which is <name>.page<no>.<ext>

-v  be verbose and print out all executed commands

-V  print out the version of fig2mpdf

MultiLayerOutput
In xfig you can assign an individual depth to all objects of the figure. These depths are normally used to determine the order of printing the objects. fig2mpdf uses these depths to group the objects into ranges in automatic mode (if the ranges option is omitted). In the list of used depths, consecutively numbered depths are grouped into one range. That is, all gaps between used depths are used to logically split the figure. With -g you can set the gapwidth which doesn't split the figure (default: zero).

The resulting list of ranges determines the number of output files. In default mode all objects with depths assigned to one range are collected and put into the corresponding output file. The contents of the output files can be changed with the two Options -i and -I.

The -i option reduces the number of output files by one. The bottommost range, that is the range which consist of the highest depths of the figure, is included into all output files.

In pyramid mode, activated by the option -I, the output files contain additionally all lower ranges. With this mode you can get stand alone figures that don't have to be overlayed to have meaningful content.

Example 1
Assume that you have a fig file foo.fig which contains the three ranges 230-233, 455-460 and 499-500.

With no options set you get three output files, one per range. But if you set the -i option you get the following two files where the bottommost range is included in both of the files:
  foo-0.pdf with ranges 455-460 and 499-500
  foo-1.pdf with ranges 230-233 and 499-500.

Example 2
The pyramid mode, activated by the option -I, will produce the following files from the source file of Example 1:
  foo-0.pdf with ranges 499-500
  foo-1.pdf with ranges 455-460 and 499-500
  foo-2.pdf with ranges 230-233, 455-460 and 499-500.

Example 3
If both options are set you will get just two files with the following contents:
  foo-0.pdf with ranges 455-460 and 499-500
  foo-1.pdf with ranges 230-233, 455-460 and 499-500.

Customized Headers
For various reasons you might want to change the standard latex generation, e.g., if you want to change the default font family. The following example represents a valid header file. The usage of this example file changes the font family to sans serif and adds an additional search path for includegraphics to the `figures' subdirectory.
  \documentclass{article}
  \usepackage{german,amssymb,amsmath}
  \renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
  \AtBeginDocument{\graphicspath{{figures/}}} The following packages are generally used: color, graphicx and epsfig.

Tex errors
Sometimes it might happen that latex generates an error while processing your special texts. To keep you informed about the occurrence of that error and about what has happened, in this case the log file is shown by invoking a less command.

Files
In single layer mode for the resulting files the suffix fig is replaced by pdf (resp. eps) (i.e. foo.fig -> foo.pdf).

In multilayer mode the base name of the source fig files is extended by '-<range>' and the suffix is set to pdf (resp. eps).
(i.e., foo.fig -> foo-0.pdf, foo-1.pdf, foo-2.pdf, ...
    or foo.fig -> foo.page0.pdf, foo.page1.pdf, foo.page2.pdf, ...
       if the option -G is set).

SEE ALSO
xfig(1) fig2dev(1) gawk(1) pdflatex(1) latex(1) dvips(1)