Sunday, July 08, 2007

JPicEdt -- Picture drawing for LaTeX and PSTricks: Part 1

JPicEdt is an open source, multi-platform and interactive picture editor for LaTeX and PSTricks. You use a GUI to draw your pictures and the pictures are saved as tex source code, so you just paste the code into your latex document.

Installation. The webpage has installation instructions. Basically: download and launch the installer and follow the on-screen instructions.

Configuration. You must configure the program to point to the location of latex and friends. But I have already done this, so just copy the contents in the box below to the file ~/.jpicedt/preferences, and change USERNAME to your username.

Use. Use the TeX button to compile the image, the DviPS button to convert the image to PostScript, and the PS button to view the PostScript file. When completed, save it as a TeX file, then copy and paste it into your LaTeX document.

Comparison with LaTeXDraw. Both have their strengths. It seems JPicEdt implements more drawing functions, but that is something that can easily change with some development. I like that one can see the PSTricks code generated by LaTeXDraw as one draws. I also prefer the look of the LaTeXDraw interface.
#jPicEdt Preferences
#Sun Jul 08 11:55:29 EDT 2007
view.page-format=170 100 5 5
command.user2=
command.user1=
latex.max-emulated-line-slope=1000
latex.max-circle-diameter=14
latex.file-wrapper-prolog=\\documentclass{article} \n\\thispagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document} \n
directory.files=/home/USERNAME
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.y=7
grid.snap-on=true
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.x=651
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.visible=true
eepic.thicklines=0.3
ui.desktop-color=-9803313
rendering.render=speed
pstricks.file-wrapper-epilog=\\end{document}
command.ghostview={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} evince {f}.ps
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.width=165
canvas.zoom=100%
canvas.max-undoable-steps=100
app.language=en
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.width=128
eepic.file-wrapper-prolog=\\documentclass{article} \n\\usepackage{epic,eepic} \n\\thispagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document}\n
command.dvips={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} dvips {f}
eepic.thinlines=0.15
latex.max-emulated-circle-segment-length=1
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.y=0
latex.file-wrapper-epilog=\\end{document}
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.x=0
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.height=0
command.dvi={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} xdvi {f}
view.text-font=SansSerif-10
grid.color=-4144960
latex.emulated-line-length=0.12
app.tmpdir=/tmp
grid.visible=true
ui.mdimgr=child-frames
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.height=343
menu.recent-file.1=/tmp/foo.tex
rendering.antialiasing=off
grid.snap-step=5.0
ui.look-and-feel=Metal
grid.line-style=solid
ui.geometry.height=720
eepic.file-wrapper-epilog=\\end{document}
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.visible=false
rendering.fractional-metrics=off
pstricks.file-wrapper-prolog=\\documentclass{article} \n\\usepackage{pst-all} \n\\thispagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document} \n
ui.geometry.y=0
ui.geometry.x=53
grid.display-step=10.0
rendering.text-antialiasing=off
ui.geometry.width=823
command.latex={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} latex {f}
latex.max-disk-diameter=5.4
rendering.dither=off
canvas.content-type=jpicedt.format.output.latex.LatexContentType