%% BEGIN read-me.pst *********************************************************************** **** "readme" file for PSTricks package, v0.93a, 93/03/12 **** *********************************************************************** COPYRIGHT 1992, 1993 by Timothy Van Zandt, tvz@Princeton.EDU COPYING: Copying of part or all of any file in the PSTricks package is allowed under the following conditions only: (1) You may freely distribute unchanged copies of the files. Please include the documentation when you do so. (2) You may modify a renamed copy of any file, but only for personal use or use within an organization. (3) You may copy fragments from the files, for personal use or for use in a macro package for distribution, as long as credit is given where credit is due. You are NOT ALLOWED to take money for the distribution or use of these files or modified versions or fragments thereof, except for a nominal charge for copying etc. DESCRIPTION: pstricks.tex is an extensive collection of PostScript macros that is compatible with most TeX macro packages, including Plain TeX , LaTeX AmSTeX and AmS-LaTeX. Included are macros for color, graphics, rotation, trees and overlays. It has many special features, including: * There is a wide variety of graphics (picture drawing) macros, with a flexible interface and with color support. All lines and outlines can be solid, dotted or dashed. Lines and curves can have arrowheads, t-bars, brackets or circles on the ends. Regions can be filled with solid colors, lines or crosshatch. * There is support for polar and cartesian coordinate systems. * There are macros for plots and axes. * Nested rotations can be made with respect to the physical page. * There are flexible node macros, useful for trees, mathematical diagrams, and linking information of any kind. * There is a powerful loop macro that is useful for making pictures. * There are macros for coloring or shading the cells of tables. PSTricks puts the icing (PostScript) on your cake (TeX)! GETTING PSTRICKS The PSTricks package is available from Princeton.EDU:/pub/tvz and from several TeX ftp and mail-server archives. A bug list pstricks.bug is kept up-to-date on Princeton.EDU:/pub/tvz. Send requests to get on or off a PSTricks mailing list to the author. FILES: Inputs: pstricks.con : PSTricks configuration file. pstricks.tex : Main macro file, for use with pstricks.pro. pstricks.sty : Same as pstricks.tex. pst-node.tex : Nodes and node connections, for use with pst-node.pro. pst-node.sty : Same as pst-node.tex. pst-plot.tex : Plots and axes. pst-plot.sty : Same as pst-plot.tex. pst-coil.tex : Coil and zigzag graphics objects, for use with pst-coil.pro. pst-coil.sty : Same as pst-coil.tex. gradient.tex : Gradient fill style. gradient.sty : Same as gradient.tex. charpath.tex : For filling and stroking character paths. charpath.sty : Same as charpath.tex. textpath.tex : For typesetting text along a path. textpath.sty : Same as textpath.tex. pst2eps.tex : For creating eps files. pst2eps.sty : Same as pst2eps.tex. multido.tex : Contains the \multido macro. multido.sty : Same as multido.tex. colortab.tex : For adding color to tables and other alignments. colortab.sty : Same as colortab.tex. fancybox.sty : Tips and tricks for LaTeX LR-boxes. PostScript: pstricks.pro : PostScript prologue for pstricks.tex and Rokicki's dvips. pst-node.pro : PostScript prologue for pst-node.tex. pst-coil.pro : PostScript prologue for pst-coil.tex. gradient.pro : PostScript prologue for gradient.tex. textpath.pro : PostScript prologue for textpath.tex. Contributed: palette.tex : A palette of RGB colors, by Fred Knight. palette.sty : The same as palette.tex. piechart.sh : Unix shell script for making pie charts, by Denis Girou. pie-data.sh : Supplement to piechart.sh, by Denis Girou. Documentation: read-me.pst : This file (ASCII). pst-usr1.ps : User's Guide, part 1 (PostScript). pst-usr2.ps : User's Guide, part 2 (PostScript). pst-usr3.ps : User's Guide, part 3 (PostScript). pst-usr4.ps : User's Guide, part 4 (PostScript). pst-quik.ps : Quick Reference (PostScript). changes.tex : List of changes (LaTeX). samples.tex : A file of samples (LaTeX). pst-test.tex : A test file (Plain TeX). filetest.tex : Test various read and write operations (Plain TeX). filetest.dat : A data file for testfile.tex (ASCII). filetest.raw : PostScript input for testfile.tex (ASCII). chartest.tex : Test file for charpath.tex (Plain TeX). denis1.tex : Another test file for charpath.tex (Plain TeX). denis2.tex : Another test file for charpath.tex (Plain TeX). tp-test.tex : Test file for textpath.tex (LaTeX). tp-test.ps : Output from tp-test.tex (PostScript). multido.doc : Documentation for multido.tex (LaTeX). fancybox.doc : Documentation for fancybox.sty (LaTeX). colortab.doc : Documentation for colortab.tex (LaTeX). Sources: pstricks.doc : Source for pstricks.tex and pstricks.pro. pst-node.doc : Source for pst-node.tex and pst-node.pro. pst-coil.doc : Source for pst-coil.tex and pst-coil.pro. pst-code.tex : LaTeX file for typesetting pstricks.doc. pst-user.tex : LaTeX source for User's Guide. pst-user.sty : Hacks for pst-user.tex. defaults.pst : List of parameter defaults, for pst-user.tex. pst-user.ind : Index for User's Guide. tvz-hax.sty : Hacks for pst-user.tex and pst-code.tex. tvz-user.sty : Hacks for pst-user.tex. tvz-code.sty : Hacks for pst-code.tex. npsfont.sty : Font macros for pst-user.tex. pst-make.tex : For making .tex and .pro files SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: You need a PostScript output device and a DVI-to-PS converter, of course. BigTeX is necessary if using AmS-LaTeX, or to use all the features with LaTeX. A good PostScript screen previewer is very helpful. UPGRADING FROM EARLIER VERSIONS !!!! Typeset and read changes.tex carefully !!!! You need to reinstall the package in its entirety. There are a few incompatible changes from v0.92, and many from earlier versions (see changes.tex). If using seminar.sty, you must upgrade to seminar.sty v0.93 or the frame styles in semcolor.sty won't work. PRINTING THE USER'S GUIDE: The User's Guide is distributed in PostScript format as pst-usr1.ps, pst-usr2.ps and pst-usr3.ps. There is also a quick reference, pst-quik.ps. Sun Newsprint/Pageview users: See relevant section below. The user's guide should print adequately on A4 paper, and it should be possible to bind the users guide with or without 2-sided printing. However, if you are a perfectionist, you can recompile pst-user.tex with the a4 or twoside option, AFTER installing PSTricks. Good luck. The User's Guide uses less than 150K of virtual memory, which is well below the minimal PostScript configuration. If you run out of memory, try turning off the printer to flush out stuff left in memory from previous jobs. Any other problems printing the .ps files should be reported to me. However, you are on your own if you choose to typeset the LaTeX source (pst-user.tex). LaTeXing pst-user.tex is NOT a good way to test PSTricks, as there are too many other macros involved. INSTALLATION FOR USERS OF ROKICKI'S DVIPS: 1. Put the input files where your TeX looks for inputs. 2. Put the PostScript .pro files where dvips looks for headers. Probably /usr/lib/tex/ps on unix systems (if you cannot write to this directory, put them in another directory and include the path in the definition of \pstheader in pstricks.con). 3. Typeset the LaTeX file samples.pst as a test and to see the samples. 3. Have fun! INSTALLATION FOR USERS OF ARBORTEXT'S DVIPS AND TEXTURES: 1. Examine the configuration file pstricks.con. Remove the configuration for Rokicki's dvips from the top of the file. Replace it by the configuration for Arbortext's dvips or Textures, which can be found towards the end of pstricks.con. 2. If using Textures, decide whether you want to use a header file. 3. Examine the end of pst-make.tex, and make changes if you do not want to use a header file. Run pst-make.tex. 4. Follow the instructions above for Rokicki's dvips, using the pstricks.tex/.pro, pst-coil.tex/.pro and pst-node.tex/.pro files that you generated rather than the ones that came with the package. INSTALLATION FOR USERS OF OTHER DVI-TO-PS DRIVERS: PSTricks should be adaptable to other drivers with similar capabilities. Feel free to contact me for help. 1. Use pstricks.doc, pst-node.doc and pst-coil.doc as input files, rather than the corresponding .tex files. 2. Examine the configuration file pstricks.con. Remove the configuration for Rokicki's dvips from the beginning of the file. Try to define the required commands appropriately for you driver, perhaps using some of the configurations at the end for inspiration. See the instructions in pstricks.con for details. 3. Run pst-test.tex through Plain TeX until you get things to work as well as possible. You may not be able to use all of PSTricks features, but if you can define \pstverb and \pstunit, you at least can use all the graphics objects. 4. Decide whether your driver supports inclusion of a PostScript header file. (PSTricks runs much more efficiently with a header,) 5. See the end of pst-make.tex, and modify if not using a header file. Run pst-make through Plain TeX or LaTeX. 4. Follow the instructions above for Rokicki's dvips, using the pstricks.tex/.pro, pst-coil.tex/.pro and pst-node.tex/.pro files that you generated rather than the ones that came with the package. CREATING A TEX FORMAT WITH PSTRICKS PRELOADED: See pstricks.con for instructions. TIPS FOR HACKERS: The files pstricks.doc, pst-node.doc and pst-coil.doc contain documentation and code, using Frank Mittelbach's doc system. You can typeset pstricks.doc and pst-node.doc, if desired, by running LaTeX on pst-code.tex. See pst-code.tex for details. Don't expect too much from the documentation. If you want to modify the internals of PSTricks, use pstricks.doc, pst-node.doc and pst-coil.doc as your input files, instead of the corresponding .tex files. This allows you to modify both the TeX and the PostScript macros. When you don't expect to make more changes for a while, run pst-make.tex to generate new compact macro files and new PostScript header file (if desired). Beware that the internal code in PSTricks is still unstable. USING PSTRICKS WITH SUN'S PAGEVIEW/NEWSPRINT/OPENWINDOWS Sun's PageView/NeWSPrint/OpenWindows have many bugs. Workarounds for several known problems of these have been coded into PSTricks. A workaround for another bug is described below. Report other problems to me. WARNING: The following has not been tested with PSTricks v0.93. A bug under Sun's PageView/NeWSprint 3.0 (perhaps fixed in 3.0.1), causes vertical arrows to disturb the lines. To see if you have this problem, try previewing the section in pst-usr*.ps on axes. As a workaround, add the following to the customization section of pstricks.con, or replace the definitions of BeginArrow and EndArrow in pstricks.doc with the following and rerun pst-make.tex. \pst@def{BeginArrow}<% ADict begin /@y1 ED /@x1 ED % Tip /@y2 ED /@x2 ED % Tail gsave @x1 @y1 T /@angle @x1 @x2 sub @y2 @y1 sub \tx@Atan def @angle rotate newpath> \pst@def{EndArrow}<% @x2 @y2 currentpoint grestore @angle matrix identmatrix rotate transform @y1 add exch @x1 add exch end> The arrow styles <<->>, >-<, >>-<<, and |*-|* will not work right with this patch. CONTRIBUTING TO PSTRICKS Please send me: * Whatever you can spare. * Pretty/interesting/clever things you have created with PSTricks, for possible inclusion in the User's Guide or samples.tex. Don't be bashful! * High level macros for trees/graphs, math diagrams, and linguistic diagrams, based on PSTricks' node macros. * Any other macros based on PSTricks. * Contributions to the Tips and Tricks section of the User's Guide. * Reports on +/- experiences with DVI-to-PS converters and previewers. * Bug reports. * pstricks.doc -- cleaned up, optimized, and documented. * To Nepal. PSTRICKS AND SEMINAR.STY The PSTricks package grew out of macros originally written for the seminar.sty package. seminar.sty is a LaTeX style for slides and notes. seminar.sty, combined with pstricks.tex and your favorite macros for inclusion of EPS files, make a complete TeX presentation software package. PSTricks v0.93 works with seminar.sty version 0.93, and maybe later versions as well. The seminar.sty package is also available from Princeton.EDU, and perhaps from wherever else you got PSTricks. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The basic idea for the node macros is from Emma Pease's tree-dvips.sty. The algorithm in the \pscurve macro was adapted from a C program by Shamim Zvonko Mohamed. Thanks to Geoffrey Tobin, David Jaffe, Thomas Worsch, Denis Girous, and many other users for helpful comments. The author is thankful to Frank Mittelbach for his documentation system. Thanks to various contributors to samples.pst. DISCLAIMERS: This is just an elaborate hack. Not for use as children's sleepware. %% END read-me.pst