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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)

                                   Jun 2006                        fig2mpdf(1)