1PIC2GRAPH(1) General Commands Manual PIC2GRAPH(1)
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6 pic2graph - convert a PIC diagram into a cropped image
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9 pic2graph [ -unsafe ] [ -format fmt ] [ -eqn delim ]
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12 Reads a PIC program as input; produces an image file (by default in
13 Portable Network Graphics format) suitable for the Web as output. Also
14 translates eqn(1) constructs, so it can be used for generating images
15 of mathematical formulae.
16 PIC is a rather expressive graphics minilanguage suitable for producing
18 box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind frequently used in technical papers
19 and textbooks. The language is sufficiently flexible to be quite use‐
20 ful for state charts, Petri-net diagrams, flow charts, simple circuit
21 schematics, jumper layouts, and other kinds of illustration involving
22 repetitive uses of simple geometric forms and splines. Because PIC
23 descriptions are procedural and object-based, they are both compact and
24 easy to modify.
25 The PIC language is fully documented in Making Pictures With GNU PIC, a
27 document which is part of the groff(1) distribution.
28 Your input PIC code should not be wrapped with the .PS and .PE macros
30 that normally guard it within groff(1) macros.
31 The output image will be clipped to the smallest possible bounding box
33 that contains all the black pixels. Older versions of convert(1) will
34 produce a black-on-white graphic; newer ones may produce a black-on-
35 transparent graphic. By specifying command-line options to be passed
36 to convert(1) you can give it a border, force the background transpar‐
37 ent, set the image's pixel density, or perform other useful transforma‐
38 tions.
39 This program uses pic(1), eqn(1), groff(1), gs(1), and the ImageMagick
41 convert(1) program. These programs must be installed on your system
42 and accessible on your $PATH for pic2graph to work.
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45 -unsafe
46 Run pic(1) and groff(1) in the ‘unsafe’ mode enabling the PIC
47 macro sh to execute arbitrary commands. The default is to for‐
48 bid this.
49 -format fmt
51 Specify an output format; the default is PNG (Portable Network
52 Graphics). Any format that convert(1) can emit is supported.
53 -eqn delim
55 Change the fencepost characters that delimit eqn(1) directives
56 ($ and $, by default). This option requires an argument, but an
57 empty string is accepted as a directive to disable eqn(1) pro‐
58 cessing.
59 Command-line switches and arguments not listed above are passed to
61 convert(1).
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64 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/eqnrc The eqn(1) initialization file.
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67 GROFF_TMPDIR
68 The directory in which temporary files will be created. If this
69 is not set pic2graph searches the environment variables TMPDIR,
70 TMP, and TEMP (in that order). Otherwise, temporary files will
71 be created in /tmp.
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74 Due to changes in the behavior of ImageMagick convert(1) that are both
75 forward and backward-incompatible, mismatches between your pic2graph
76 and convert(1) versions may produce zero-sized or untrimmed output
77 images. For this version of pic2graph you will need a version of
78 convert(1) that supports the -trim option; older versions of pic2graph
79 used -crop 0x0, which no longer has trimming behavior.
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82 eqn2graph(1), grap2graph(1), pic(1), eqn(1), groff(1), gs(1),
83 convert(1).
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86 This documentation is released to the public domain.
87
89 ⟨⟩esr@thyrsus.com Eric S. Raymond ⟨⟩, based on a recipe by W. Richard
90 Stevens.
91Groff Version 1.22.3 4 November 2014 PIC2GRAPH(1)