(La)TeX-friendly drawing packages
(X)Fig is a menu driven tool that allows you to
draw objects on the screen of an X workstation; transfig
is a set of tools which translate the code fig. The list
of export formats is very long, and includes Metafont and MetaPost,
Encapsulated PostScript and PDF, as well as combinations that wrap
a graphics format in a LaTeX import file, which may include
LaTeX commands to place text (compiled by LaTeX itself) as
labels, etc., in the figures.
There’s no explicit port of xfig to windows (although it is
said to work under cygwin with their X-windows system —
installation advice
is available).
However, the program
jfig
is thought by many to be an acceptable substitute, written in Java.
Asymptote is a widely-praised development of the MetaPost
language, which can draw 2D or 3D diagrams, and can also label
diagrams with LaTeX text; copious documentation is available via
asymptote’s web site.
- asymptote
- graphics/asymptote (or browse the directory); catalogue entry
- xfig
- graphics/xfig; catalogue entry
- transfig
- graphics/transfig (or browse the directory); catalogue entry
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=xfigetc