PSTricks 1992 -- 2007 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PSTricks is the work of Timothy van Zandt PSTricks 97 is edited by Denis Girou and Sebastian Rahtz PSTricks 2004 is edited by Herbert Voss and Rolf Niepraschk PSTricks 2005-07 is edited by Herbert Voss ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For more informations go to http://tug.org/PSTricks _and_ read the news articles in the doc directory! 1 - Copyright --------- COPYRIGHT 1993, 1994, 2000 by Timothy Van Zandt, . COPYRIGHT 2004, 2005 by Herbert Voss and Rolf Niepraschk . COPYRIGHT 2006-07 by Herbert Voss This program can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the LaTeX Project Public License Distributed from CTAN archives in directory macros/latex/base/lppl.txt. 2 - Introduction ------------ This package is a re-release of PSTricks, incorporating all of the beta releases and bug fixes made up to March 1997. It is *not* intended as a full new release of PSTricks, but as a consolidation and cleaned distribution. Because Timothy van Zandt does not currently have enough time to work on PSTricks, he gave permission for Denis Girou, Sebastian Rahtz and Herbert Voss to produce this interim solution. Some new features have been added in the 2007 version, except the release of the small pst-fill package for filling (tiling) arbitrary regions and the various evolving contributions, but we have merged in all the bug fixes and beta addons which Timothy produced. We have renamed some of the files that make up PSTricks, for consistency. The multido package is now in /macros/generic/multido 3 - Installation ------------ 3.1 - (La)TeX files a - You have to move all the files from the "generic" subdirectory to a directory part of your TEXINPUTS environment variable, or to add it in your TEXINPUTS list of paths. b - If you are a LaTeX user (and not only a plain TeX one), you have to do the same thing for the "latex" subdirectory, which define LaTeX wrappers for all the PSTricks files. 3.2 - PostScript header files a - If you use the "dvips" DVI to PostScript converter, you have to move all the files from the "dvips" subdirectory to a directory part of your DVIPSHEADERS environment variable, or to add it in your DVIPSHEADERS list of paths. b - If you use the Y&Y's "dvipsone" DVI to PostScript converter, you have to rename generic/dvipsone.con to generic/pstricks.con and to move all the files of the "dvips" subdirectory to the TeX input folder. c - If you use the MicroPress "VTeX" DVI to PostScript converter, you have to rename generic/vtex.con to generic/pstricks.con and to move all the files of the "dvips" subdirectory to the TeX input folder. d - If you use the "textures" (version 1.7/1.8 or 2.0) DVI to PostScript converter (for Macintosh), you should proceed as follows: * create a new folder PSTricks97 (for instance) as a subfolder in Textures' TeX inputs folder, * copy the "generic", "dvips", "latex" and "contrib" subfolders from the "pst97" folder to the newly created "PSTricks97" folder, * open the "generic" folder and remove the file pstricks.con, then rename the file textures.con to pstricks.con, * open the "dvips" folder and change the following line in the file pstricks.pro (courtesy Michael J. Sharpe ): /STV { SDict begin normalscale end STP } def by /STV { Mag 72.27 72 div mul dup neg scale STP } def It was also reported that the `pst-text' package (to put text along paths) doesn't work with the "textures" driver. Textures's users must also look at the page kindly maintained by Michael Sharpe: http://math.ucsd.edu/~msharpe/pst-textures.html e - If you use the "xdvipdfmx" DVI to PDF converter (for XeTeX), you have to rename generic/xdvipdfmx.con to generic/pstricks.con. f - If you use another driver than these four ones, you have to adapt a pstricks.con file for it, if the one for "dvips" doesn't work for it. You can also look at the instructions of the old obsolete/src/pstricks.con file. And if nothing work, ask for help on the PSTricks mailing list, hopping that somebody on the list has the same configuration than you... 3.3 - Known pitfalls a - To use the standard `color' or `xcolor' package with PSTricks, you must load the `pstricks.sty' package, which interface the two packages, loading them in the right order, and overriding some small parts of PSTricks to allow it to use the `color' or `xcolor' package system for specifying color. We STRONGLY recommend that you use this way today. pstricks.sty loads by default the xcolor package, but there is an option "noxcolor". If you are a LaTeX user then load _always_ first the pstricks.sty package. b - Don't try to load the `color' or `xcolor' package if you use `pstricks.sty' or `pst-all' (it is already loaded in the correct order). c - If needed, preferably load the `graphics' / `graphicx' package after PSTricks, and in this case use the `graphics' syntax of \scalebox (not the one described in the PSTricks documentation). pstricks.sty redefines this macro so that both can be used (see doc). 4 - Contents -------- 4.1 - Subdirectories The distribution contain the following subdirectories: base : the core pstricks files contrib : various contributions 4.2 - PSTricks core files The generic subdirectory contain the core files of PSTricks (and the latex subdirectory contain the corresponding wrapper files). pstricks.sty - The LaTeX file pstricks.tex - The TeX file pstricks.con - The configuration file pstricks.pro - The dvips header file 5 - Documentation ------------- There is NOT a complete up to date _reference_ documentation for PSTricks 97. You must still refer to the reference documentation of the version 0.93a and the additional old Beta material, available in the obsolete/doc subdirectory (it was put in the "obsolete" subdirectory to clearly show that it is not up to date nor supported by actual mainteners). Take care to notice what has changed in additional old Beta documents (betadoc?.ps files) comparing to the ones for 0.93a version (pst-usr?.ps files). Denis Girou maintain a list of known errors in both version 0.93a and additional old Beta documentations, in obsolete/doc/pst-doc.err A large chapter of "The LaTeX Graphics Companion, 2nd ed.", by Goossens, Mittelbach, Rahtz, Roegel and Voß, Addison Wesley 2007, is dedicated to PSTricks, and this currently forms the only systematic description of the integration of the basic PSTricks and the beta additions of 1993. The source of all examples from that book is also on CTAN/info/lgc and most of them in the doc/lgc subdirectory of the PST97 distribution. The second edition of this book has no more a chapter of PSTricks. There is also a supporting set of Web pages on http://www.tug.org/PSTricks with various pointers and examples classified by categories. And there is also a mailing list devoted to discussions on PSTricks usage. The informations to subscribe to this list and to consult the archives can be found on the Web page. -- Denis Girou, Sebastian Rahtz and Herbert Voss (updated April 11, 2007)