.\" MetaPost man page, by John Hobby. Public domain. .TH MP 1 .CT 1 writing_other .SH NAME mp, MetaPost \- system for drawing pictures .SH SYNOPSIS .B mp [ .B -I ] [ .B -T ] [ .I first-line ] .SH DESCRIPTION .I Mp interprets the MetaPost language and produces .I PostScript pictures. The MetaPost language is similar to Knuth's .I METAFONT with additional features for including .IR tex (1) or .IR troff (1) commands and accessing features of PostScript not found in METAFONT. The .B -T flag selects .I troff instead of .IR tex . .PP An argument given on the command line behaves as the first input line. That can be either a (possibly truncated) file name or a sequence MetaPost commands starting with .L \e and including an .L input command. Thus .L mp figs processes the file .LR figs.mp . The basename of .L figs becomes the .IR jobname , and is used in forming output file names. If no file is named, the jobname becomes .LR mpout . The default .L .mp extension can be overridden by specifying an extension explicitly. .PP There is normally one output file for each picture generated, and the output files are named .IR jobname.nnn , where .I nnn is a number passed to the .L beginfig macro. The output file name can also be .IB jobname .ps if this number is negative. .PP The output files can be used as figures in a TeX document by including .ce .BI "\especial{psfile=" jobname.nnn } in the TeX document. Alternatively, one can .L \einput epsf.tex and then use the macro .BI "\eepsfbox{" jobname.nnn } to produce a box of the appropriate size containing the figure. .TP .BI btex " TeX commands " etex This causes .I mp to generate a MetaPost picture expression that corresponds to the TeX commands. If the TeX commands generate more than one line of text, it must be in a .L \evbox or a minipage environment. .TP .BI verbatimtex " TeX commands " etex This is ignored by .I mp except that the TeX commands are passed on to TeX. When using LaTeX instead of TeX the input file must start with a .L verbatimtex block that gives the .L \edocumentstyle and .L "\ebegin{document}" commands. .PP Since most TeX fonts have to be downloaded as bitmaps, the .L btex feature works best when the output of .L mp is to be included in a TeX document so that .IR dvips (1) can download the fonts. For self-contained PostScript output that can be used directly or included in a .I troff document, start your MetaPost input file with the command .L "prologues:=1" and stick to standard PostScript fonts. TeX and MetaPost use the names in the third column of the file .LR /usr/lib/mp/trfonts.map . .PP MetaPost output can be included in a .I troff document via the .L "-mpictures" macro package. In this case .I mp should be invoked with the .B -T flag so that the commands between .L btex and .L etex or between .L verbatimtex and .L etex are interpreted as .I troff instead of TeX. (This automatically sets .L prologues:=1 ). .PP Here is a list of the environment variables affect the behavior of .IR mp : .TF MPXCOMMAND .TP .B MPINPUTS Search path for .L \einput files. It should be colon-separated, and start with dot. Default: .L .:/usr/lib/mp .TP .B MFINPUTS Auxiliary search path for .L \einput files with .L .mf extensions. .TP .B TEXFONTS Search path for font metric files. .TP .B MPXCOMMAND The name of a shell script that converts embedded typesetting commands to a form that .I mp understands. Defaults: .L /usr/lib/mp/bin/makempx for .I tex and .L /usr/lib/mp/bin/troffmpx for .I troff .TP .B TEX The version of TeX to use when processing .L btex and .L verbatimtex commands. Default: .L tex .TP .B TROFF The .I troff pipeline for .L btex and .L verbatimtex commands. Default: .L eqn -d\e$\e$ | troff .TP .B MPMEMS Search path for .L .mem files. Default: .L .:/usr/lib/mp .TP .B MPPOOL Search path for strings. Default: .L .:/usr/lib/mp .TP .B MPEDITOR A command for invoking an editor with .L %s in place of the file name and .L %d in place of the line number. .TP .B TEXVFONTS Search path for virtual fonts. .TP .B MPTEXPRE Name of a file that is prepended before running tex. If this file exists, .I mp behaves as if the file were inside of a .L verbatimtex block at the beginning of each input file. Default: .L mptexpre.tex .PD .PP A .L .mem file is a binary file that permits fast loading of fonts and macro packages. .I Mp reads the default .F plain.mem unless another .L .mem file is specified at the start of the first line with an .L & just before it. There is also an .F mfplain.mem that simulates plain METAFONT so that .I mp can read .L .mf fonts. (Plain METAFONT is described in .I The .IR METAFONTbook ). .PP Experts can create .L .mem files be invoking .I mp with the .B -I switch and giving macro definitions followed by a .L dump command. .PP The MetaPost language is similar to METAFONT, but the manual .I A User's Manual for MetaPost assumes no knowledge of METAFONT. MetaPost does not have bitmap output commands or METAFONT's online display mechanism. .SH FILES .TF /usr/lib/mp/trfonts.map .TP .F /usr/lib/mp/* macros, .L .mem files, and tables for handling included .I tex and .I troff .TP .F /usr/lib/mp/bin Directory for programs that handle included .I tex and .IR troff . .F /usr/lib/mp/trfonts.map table of corresponding font names for .IR troff , PostScript, and TeX .TP .F /usr/lib/mp/examples.mp The source file for a few sample figures. .IR troff . .SH "SEE ALSO" .IR tex (1), .br Donald E. Knuth, .I The METAFONTbook, Addison Wesley, 1986, .br John D. Hobby, .I A User's Manual for MetaPost CSTR 162.