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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label graphicspath</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Importing graphics from &#8220;somewhere else&#8221;</h3>
<p/>By default, graphics commands like <code>\</code><code>includegraphics</code> look
&#8220;wherever TeX files are found&#8221; for the graphic file they&#8217;re being
asked to use.  This can reduce your flexibility if you choose to hold
your graphics files in a common directory, away from your (La)TeX
sources.
<p/>The simplest solution is to patch TeX&#8217;s path, by changing the
default path.  On most systems, the default path is taken from the
environment variable <code>TEXINPUTS</code>, if it&#8217;s present; you can adapt that
to take in the path it already has, by setting the variable to
<blockquote>
<pre>
TEXINPUTS=.:&#60;graphics path(s)&#62;:
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
on a Unix system; on a Windows system the separator will be &#8220;<code>;</code>&#8221;
rather than &#8220;<code>:</code>&#8221;.  The &#8220;<code>.</code>&#8221; is there to ensure
that the current directory is searched first; the trailing
&#8220;<code>:</code>&#8221; says &#8220;patch in the value of <code>TEXINPUTS</code> from
your configuration file, here&#8221;.
<p/>This method has the merit of efficiency ((La)TeX does <em>all</em> of
the searches, which is quick), but it&#8217;s always clumsy and may prove
inconvenient to use in Windows setups (at least).
<p/>The alternative is to use the <i>graphics</i> package command
<code>\</code><code>graphicspath</code>; this command is of course also available to users
of the <i>graphicx</i> and the <i>epsfig</i> packages.  The
syntax of <code>\</code><code>graphicspath</code>&#8217;s one argument is slightly odd: it&#8217;s a
sequence of paths (typically relative paths), each of which is
enclosed in braces.  A slightly odd sample, given in the
<i>graphics</i> bundle documentation, is:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\graphicspath{{eps/}{tiff/}}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
however, if the security checks on your (La)TeX system allow, the
path may be anything you choose (rather than strictly relative, like
those above); note that the trailing &#8220;<code>/</code>&#8221; <em>is</em> required.
<p/>Be aware that <code>\</code><code>graphicspath</code> does not affect the operations of
graphics macros other than those from the graphics bundle &#8212; in
particular, those of the outdated <i>epsf</i> and
<i>psfig</i> packages are immune.
<p/>The disadvantage of the <code>\</code><code>graphicspath</code> method is inefficiency.  The
package will call (La)TeX once for each entry in the list, which is
itself slows things.  More seriously, TeX remembers the file name,
thus effectively losing memory, every time it&#8217;s
asked to look up a file, so a document that uses a huge number of
graphical inputs could be embarrassed by lack of memory.
<p/>If your document is split into a variety of directories, and each
directory has its associated graphics, the <i>import</i> package
may well be the thing for you; see the discussion 
in the question &#8220;
<a href="FAQ-docotherdir.html">bits of document in other directories</a>
&#8221;.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>graphics bundle</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/required/graphics.zip">macros/latex/required/graphics</a> (or <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/required/graphics/">browse the directory</a>); <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/help/Catalogue/entries/graphics.html">catalogue entry</a>
<dt><tt><i>import.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/import.zip">macros/latex/contrib/import</a> (or <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/import/">browse the directory</a>); <a href="http://mirror.ctan.org/help/Catalogue/entries/import.html">catalogue entry</a>
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=graphicspath">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=graphicspath</a>
</body>