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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label labelfig</title>
</head><body>
<h3>Labelling graphics</h3>
<p/>&ldquo;Technical&rdquo; graphics (such as graphs and diagrams) are often
labelled with quite complex mathematical expressions: there are few
drawing or graphing tools that can do such things (the honourable
exception being MetaPost, which allows you to program the labels, in
(La)TeX, in the middle of specifying your graphic).
<p/>Labels on graphics produced by all those <em>other</em> tools is where
the <i>psfrag</i> package can help.  Place an unique
text in your graphic, using the normal text features of your tool, and
you can ask <i>psfrag</i> to replace the text with arbitrary
(La)TeX material.  <i>Psfrag</i>&rsquo;s &ldquo;operative&rdquo; command is
<code>\</code><code>psfrag{<em>PS text</em>}{<em>Repl text</em>}</code>, which instructs
the system to replace the original (&ldquo;<code>PS</code>&rdquo;) text with the
TeX-typeset replacement text.  Optional
arguments permit adjustment of position, scale and rotation; full
details may be found in <i>pfgguide</i> in the distribution.
<p/>Since <i>psfrag</i> works in terms of (encapsulated) PostScript files,
it needs extra work for use with PDFLaTeX.  The 
<a href="FAQ-pdftexgraphics.html"><i>pst-pdf</i> package</a> can support such
usage.  In fact, the <i>pst-pdf</i> support package
<i>auto-pst-pdf</i> offers a configuration setting precisely for
use with <i>psfrag</i>.
<p/>On the other hand,

  <a href="FAQ-commercial.html">VTeX</a>&rsquo;s GeX processor
explicitly deals with <i>psfrag</i>, both in its free and
commercial instances.
<p/>The <i>psfragx</i> package goes one step further than
<i>psfrag</i>: it provides a means whereby you can put the
<i>psfrag</i> commands into the preamble of your EPS file
itself.  <i>Psfrag</i> has such a command itself, but deprecates
it; <i>psfragx</i> has cleaned up the facility, and provides a
script <i>laprint</i> for use with <i>Matlab</i> to produce
appropriately tagged output.  (In principle, other graphics
applications could provide a similar facility, but apparently none does.)
<p/><i>Emacs</i> users may find the embedded editor <i>iTe</i> a
useful tool for placing labels: it&rsquo;s a (La)TeX-oriented graphical
editor written in <i>Emacs Lisp</i>.  You create
<code>iteblock</code> environments containing graphics and text, and
may then invoke <i>iTe</i> to arrange the elements relative to one
another.
<p/>Another useful approach is <i>overpic</i>, which overlays a
<code>picture</code> environment on a graphic included by use of
<code>\</code><code>includegraphics</code>.  This treatment lends itself to ready placement
of texts and the like on top of a graphic.  The package can draw a
grid for planning your &ldquo;attack&rdquo;; the distribution comes with simple
examples.
<p/><i>Pstricks</i> can of course do everything that <i>overpic</i>
can, with all the flexibility of PostScript programming that it offers
The <i>pstricks</i> web site has a page with several 
<a href="http://pstricks.tug.org/main.cgi?file=Examples/overlay">examples of labelling</a>
which will get you started; if <i>pstricks</i> is 
<a href="FAQ-drawing.html">an option for you</a>, this route is worth a try.
<p/>The confident user may, of course, do the whole job in a picture
environment which itself includes the graphic.  I would recommend
<i>overpic</i> or the <i>pstricks</i> approach, but such things
are plainly little more than a convenience over what is achievable
with the do-it-yourself approach.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>auto-pst-pdf.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/auto-pst-pdf.zip">macros/latex/contrib/auto-pst-pdf</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/auto-pst-pdf/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>iTe</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/support/ite.zip">support/ite</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/support/ite/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>laprint</i></tt><dd>Distributed with <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/psfragx.zip">macros/latex/contrib/psfragx</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/psfragx/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>overpic.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/overpic.zip">macros/latex/contrib/overpic</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/overpic/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>psfrag.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/psfrag.zip">macros/latex/contrib/psfrag</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/psfrag/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>psfragx.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/psfragx.zip">macros/latex/contrib/psfragx</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/psfragx/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>pstricks.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/graphics/pstricks.zip">graphics/pstricks</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/graphics/pstricks/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>pst-pdf.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/pst-pdf.zip">macros/latex/contrib/pst-pdf</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/pst-pdf/">browse the directory</a>)
</dl>
<p/>
<p/><p/><p/><p/><p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=labelfig">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=labelfig</a>
</body>