XFIG

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

When using a two-button mouse use the <Meta> key and the right button at the same time to effect the action of the middle button.

The TransFig package is used to print or export the output from xfig.

Note for previous xfig users:

The f2p and f2ps translators have been phased out because the TransFig package from Micah Beck is a more general purpose translator for more graphics languages. The TransFig package can be used as a back-end processor to xfig to produce various types of output:

LaTeX - 12

fig2dev -L latex translates xfig to LaTeX picture environment commands which can be processed along with other LaTeX commands.

Postscript -

fig2dev -L ps produces a PostScript output.

Pic -

fig2dev -L pic produces a pic output.

PiCTeX -

fig2dev -L pictex produces PiCTeX output. This contains macros that can be used with the PiCTeX environment under TeX or LaTeX.

Others -

fig2dev has options for these other languages: box, epic, eepic, and eepicemu.

The TransFig package is available via anonymous ftp from export.lcs.mit.edu in /contrib/R5fixes/transfig-fixes/transfig.2.1.X.tar.Z, where the X is the current patchlevel.

Note: TransFig versions 2.1.4 and later support color output for PostScript.  

OPTIONS

-L[andscape]

Make xfig come up in landscape mode (10" x 8"). This is the default.

-P[ortrait]

Make xfig come up in portrait mode (8" x 9").

-bg color

Use color as the background color for the canvas and buttons.

-bol[d] font

Cause the font used for displaying confirmation messages to be font (default = 8x13bold).

-bu[tton] font

Cause the font used for most buttons to be font (default = 6x13).

-de[bug]

Turn on debugging mode. Prints various debugging messages like font names etc.

-e[xportLanguage] language

Specifies the language to be used for when exporting a fig file. Choices are:

Name	Language
box	LaTeX box (figure boundary)
latex	LaTeX picture
epic	LaTeX picture + epic macros
eepic	LaTeX picture + eepic macros
eepicemu	LaTeX picture + eepicemu macros
pictex	PiCTeX macros
eps	Encapuslated Postscript
ps	Postscript
pstex	Combined PS/LaTeX (PS part)
pstex_t	Combined PS/LaTeX (LaTeX part)
textyl	Textyl special commands
tpic	TPIC
pic	PIC
xbm	X11 Bitmap

-fg color

Use color as the foreground color and default color for objects.

-fl[ushleft]

Set the print option to print the figure flush left. The default is to center the figure on the page.

-geom[etry] WxH+X+Y

Specifies the geometry for Fig application.

-iconG[eometry] +X+Y

Specifies the position for the icon.

-inc[hes]

Make inches the unit of choice (default).

-me[tric]

Make centimeters the unit of choice.

After xfig is started you may change the units from metric to imperial or vice versa from a popup menu available by pressing mouse button 3 in the units box where the two rulers meet.

-internalBW width

Use lines of width width between all buttons and panels (default = 1).

-inv[verse]

Use inverse video (white on black).

-k[eyFile] compose-key-file

Use compose-key-file instead of CompKeyDB for compose (meta) key database. If there are no "/"s in the name, the file must reside in the xfig library directory, $XFIGLIBDIR, usually /usr/local/lib/X11/xfig. If there are any "/"s in the name it is taken as is (not relative to $XFIGLIBDIR). If there is a leading "~/" in the string then the ~ is expanded to the user's home directory.

-lat[exfonts]

Start xfig with LaTeX font selection. Normally, the PostScript fonts are available as the default. This flag selects the LaTeX fonts to start.

-le[ft]

Change the position of the side panel window to the left of the canvas window.

-mo[nochrome]

Use black and white only.

-nor[mal] font

Cause the font used for the message panel and ruler numbers to be font. This font is also used on the canvas when the selected font is not available in an X11 font (default = fixed).

-not[rack]

Turn off cursor (mouse) tracking arrows.

-ph[eight] units

Make xfig come up units high (where units are either cm or in).

-pw[idth] units

Make xfig come up units wide (where units are either cm or in).

-ri[ght]

Change the position of the side panel window to the right of the canvas window (default: left).

-sc[alablefonts]

Allows use of the X11R5 scalable fonts.

-nosc[alablefonts]

Disables use of the X11R5 scalable fonts. You might want to use this for debugging.

-sh[owallbuttons]

Show all the xfig indicator buttons instead of only those relevant to the current drawing mode. Normally, the buttons line width, area-fill, grid mode, text size, etc. are only visible when they are relevant to the current drawing mode. The -showallbuttons option makes all of the indicator buttons visible at all times. This takes up more screen real estate, but allows the user to see all settable parameters.

-sp[ecialtext]

Start xfig with the special text mode for text objects.

-startf[ontsize] pointsize

Set the default font size for text objects (default = 12pt).

-startl[atexFont] font

Set the starting font name for LaTeX fonts.

-startp[sFont] font

Set the starting font name for Postscript fonts.

-te[xtoutline]

Specifies that xfig will draw a red (on color machines) outline of the "actual" bounding box of text objects. This is mostly useful for determining what rotated text will look like since xfig doesn't rotate the text (other than 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees) on the canvas.

-tr[ack]

Turn on cursor (mouse) tracking arrows (default).

-users[cale] scale

Set the multiplier for displayed line lengths etc. This factor is multiplied by the actual length, radius or diameter of the object currently being drawn on the canvas. It is useful for making scale drawings, where e.g. 1 inch = 1 foot (userscale = 12.0) or 1cm = 1m (userscale = 100.0).

-useru[nit] units

The units string is printed with the length information when drawing objects. For example if the userscale = 1.0 and the userunit = ft then a line which is 3 inches long on the canvas would be displayed as "length = 3 ft" when it is being drawn.

After xfig is started you may change the userscale and the userunit from a popup menu available by pressing mouse button 3 in the units box where the two rulers meet.

GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

A primitive object can be moved, rotated, flipped vertically or horizontally, scaled, copied, aligned within a compound object or erased. The TEXT primitive may not be flipped. It may be rotated but only the markers show the rotation (on-screen) for angles other than 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees. Text IS rotated on PostScript output. The attributes of any primitive object can be edited using a popup panel (discussed below), so you can, for instance, set the position of an object manually.

A compound object is composed of primitive objects. The primitive objects that constitute a compound can not be individually modified, but they can be manipulated as an entity; a compound can be moved, rotated, flipped vertically or horizontally, scaled, copied or erased. A compound that contains any boxes or arc-boxes may only be rotated by 90 degrees.

Objects may overlap other objects according to their "depth". Objects with larger depth number are obscured by objects with smaller depth.

Regular polygons may be created using a special drawing mode, but a general POLYGON is created as a result, which may then be modified, i.e. the individual vertices may be moved if desired.  

DISPLAY WINDOWS

COMMAND PANEL FUNCTIONS

Quit

Exit from xfig, discarding the figure. If the figure has been modified and not saved, the user will be asked to confirm the action, by clicking mouse button 1 on a confirm/cancel popup menu.

Delete ALL

Delete all objects from the canvas window (may be undone).

Undo

Undo the last object creation, deletion or modification.

Redraw

Redraw the canvas.

Paste

Paste the object previously copied into the cut/paste file into the current figure (at its original position).

File

Pressing mouse button 3 on this button invokes Save function without popping up the file panel.
Mouse button 1 or <Meta>f pops up a panel which contains several file-related functions:

Current Filename

This is read-only AsciiTextWidget which contains the filename that will be used to write output to a file if there is no name specified in the Filename panel.

Filename

This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which contains the filename selected either by clicking on a filename from the Alternatives list or by typing a name in directly. Pressing return in the Filename window will Load the file and copy the name to the Current Filename widget.

(File) Alternatives

Pressing mouse button 1 on a filename in the file alternatives window will select that file by copying the filename into Filename window. Pressing return in this window will Load the file specified in the Filename window (if any) or the Current Filename widget.

Filename Mask

A wildcard mask may be typed into this editable AsciiTextWidget to restrict the search of filenames to a subset ala the ls command. Pressing return in this window will automatically rescan the current directory. This string may be set by setting the X toolkit resource *file_panel*mask*string.

Current Directory

This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which shows the current directory. It may be modified by the user to manually set a directory name. When return is pressed in this window the directory specified is scanned for files matching the Filenamemask, if any.

The ~ (tilde) character may be used to specify a user's home directory, ala unix shell tilde expansion.

(Directory) Alternatives

Pressing mouse button 1 on a directory name in the directory alternatives list will do a "change directory" to that directory.

Pressing mouse button 3 in either the file or Directory Alternatives window will do a "change directory" to the parent directory.

Home

Pressing this button will change the directory to the $HOME directory of the user.

Rescan

Pressing this button or <Meta>r will rescan the current directory.

Cancel

Pressing this button or <Meta>c will pop down the File panel without making any changes to the directory or file name.

Save

Pressing this button or <Meta>s will save the current contents of the canvas in the file specified in the Filename window if any, or the name specified in the Current Filename if the former is empty. If the file already exists a confirmation popup menu will appear asking the user to confirm or cancel the save. If there is a filename in the Filename window it is copied to the Current Filename window.

The current Export directory is updated to the current File directory when Save is pressed.

Load

Pressing this button or <Meta>l will clear the canvas of any current figure and read the figure from the filename specified in the Filename menu item if any, or the name specified in the Current Filename if the former is empty. If there is a figure currently on the canvas and any modifications have been made to it and not saved, a popup query window will first appear asking if the user wishes to discard the current figure or cancel the Load operation.

The current Export directory is updated to the current File directory when Load is pressed.

A popup message window will appear and diagnostic messages will be written if xfig changes any "illegal" object values to legal values. For example, older versions of xfig were lax about initializing unused parts such as depth, and would produce very large, random values. Xfig now will "clean up" bad values and inform you when it does so. Also, if you read in an older file format, xfig will inform you that it is converting it to the current format for that version of xfig.
This window can be popped down by clicking the mouse button on the Dismiss button.

Merge Read

Pressing this button or <Meta>r will read the figure from the filename specified in the Filename window if any, or the name specified in the Current Filename if the former is empty, and merge it with the figure already shown on the canvas.

See Load above for a description of the popup message window.

Export

Will let you export the figure to an output file in one of several formats. Pressing mouse button 3 on this button invokes Export function without popping up the export panel.
Mouse button 1 or <Meta>e pops up a directory browser widget and a menu with several export-related functions:

Magnification

This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which contains the magnification to use when translating figure to the output language. The default is 100%.

Orientation

This button will toggle the output orientation between Landscape (horizontal) and Portrait (vertical). The default orientation is the same as the mode that xfig was started with.

Justification

This window will only be sensitive when the language selected is "ps" (PostScript). You may choose that the figure is flush left or centered in the output file.

Language

The translation language to use for xfig output when output is directed to a file. The default is PostScript. The figure may be saved as an X11 bitmap by choosing Xbitmap as the output language. The bitmap is created from the figure, the size of which is determined by the enclosing rectangle of all the figure plus a small border.

Default Output Filename

This is read-only AsciiTextWidget which contains the filename that will be used to write output to a file if there is no name specified in Output File. The default is the figure name plus an extension that reflects the output language used, e.g. myfigure.ps if PostScript is the current language used. If the file already exists a confirmation popup menu will appear asking the user to confirm or cancel the save.

Output Filename

This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which contains the filename to use to write output to a file. Pressing return in this window will Export the file and copy the name to the Default Output Filename widget. If the file already exists a confirmation popup menu will appear asking the user to confirm or cancel the save.

(File) Alternatives

Pressing mouse button 1 on a filename in the file alternatives window will select that file by copying the filename into Filename window. Pressing return in this window will Export the file and copy the name to the Default Output Filename widget.

Filename Mask

A wildcard mask may be typed into this editable AsciiTextWidget to restrict the search of filenames to a subset ala the ls command. Pressing return in this window will automatically rescan the current directory. This string may be set by setting the X toolkit resource *export_panel*mask*string.

Current Directory

This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which shows the current directory. It may be modified by the user to manually set a directory name. When return is pressed in this window the directory specified is scanned for files matching the Filenamemask, if any.

It is automatically updated to follow the current File directory when a File Load or Save is done.

The ~ (tilde) character may be used to specify a user's home directory, ala unix shell tilde expansion.

(Directory) Alternatives

Pressing mouse button 1 on a directory name in the directory alternatives list will do a "change directory" to that directory.

Pressing mouse button 3 in either the file or Directory Alternatives window will do a "change directory" to the parent directory.

Home

Pressing this button will change the directory to the $HOME directory of the user.

Rescan

Pressing this button or <Meta>r will rescan the current directory.

Cancel

Pressing this button or <Meta>c will pop down the Export menu without doing any print operation.

Export

Pressing this button or <Meta>e will write (export) the figure to the file using the selected language. If the file already exists, a confirmation window will popup to ask the user to confirm the write or cancel. Pressing return in the Output Filename window will also Export the file.

Print

Pressing mouse button 3 on this button invokes Print to Printer function without popping up the print panel. Pressing the Shift key and mouse button 3 invokes the Print to Batch function. Pressing mouse button 1 or <Meta>p pops up a menu with several print-related functions:

Magnification

This is an AsciiTextWidget which contains the magnification to use when translating figure to the output language.

Orientation

This button will toggle the output orientation between Landscape (horizontal) and Portrait (vertical). The default orientation is the same as the mode that xfig was started with.

Justification

This button will bring up a sub-menu from which you may choose center or flush left to justify the figure on the page. The default is flush left.

Printer

This is an AsciiTextWidget which contains the printer to use if output is directed to a printer. The name of the printer may be set setting the X toolkit resource *printer*string. If no resource is set, the environment variable PRINTER is used.

Print Job Params

This is an AsciiTextWidget which into which you may put any extra command-line parameters that your lpr or lp program needs for printing.

Figures in batch

This indicator shows how many figures have been put in the batch file for printing

Dismiss

Pressing this button or <Meta>c will pop down the Print menu.

Print FIGURE/BATCH to Printer

Pressing this button or <Meta>p will send the current figure (or the batch file if it is has any figures in it) to the printer, by passing it through fig2dev to convert it to PostScript then to the unix lpr (on BSD equivalent Unixes) or lp (on SYSV systems) program. If the batch file is printed by this button then it is removed after printing. The message in the button changes to reflect whether the batch file will be printed (when there are any figures in the batch file) or the current figure.

Note that the figure that is printed is what you see on the canvas, not necessarily the figure file. I.e., if you haven't saved the figure since the last changes, the figure from the canvas is printed. Xfig writes the figure to a temporary file to do this. The name of the file is XFIGTMPDIR/xfig-printPID, where XFIGTMPDIR is the value of the environment variable by that name and PID is the process ID of xfig. If the environment variable XFIGTMPDIR is empty or not set, the /tmp directory is used. Print FIGURE to Batch Pressing this button or <Meta>b will append the figure (in PostScript form) to a batch file. The Print to Printer button will send the batch file to the printer.

Clear Batch

Pressing this button or <Meta>x will erase the accumulated figures from the batch file.

INDICATOR PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

The indicator panel contains buttons to set certain drawing parameters such as line thickness, canvas grid, rotation angle etc. All of the buttons use the same mouse buttons for setting values. Pressing mouse button 1 on the indicator will pop up a panel in which either a value may be typed (e.g. for a line thickness) or the mouse may be clicked on one of several buttons (e.g. for grid style or font name). For those that expect a value, pressing return in the value part of the window will set the new value and pop down the menu.

Pressing mouse button 2 on an indicator will decrement the value (e.g. for line thickness) or cycle through the options in one direction (e.g. font names), while pressing mouse button 3 will increment the value or cycle through the options in the other direction.

ZOOM SCALE

The canvas zoom scale may be set/increased/decreased with this button. The zoom scale is displayed within the zoom button. Ruler, grid and linewidth are scaled, too. Pressing mouse button 2 will decrease the zoom factor by 1.0 unless it is less than 1.0 already in which case it will reduce to the nearest 0.25. Pressing mouse button 3 will increase the zoom factor by 1.0 unless it is less than 1.0 in which case it will increase it to the nearest 0.25. Pressing the control key and mouse button 3 together will set the zoom scale to 1.

The figure may also be zoomed by defining a zoom rectangle by pressing the control key and mouse button 1 together. This will define one corner of the zoom rectangle. Move the mouse and click mouse button 1 again to define the opposite corner of the zoom rectangle.

GRID MODE

With this button the user may select no grid, 1/4 inch (5mm in metric mode) grid or 1/2 inch (10mm) grid.

POINT POSITION

This button controls the coarseness of object placement on the canvas. The options are exact (on pixel) placement, 1/16 inch (2mm in metric mode), 1/4 inch (5mm) or 1/2 inch (10mm). This allows the user to easily place objects in horizontal or vertical alignment.

This also restricts which objects may be "picked up" by the mouse when editing. If a corner of an object is not positioned on the canvas on a multiple of the point positioning resolution you may not be able to pick it. If this happens, a black square will temporarily appear above the mouse cursor. This square will also appear anytime the user tries to pick a nonexistent object.

ROTATION ANGLE

The rotation angle for rotating objects may be set/increased/decreased with this button. Note that not all objects may be rotated, and certain objects may only be rotated by certain angles. Pressing mouse button 2 will decrease the angle in steps of 15 degrees, while mouse button 3 will increase the angle the same amount. To select other angles, press mouse button 1 and enter the angle in the popup menu.

DEPTH

The depth at which new objects will be created may be set/increased/decreased with this button.

NUMBER OF POLYGON SIDES

The number of sides used in creating a REGULAR POLYGON is set with this button.

SMART-LINKS MODE

This button controls the smart-links mode. When turned on, lines which link box-like objects together (henceforth called links) are treated specially when one of the box-like objects is moved. When set to MOVE mode, the end point of the link which touches (or is very near) the perimeter of the box is moved with the box so that the box and the end point remain linked. When set to SLIDE mode, the end segment of the link slides so that the box remains linked and the angle of the end segment is maintained. This is useful for keeping the last segment of a link horizontal or vertical.

(At the moment, this mode only works for the MOVE and COPY functions and only works for POLYLINE links and box-like objects. Another limitation at the moment is that if both ends of a link touch the box being operated on, only one end of the link will be adjusted.)

VERTICAL ALIGN

This sets the vertical alignment mode for the ALIGN button in the editing mode panel. The choices are no vertical alignment, align to top edge, middle or bottom edge of compound. The HORIZONTAL ALIGN and VERTICAL ALIGN indicator settings are used together to align objects inside a compound or in canvas.

HORIZONTAL ALIGN

This sets the horizontal alignment mode for the ALIGN button in the editing mode panel. The choices are no horizontal alignment, align to left edge, middle or right edge of compound. The HORIZONTAL ALIGN and VERTICAL ALIGN indicator settings are used together to align objects inside a compound or in canvas.

ANGLE GEOMETRY

The following settings are available to restrict the drawing angle of line segments in POLYLINES, POLYGONS and SPLINES.

UNRESTRICTED

Allow lines to be drawn with any slope. This is the default setting.

LATEX LINE

Allow lines to be drawn only at slopes which can be handled by LaTeX picture environment lines: slope = x/y, where x,y are integers in the range [-6,6].

LATEX VECTOR

Allow lines to be drawn only at slopes which can be handled by LaTeX picture environment vectors: slope = x/y, where x,y are integers in the range [-4,4].

MANHATTAN-MOUNTAIN

Allow lines to be drawn in the horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction only.

MANHATTAN

Enforce drawing of lines in the horizontal and vertical direction only. The name Manhattan comes from the horizontal/vertical look of the Manhattan (New York City) skyline.

MOUNTAIN

Enforce drawing of only diagonal lines. The name comes from the pointed shape of mountains.

FILL STYLE

This button allows the user to select the area fill darkness (grey scale) for all objects except TEXT and ENCAPSULATED POSTSCRIPT, or to turn off area fill altogether.

COLOR

The user may select one of eight predefined colors to draw with, or select that the default (-fg) color is to be used. The eight colors are black, blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow and white. Note that TransFig versions 2.1.4 and later support color output for PostScript. On monochrome screens the objects are created with the selected color, but black is used to draw the objects on the canvas.

LINE WIDTH

The width of lines may be selected with this button. Zero width lines may be drawn for the purpose of having filled areas without outlines.

LINE STYLE

The choices for line style are solid, dashed and dotted. Once created, a dashed or dotted line may be edited to change the length of dashes or the spacing of dots respectively. The dash length and dot gap can be changed from the default using the popup menu.

BOX CURVE

The radius of the corners on ARC-BOX objects may be set with this button.

ARROW MODE

This button selects the auto-arrow mode for drawing lines. The options are no arrow heads, backward-pointing arrow head, forward-pointing arrow head or both. If one or both arrow head modes are turned on, then arrow heads are automatically drawn when drawing POLYLINE, SPLINE or ARC objects.

TEXT JUSTIFICATION

The adjustment of text may be set to left, center or right justification.

TEXT SIZE

The text size may be set/increased/decreased with this button. The default is 12 points.

TEXT STEP

The interline spacing of text may be set/increased/decreased with this button. The number displayed gives the multiple of the font height that will be placed between lines on hitting <return>. The default is a factor of 1.2 times the current font size.

TEXT FONT

This button allows a selection of 35 fonts available for most Apple PostScript printers. There are two buttons at the top of the menu. The cancel button pops down the menu without changing the current font. The use latex fonts will switch the menu to the LaTeX font choices. When the LaTeX font menu is up, besides a cancel button there is a button to switch back to the PostScript fonts.

The name of the font is printed in the font itself so that one may see what that font looks like. If a corresponding X11 font exists, new text is created on the canvas using that font. xfig uses the size of X11 font closest to that selected by the font size button. If the X11 font doesn't exist, xfig uses the font selected by the "-normal" option. To abort selection of a font, click mouse button 1 on cancel.

TEXT FLAGS

This button displays the current setting of the text flags. You may use mouse buttons 2 and 3 to step back and forth through the three flag settings: Hidden, Rigid and Special. To change any of the flags you must use mouse button 1 to popup a menu from which you may change any or all of the flags.

The Hidden and Special attributes of text objects are used with figures that will be incorporated into LaTeX. Please see the documentation for LaTeX for further information. The default for the Hidden flag is off. The default for the Special flag is off unless xfig is started with the command-line parameter -specialtext (resource specialtext).

The Rigid attribute forces text to remain the same size even if inside a compound object that is scaled up or down. The default is off.

DRAWING AND EDITING MODE PANELS

DRAWING MODE PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

The drawing mode panel contains buttons used to create the various xfig objects. Once the drawing mode is selected, the object is created by moving the mouse to the point on the canvas where the object is to be placed and pressing and releasing mouse button 1. After that the mouse is moved to the second point and mouse button 1 is again pressed for the next point. For those objects which may have more than two points (e.g. a line), mouse button 1 may be pressed for each successive point, and mouse button 2 must be pressed to finish the object. To create a single point using the POLYLINE button, press and release mouse button 2. For the ARC object, which requires exactly three points mouse button 1 is used for all three points.

At any time mouse button 3 may be pressed to cancel the creation of the object.

ARC

Create an arc. Specify three points using mouse button 1. The first and last points will form the endpoints of the arc and the second specifies any point on the arc.

BOX

Create rectangular boxes. Start by clicking mouse button 1 on any corner of the desired box and finish with the same mouse button on the diagonally opposite corner of the box.

ARC-BOX

Create rectangular boxes with rounded corners. Start and finish with mouse button 1 in the same way as BOX. The radius of the corners is selected by the BOX CURVE button.

CIRCLE

Create circles by specifying their radii or diameters. Click mouse button 1 on the center of the circle and drag the mouse until the desired radius or diameter is attained. Click mouse button 1 again to finish the circle.

ELLIPSE

Create ellipses using the same procedure as for the drawing of circles.

ENCAPSULATED POSTSCRIPT OBJECT (EPS)

Click mouse button 1 on any corner for the EPS object and finish by clicking mouse button 1 again on the diagonally opposite corner. The EDIT popup panel will appear and the file name of the EPS object may be entered. After pressing DONE or APPLY (see the description of the EDIT panel for the difference between the DONE and APPLY buttons) the bitmap part of the EPS object will appear in the box just created. If no EPS file is available yet or no name is entered or there is no preview bitmap in the EPS file, pressing DONE will pop down the edit panel and the word <empty> or the EPS file name will remain in the EPS box. Later, when the name of the EPS file is known or the file is available, you may re-read the EPS file using the popup edit panel and the bitmap part of the EPS file will replace the name in the box.

If you want the original size of the EPS object, press the "Use orig size" button and the eps bitmap will enlarge or shrink to the size specified in the preview bitmap of the EPS file. If you want the EPS object to be approximately the size of the rectangle specified with the mouse but want the aspect ratio to be same as the original, press either "Shrink to orig" or "Enlarge to orig" buttons. You must press the APPLY button to see these effects.

If the EPS file has no preview bitmap, but has a %%BoundingBox comment and xfig has been compiled xfig with the -DGSBIT flag and you have gs (ghostscript) version 2.4 or newer then xfig will call gs to produce a preview bitmap on the screen. Ghostscript is available from prep.ai.mit.edu.

INTERPOLATED SPLINE

Create (cubic spline) spline objects. Enter control vectors in the same way as for creation of a POLYLINE object. At least three points (two control vectors) must be entered. The spline will pass through the entered points.

POLYLINE

Create polylines (line segments connecting a sequence of points). Enter points by clicking mouse button 1 at the desired positions on the canvas window. Click mouse button 2 to finish.

POLYGON

Same as POLYLINE except that a line segment is drawn connecting the first and last points entered.

REGULAR POLYGON

The number of sides is first selected with the NUM SIDES button in the indicator panel. Then mouse button 1 is clicked on the center and the mouse dragged to the desired size. The object may be rotated as it is being created by moving the mouse up or down relative to the starting point. Click mouse button 1 to finish.

CLOSED INTERPOLATED SPLINE

Create closed or periodic splines. The function is similar to POLYGON except that a closed interpolated spline is drawn. The spline will pass through the points (knots).

CLOSED SPLINE

Create closed or periodic spline objects. The function is similar to POLYGON except that a closed spline will be drawn instead of polygon. The entered points are just control points; i.e. the spline will not pass any of these points.

SPLINE

Create (quadratic spline) spline objects. Enter control vectors in the same way as for creation of a POLYLINE object. At least three points (two control vectors) must be entered. The spline will only pass through the two end points.

TEXT

Create text strings. Click mouse button 1 at the desired position on the canvas window, then enter text from the keyboard. Text may be pasted from the PRIMARY cut buffer (xterm cut/paste buffer) by pressing the F18 function key (the Paste key on Sun keyboards) or any key/button defined in the translation table for the canvas. See the default Fig.ad file for example. Text is drawn using the current font, font size and justification settings. A DEL or ^H (backspace) will delete a character, while a ^X will erase the entire line. Finish by clicking mouse button 2 or typing the <return> key. If <return> is used, the text pointer automatically moves to the next "line", a distance of the font height times the value in the TEXT STEP button, and text input mode is re-entered. To finish text fully, click mouse button 2 or choose any panel button that changes modes (e.g. box, save, etc). To edit text, click on an existing text string with mouse button 1. Insertion of characters will take place at that point. Or, use the popup EDIT mode to modify the text.

Eight-bit characters may be entered using the meta (compose) key. For example, to create an "a umlaut", hold down the meta key while pressing the letter "a", then press " (quote). To create a "c cedilla", use <meta>c followed by comma. The following is a list of all special characters available using the meta key:

Keys Character Name

!!   upside-down exclamation point
??   upside-down question mark
C/   cent sign
L-   British pound
OX   currency
Y-   yen
__   broken vertical bar
SO   section
""   dieresis
CO   copyright
RO   registered trademark
_a   ordfeminine
_o   ordmasculine
<<   guillemotleft
>>   guillemotright
-|   notsign
--   hyphen
+-   plusminus
^-   macron
^*   degree
^.   periodcentered
^1   onesuperior
^2   twosuperior
^3   threesuperior
14   onequarter
12   onehalf
34   threequarters
\\   acute
**   multiply
-:   division
/u   mu
P!   paragraph
A`   A accent grave
A'   A accent acute
A^   A accent circumflex
A~   A accent tilde
A"   A dieresis
A*   A ring
AE   AE
a`   a accent grave
a'   a accent acute
a^   a accent circumflex
a~   a accent tilde
a"   a dieresis
a*   a ring
ae   ae
C,   C cedilla
c,   c cedilla
D-   Eth
d-   eth
E`   E accent grave
E'   E accent acute
E^   E accent circumflex
E"   E dieresis
e`   e accent grave
e'   e accent acute
e^   e accent circumflex
e"   e dieresis
I`   I accent grave
I'   I accent acute
I^   I accent circumflex
I"   I accent dieresis
i`   i accent grave
i'   i accent acute
i^   i accent circumflex
i"   i dieresis
N~   N tilde
n~   n tilde
O`   O accent grave
O'   O accent acute
O^   O accent circumflex
O~   O accent tilde
O"   O dieresis
O/   O slash
o`   o accent grave
o/   o accent acute
o^   o accent circumflex
o~   o accent tilde
o"   o dieresis
o/   o slash
P|   Thorn
p|   thorn
ss   German ss (s-zed)
U`   U accent grave
U'   U accent acute
U^   U accent circumflex
U"   U dieresis
u`   u accent grave
u'   u accent acute
u^   u accent circumflex
u"   u dieresis
Y'   Y accent acute
y'   y accent acute
y"   y dieresis

EDITING MODE PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

SELECTING OBJECTS

Note: If the mouse is not clicked near enough to an object marker or for whatever reason xfig cannot "find" the object the user is trying to select, a black square will temporarily appear above the mouse cursor.

GLUE COMPOUND

Compound objects are created by first tagging the objects to be compounded and then pressing mouse button 3 to group the tagged objects into a compound object. Single objects are tagged by clicking on them with mouse button 1. A number of objects can be tagged at once by using mouse button 2 to define the upper-left and lower-right corners of a region enclosing the objects. Tagged objects are shown with highlighted markers. Tagged objects which are selected (see the SELECTING OBJECTS section above) will be temporarily unhighlighted. There is currently no special command to tag or untag all of the objects within a figure. You can untag all of the objects by changing from GLUE mode to some other mode (apart from BREAK) and back again.

BREAK COMPOUND

Break a compound object to allow manipulation of its component parts. Click mouse button 1 on one of the corner markers of the compound object or along one of the imaginary lines defining the compound box. Clicking with mouse button 2 will achieve the same effect but will also tag the component parts (although you will not see the tags until you change to the GLUE mode). You can use this feature to easily alter the objects within a compound.

SCALE OBJECT

Any object may be scaled. If mouse button 1 is pressed on a BOX or ARC-BOX object, then that object will be scaled proportionally to its aspect ratio. If mouse button 2 is pressed on any object, that object will be scaled up or down about its center. Text may only be scaled if inside a compound object and then only if its RIGID flag is set to NORMAL (using the popup edit panel). See the TransFig manual for description of text options.

ALIGN

Align objects. Click mouse button 1 to align objects inside a compound object or mouse button 2 to align all objects on canvas according to the setting in the VERTICAL ALIGN and HORIZONTAL ALIGN indicators. The choices are the cumulative effect of vertically aligning the objects to the TOP, MIDDLE or BOTTOM edge and horizontally aligning to the LEFT, MIDDLE or RIGHT edge of the compound.

MOVE POINT

Modify the position of a point of any object except TEXT and COMPOUND objects. For unrestrained movement, click mouse button 1 over the desired point, reposition the point, and click the left button again. For horizontally or vertically constrained move, click mouse button 2 on the desired point and move either horizontally or vertically. Notice that once you choose the direction (horizontal or vertical), movement is constrained in that direction. If, after moving the mouse initially, it is moved in the other direction a greater distance than the current position of the mouse relative to the starting point, then that will be the new constraint direction. In otherwords if you first move the mouse horizontally one inch (say) then move it vertically 1.3 inches, the direction will switch to vertical until any horizontal motion exceeds 1.3 inches. When the object is positioned where desired, click mouse button 1 to place it if that button was used to start the move (unconstrained), or mouse button 2 (constrained) if that button was used.

MOVE

Move object. Click mouse button 1 (unconstrained move) or mouse button 2 (constrained move) on any corner marker of the object to be moved. The horizontal/vertical constrained movement (mouse button 2) works exactly as described for MOVE POINT.

ADD POINTS

Add points to POLYLINE, POLYGON, SPLINE, or CLOSED SPLINE objects (points of a BOX can not be added or deleted). Note that a REGULAR POLYGON is really an ordinary POLYGON, so adding points to this object is allowed and does NOT keep the polygon regular.

COPY / CUT TO CUT BUFFER

Copy object to canvas or cut buffer. Click mouse button 1 (unconstrained copy) or mouse button 2 (constrained copy) on any corner marker of the object to be copied (for CIRCLE and ELLIPSE objects, mouse may also be clicked on their circumferences). The object will be duplicated and then moved exactly as in MOVE. If mouse button 3 is clicked on an object, that object is copied to the cut buffer for pasting into this or another figure. The file used for the cut buffer is called .xfig in the user's $HOME directory. This allows a user to run two or more xfig processes and cut/paste objects between them. If there is no $HOME, a file is created in a temporary directory called xfigPID where PID is the xfig process ID. The temporary directory used is specified in the environment variable XFIGTMPDIR/. If that variable is empty or not set then /tmp is used.

DELETE POINTS

Delete points from POLYLINE, POLYGON, SPLINE, or CLOSED SPLINE. Objects (points of a BOX or ARC-BOX can not be added or deleted). Note that a REGULAR POLYGON is really an ordinary POLYGON, so deleting points from this object is allowed and does NOT keep the polygon regular.

DELETE

Click mouse button 1 on an object to delete the object. Delete a region of the canvas by clicking mouse button 2 and dragging the mouse to define an area of objects to delete. Clicking mouse button 3 on an object will copy the object to the cut buffer (see COPY/CUT TO CUT BUFFER above).

EDIT OBJECT

Edit settings for an existing object. Click mouse button 1 on the object and a pop-up menu will appear showing existing settings for the object. Some of the menu entries may be changed by typing new values in the appropriate windows. These are editable AsciiTextWidgets and allow cut and paste. Others pop up a sub-menu of multiple choices when pressed and held. Yet others are buttons which toggle a setting on or off (e.g. arrow heads on lines).

Press the "done" button to apply the changes to the object and finish. Press the "apply" button to apply the changes but keep the menu up for further changes. Press the "cancel" button to cancel the changes and pop down the menu.

The following table shows which settings are used for the different objects.

Object	Angle	Area	Line	Line	Box	ddDepth	Color	Radius	Text Font/
		Fill	Width	Style	Curve				Just./Size
Arc		X	X	X		X	X
Arc-Box		X	X	X	X	X	X
Circle	X	X	X	X		X	X	X
Ellipse	X	X	X	X		X	X	X
EPS						X	X
Box,Polygon,		X	X	X		X	X
Line,Spline
Text	+X					X	X		X

+ The angle may be set, but the object will only be rotated on PostScript output for angles other than 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

dd The depth defines how overlapping objects are displayed. Objects with a greater depth value are obstructed by objects with smaller depth value. The maximum depth allowed is 1000.

UPDATE

By pressing mouse button 1 on an object, the current settings for the indicator buttons (line width, line style, area fill etc.) which have been selected for update are copied into that object. When xfig is started, all indicator buttons which are components of objects are selected for update. To unselect an indicator, click on the update button and click mouse button 1 on the small button in the upper-right corner of the indicator. When that indicator is selected the foreground color (default black) shows. When it is unselected the background color (default white) shows.

If mouse button 2 is clicked on an object, the settings in the object that are selected by the indicator buttons are copied into those indicator button settings. Thus, one may copy selected attributes of one object to another.

FLIP VERTICALLY

Flip the object up/down (mouse button 1) or copy the object and flip it (mouse button 2). Point to part of the object, click the appropriate button. That object will be flipped vertically about that point.

FLIP HORIZONTALLY

Flip the object left/right (mouse button 1) or copy the object and flip it (mouse button 2). Point to part of the object, click the appropriate button. That object will be flipped horizontally about that point.

ROTATE CLOCKWISE

Rotate the object (mouse button 1) or copy and rotate it (mouse button 2) -N degrees (clockwise), where N is the amount set in the rotation indicator button. The object is rotated about the chosen point. Not all objects can be rotated, and not all can be rotated at arbitrary angles. For example, BOX, ARC-BOX and EPS objects may only be rotated by 90 degrees. Text objects may be rotated, although for angles other than 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees only the markers are rotated on the screen because of the limitations of the X11 Window System. Text IS rotated correctly on PostScript output, however.

ROTATE COUNTER-CLOCKWISE

Rotate the object (mouse button 1) or copy (mouse button 2) +N degrees (counter-clockwise), where N is the amount set in the rotation indicator button. The object is rotated about the chosen point.

SPLINE <-> POLYLINE

Turn POLYGON into a CLOSED INTERPOLATED SPLINE object, or turn POLYLINE into a INTERPOLATED SPLINE object.

ADD/DELETE ARROWS

Add or delete arrow heads of ARC, POLYLINE or SPLINE objects. Add an arrow head by clicking mouse button 1 on the endpoint of the object. Delete an arrow head by clicking mouse button 2 on the endpoint or arrow head. The length and thickness of the arrowheads may be modified using the popup edit panel.

PANNING

The figure is panned up and down in the same way by clicking the mouse in the ruler on the right of the canvas. Also, the figure can be returned to its origin by clicking mouse button 1 in the units (e.g. cm or in) box.

The arrow keys may also be used to pan the image and the home key to return the figure to the origin. Also, pressing the Control Key and mouse button 2 will pan the figure to the origin.

X DEFAULTS

The following are the default keyboard accelerators as distributed
in the Fig.ad app-defaults file:

WIDGET TREE

Fig  xfig
     Form  form
          Form  commands
               Command  quit
               Command  delete_all
               Command  undo
               Command  redraw
               Command  paste
               Command  file
               Command  export
               Command  print
          Form msg_form
               Label  file_name
               Text  message
          Box  mode_panel
               Label  label
               Command  button (one for each of the 16 drawing mode buttons)
               Label  label
               Command  button (one for each of the 18 editing mode buttons)
          Label  topruler
          Label  canvas
          Label  unitbox
          Label  sideruler
          Viewport ind_viewport
               Core  clip
               Scrollbar  horizontal
               Box  ind_panel
                    Form  button_form (one for each of the 22 indicator buttons)
                         Command  button
                         Toggle  update (only those indicators that affect creation
                                   of objects have update toggles)

          TransientShell  xfig_ps_font_menu
               Box  menu
                    Form  buttons
                         Command  cancel
                         Command  use_latex_fonts
                    Command  pane (one for each of the 35 Postscript font panes)

          TransientShell  xfig_latex_font_menu
               Box  menu
                    Form  buttons
                         Command  cancel
                         Command  use_postscript_fonts
                    Command  pane (one for each of the 6 LaTeX font panes)

     TransientShell  xfig_file_menu
          Form  file_panel
               Label  file_status
               Label  num_objects
               Label  cur_file_label
               Text  cur_file_name
               Label  file_label
               Text  file_name
               Label file_alt_label
               Viewport  vport
                    Core  clip
                    Scrollbar  vertical
                    List  file_list_panel
               Label  mask_label
               Text  mask
               Label  dir_label
               Text  dir_name
               Label  dir_alt_label
               Command home
               Viewport  dirvport
                    Core  clip
                    Scrollbar  vertical
                    List  dir_list_panel
               Command  rescan
               Command  cancel
               Command  save
               Command  load
               Command  merge

     TransientShell  xfig_export_menu
          Form  export_panel
               Label  mag_label
               Text  magnification
               Label  orient_label
               MenuButton  orientation
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  Portrait
                         SmeBSB  Landscape
               Label  just_label
               MenuButton  justify
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  Flush left
                         SmeBSB  Centered
               Label  lang_label
               MenuButton  language
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  LaTeX box (figure boundary)
                         SmeBSB  LaTeX picture
                         SmeBSB  LaTeX picture + epic macros
                         SmeBSB  LaTeX picture + eepic macros
                         SmeBSB  LaTeX picture + eepicemu macros
                         SmeBSB  PiCTeX macros
                         SmeBSB  Encapsulated Postscript
                         SmeBSB  Postscript
                         SmeBSB  Combined PS/LaTeX (PS part)
                         SmeBSB  Combined PS/LaTeX (LaTeX part)
                         SmeBSB  Textyl \special commands
                         SmeBSB  TPIC
                         SmeBSB  PIC
                         SmeBSB  X11 Bitmap
               Label  export_mode_label
               MenuButton  export_mode
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  Overwrite
                         SmeBSB  Append
               Label  def_file_label
               Label  def_file_name
               Label  out_file_name
               Text  file
               Label  file_alt_label
               Viewport  vport
                    Core  clip
                    Scrollbar  vertical
                    List  file_list_panel
               Label  mask_label
               Text  mask
               Label  dir_label
               Text  dir_name
               Label  dir_alt_label
               Command home
               Viewport  dirvport
                    Core  clip
                    Scrollbar  vertical
                    List  dir_list_panel
               Command  rescan
               Command  cancel
               Command  export

     TransientShell  xfig_print_menu
          Form  print_panel
               Label  printer_image
               Label  mag_label
               Text  magnification
               Label  orient_label
               MenuButton  landscape
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  portrait
                         SmeBSB  landscape
               Label  just_label
               MenuButton  justify
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  flush left
                         SmeBSB  centered
               Label  print_label
               Text  printer
               Label  num_batch_lab
               Label  num_batch_val
               Command  dismiss
               Command  print_batch
               Command  clear_batch
               Command  print

     TransientShell  xfig_file_msg
          Form  file_msg_panel
               Text  file_msg_win
               Command  dismiss

     TransientShell  query_popup
          Form  query_form
               Label  message
               Command  yes
               Command  no
               Command  cancel

     TransientShell  xfig_set_unit_panel
          Form  form
               Label        Unit/Scale settings
               Label  Ruler Units  =
               MenuButton  Imperial (in)
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  Metric (cm)
                         SmeBSB  Imperial (in)
               Label  Figure units =
               MenuButton  Ruler units
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  Ruler units
                         SmeBSB  User defined
               Label  user_units
               Text        Unit/Scale settings
               Label  Figure scale =
               MenuButton  User defined
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  Unity
                         SmeBSB  User defined
               Label  scale_factor
               Text  1.0
               Command  cancel
               Command  set

     NOTE:  The following is a typical popup edit panel (for ARC-BOX)
            The panel will be different for other objects.

     TransientShell  xfig_edit_panel
          Form  form
               Label  POLYLINE:ArcBox
               Label  image
               Command  done
               Command  apply
               Command  cancel
               Label
               Label  Width =
               Text  Width =
               Label  Color =
               Text  Color =
               Label  Depth =
               Text  Depth =
               Label  Area fill =
               MenuButton  No fill
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  No fill
                         SmeBSB  Filled
               Label  Fill density % =
               Text  Fill density % =
               Label  Line style =
               MenuButton  Solid Line
                    SimpleMenu  menu
                         SmeBSB  Solid Line
                         SmeBSB  Dashed Line
                         SmeBSB  Dotted Line
               Label  Dash length/Dot gap =
               Text  Dash length/Dot gap =
               Label  Top Left:
               Label  Top Left:
               Text  Top Left:
               Label  Top Left:
               Text  Top Left:
               Label  Bottom Right:
               Label  Bottom Right:
               Text  Bottom Right:
               Label  Bottom Right:
               Text  Bottom Right:
               Label  Radius =
               Text  Radius =

BUGS and RESTRICTIONS

Not all operations employ smart redrawing of objects which are altered as a by product of the operation. You may need to use Redraw in these cases.

Must compile xfig with -DOPENWIN in order to make xfig handle OpenWindows scalable fonts correctly.

Some servers do not allow bitmaps/pixmaps taller than the screen height or wider than the screen width. That is why there is a limit on the width of the top ruler and height of the side ruler. If you need wider/taller rulers AND your server allows bigger pixmaps, you may define MAX_TOPRULER_WD and/or MAX_SIDERULER_HT in your Imakefile in the DEFINES line. For example, to have a maximum top ruler width of 1160 pixels, add -DMAX_TOPRULER_WD=1160 to your DEFINES line in the Imakefile.

There is a bug in OpenWindows 2.0 which relates to pixmaps in widgets. You must compile xfig with the -DOPENWIN_BUG option for this problem.

If the image is panned or the xfig window iconified and de-iconified during the middle of an operation (e.g. while drawing a line), the picture will be distorted. This can be corrected using Redraw after the operation is complete.

Rotated text will be displayed horizontally or vertically (i.e. angles of 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees) on the screen. They will be rotated correctly when printed on PostScript output.

Corners of object scaled with point positioning in one of the grid modes will not always fall on the grid line, but to the closest pixel.  

SEE ALSO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

COPYRIGHT

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.  

FILES

CompKeyDB - Data base of compose (meta) key sequences for 8-bit characters.

Must be installed in $(XFIGLIBDIR) with 'make install', or may be specified with command line option -keyFile or X toolkit resource keyFile. See the Imakefile.

Doc/FORMAT2.1 - Description of Fig file format.

CHANGES - Description of bug fixes/new features.

AUTHORS

Original author:
Supoj Sutanthavibul, University of Texas at Austin

The LaTeX line drawing modes were contributed by:
Frank Schmuck, Cornell University

Original X11 port by:
Ken Yap, Rochester

Variable window sizes, cleanup of X11 port, right hand side panel:
Dana Chee, Bellcore

Cleanup of color port to X11 by:
John T. Kohl, MIT

Version 2.0:
Area fill, multiple line thicknesses, multiple fonts and font sizes, bottom panel, line style/thickness modification of objects by:
Brian V. Smith, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
(standard disclaimer applies)
(bvsmith@lbl.gov)

Popup change-object menu by:
Jon Tombs
Frank Schmuck

Zooming and panning functions, shift key select mechanism by:
Dieter Pellkofer
Henning Spruth

Depth feature by:
Mike Lutz

Version 2.1:
Indicator panel, file menu popup, print menu popup, panning with rulers, mouse function window, regular polygon, rubberbanding of circles/ellipses, filled splines on canvas, dashed/dotted splines on canvas, update button, arbitrary angle rotation of objects, alignment in compound, object scaling, constrained copy/move, corner markers for compound, context sensitive corner markers, smarter redraw, undo for compound and point move for boxes, cancel object creation, point positioning to three resolutions, TransFig scalable text, hidden text, special text, save of figure on crash by:

Paul King (king@cs.uq.oz.au)
with help from:
Brian V. Smith (bvsmith@lbl.gov) and Micah Beck (beck@cs.cornell.edu)

Encapsulated PostScript importing by:
Brian Boyter

Color implementation and pan/zoom with ctrl key/mouse by:
Henning Spruth

International characters by:
Herve Soulard

Directory Browser based on XDir by:
Win Treese, Digital Equipment Corporation

Rotated ellipses by:
James Tough, Dept. of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

(Vertically) Rotated text by:
Alan Richardson, Space Science Centre, School of MAPS, University of Sussex

Popup scale menu and dynamic switching between inches and cm by:
Paul King (king@cs.uq.oz.au)

Many bug fixes/cleanups etc. by a host of faithful users
See the CHANGES file for all the credits

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

DISPLAY WINDOWS

COMMAND PANEL FUNCTIONS

INDICATOR PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

DRAWING AND EDITING MODE PANELS

DRAWING MODE PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

EDITING MODE PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

SELECTING OBJECTS

PANNING

X DEFAULTS

WIDGET TREE

BUGS and RESTRICTIONS

SEE ALSO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

COPYRIGHT

FILES

AUTHORS