The following is a document on how to import xfig figures in latex along with a few tips to make your life easier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO IMPORT XFIG 2.1.8 FIGURES IN YOUR LATEX FILES: ----------------------------------------------------- Filenames --------- For the figures you create, it is recommended that you use the standard extension '.fig' for your figure filenames. Preparing your Latex file ------------------------- There are several formats to which xfig can generate output and latex can read. I will only cover three cases: (A) Export xfig format directly into latex form (B) Export xfig in encapsulated postscript and import the postscript in latex. (C) Save the figure partly in postscript and partly in latex form and superimpose them in your document. All three methods have their advantages and are equally simple to handle. In method (A) the advantage is that all your work is in tex form and that your .dvi files will hold all the necessary information. In (B) you have all the power and fonts of postscript at your disposal. In (C) you get the drawing power of postscript and the typesetting of latex for your strings. ---- If you are creating a figure of type (A) or (C) then you should have the following alias: alias lafig='xfig -specialtext -latexfonts -startlatexFont default' and then run: lafig instead of xfig when doing your figures. This will give you the ability to use tex strings on your figures when you select the LaTeX fonts from the xfig font menu. You can mix postscript and LaTeX fonts. You can also use you usual LaTeX command strings to achieve your desired output (math mode stuff, bold, etc.) --- In your latex preamble (the part that preceeds your \begin{document} statement) place the following lines: \input{psfig} \input{transfig} % only for 2.1.6 You need to place the second line only if you are using xfig 2.1.6. If you are still using xfig 2.1.6 I strongly recommend you switch over to the new version. There are many advantages, especially if you inclde encapsulated postscript in you documents and if you intend to use tex strings on your figures. If I haven't managed to convince you then you can find transfig.tex in /usr/X386/lib/X11/transfig and you should ask your administrator to place it in your default TeX input file directory. Otherwise you'll have to specify the full path to you file. In 2.1.8 you ahould not place the above command. So your preamble could look like: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% LaTeX Preamble %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \documentstyle[12pt,bezier,amstex]{article} % include bezier curves \renewcommand\baselinestretch{1.0} % single space \pagestyle{empty} % no headers and page numbers \oddsidemargin -10 true pt % Left margin on odd-numbered pages. \evensidemargin 10 true pt % Left margin on even-numbered pages. \marginparwidth 0.75 true in % Width of marginal notes. \oddsidemargin 0 true in % Note that \oddsidemargin=\evensidemargin \evensidemargin 0 true in \topmargin -0.75 true in % Nominal distance from top of page to top of \textheight 9.5 true in % Height of text (including footnotes and figures) \textwidth 6.375 true in % Width of text line. \parindent=0pt % Do not indent paragraphs \parskip=0.15 true in \input{psfig} % Capability to place postscript drawings %\input{transfig} % Capability to place transfig pictures, % use only if you are using xfig 2.1.6 (not 2.1.8) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Document Beginning %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \begin{document} \end{document} TYPE A - Exporting directly to latex form ----------------------------------------- Once again, run lafig if you wish to create files of this form. In terms of drawing capabilities this is the weakest form you can use. Lines in latex can only be drawn at multiples of 30 and 45 degrees. And lines with arrows can only be drawn at multiples of 45 degrees. Several features such as ellipses, splines, etc. are not supported (xfig does not take advantage of available LaTeX macro packages such as bezier). When drawing lines for type A drawings make sure you restrict yourself to the proper angle geometry in xfig. Otherwise when you export your figures to latex format, xfig will approximate your lines to the nearest angle available in latex. Usually this has unpleasant results. In this mode, you can type any LaTeX string on your figure. Once imported to LaTeX, the string will be interpreted properly. For example: $\int_0^9 f(x) dx$ would result in a integration from 0 to 9 of the function f(x). (provided you are in a LaTeX font when typing that string. always make sure you are in a latex font in xfig when typing your latex strings). To create your LaTeX file just choose the export option off the xfig main menu. And then select LaTeX picture as the language to export. This will create a file with a .latex extension which you can then call directly into your latex document. For example this code would import the file yourfile.latex directly into latex format: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Figure 1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \begin{figure}[htbp] \begin{center} \input{yourfile.latex} \caption{The caption on your figure} \label{figure:yourreferencename} \end{center} \end{figure} TYPE B - Exporting to Encapsulated postscript --------------------------------------------- Run xfig if you choose this option. There are no limitations in drawing figures of this type. Except that one cannot use latex command strings in this format. However all of the many fonts of postscript are available when this format is selected. Once you are done drawing your figure simply choose the export menu off of the xfig main menu and select encapsulated postscript as your output language. This will create a .eps file which you can then include into you latex ducument in the following way: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Figure 2 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \begin{figure}[htbp] \begin{center} \ \psfig{file=yourfile.eps} \end{center} \caption{Your caption} \label{figure:yourreference} \end{figure} TYPE C - Postscript/Latex format -------------------------------- Run lafig if you choose this option. You can draw any lines or curves when using this format. In this type of export, latex strings are permitted you also have the postscript fonts available to you. Therefore you can type in strings such as $\int_0^9 f(x) dx$ and they will be processed by latex. You will need to export your file twice when using this format: once to the combined ps/latex (ps part) language and once to the combined ps/latex (latex part) language. The first will create a .pstex file and the second will create a .pstex_t file. The .pstex_t file automatically calls the .pstex file and you do not need to include it explicitely in your tex file (users of the previous version please take note of this.) To include your figure just use something similar to this if you are using xfig 2.1.8: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Figure 3 of Lecture %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \begin{figure}[htbp] \begin{center} \input{yourfigure.pstex_t} \caption{Your figure} \label{figure:example} \end{center} \end{figure} N.B. You might want to edit the .pstex_t files created by xfig. When it refers to the other file (.pstex) it automatically gives the full path specification to the .pstex file. This can be an inconvenience if you move your files to another directory If so, your latex processing will fail. I personally prefer to remove the full path specification and only keep the filename. SOME OTHER NOTES ---------------- You can import encapsulated postcript files into your latex files. This is useful if you want to doodle on top of outputs from other programs. For example you could include a MATLAB drawing and identify points of interest with strings, lines, circles, etc. Starting from version 2.1.7 of xfig there is a hook to ghostscript which permits you to view the postscript in your drawing. A neat feature. If you are stuck with some postscript files and wish to turn them into encapsulated postscript then there is a program called ps2epsi which is distributed with ghostscript.