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<TITLE>Re: [texhax] dealing with maps</TITLE>
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<DIV id=idOWAReplyText40606 dir=ltr>Pierre,</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>I would look at two things. Firstly, as someone else mentioned, the
overpic package. This allows you to overlay different graphics, latex pictures,
place text, etc. It's quite good for annotating graphics and such. I use it for
presentations; blanking out tiny text in an image, for example, with a white box
and then overlaying my own text. Turn on the "grid" option and you can see
exactly where to place things (well, nearly exactly).</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Secondly, have a look at scribus, an open source dtp package that
runs really well under linux and has as its target high quality pdf's. It has
plenty of drawing/illustration capabilities. It can also import eps files and
edit them, retaining the vector graphics; not good for complicated drawings, but
fine for simple ones. And of course it can export to a pdf (or eps). Not as
fancy as illustrator in terms of gradients, fills, etc., etc., but I find it
does everything I need. It also has a very active irc channel; there's usually
someone on line who can answer a question or give some advice. Pick up a recent
version that is compatible with your distribution, as it is evolving (=
improving) rapidly.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>I use it with pdfcrop, a script that cuts down a pdf from, say, a
full A4 page (which is what dtp stuff tends to do) to a real pdf image just big
enough to hold all the image. This saves trying to tell graphicx where you'd
like the bounding box. [I use pdflatex exclusively, with images as either pdfs
or pngs; this saves an intermediary dvi file, with xpdf as a previewer; eps2eps
will do a pretty good job at cropping an eps if you prefer to go the latex/eps
route.]</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>These, plus gimp, mean I haven't booted up in Windows for a long
time; indeed, I don't own a copy of illustrator any more.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Hope this helps.</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Steve</DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=2>debian wrote:<BR><BR>>Please,<BR>><BR>>I am trying to
write a small guide to a local canal using Latex.<BR>><BR>>What is the
recommended way to incorporate maps ? From the Ordinance<BR>>Survey I
can trace the map I want by hand and then scan it into a<BR>>file. But,
I then want to add text and graphics to it, before<BR>>incorporating it into
my latex production.<BR>> <BR>><BR>I have been doing a lot of that
lately, and I regret to say that there<BR>does not seem to be anything yet to
replace Adobe Illustrator, which<BR>(for me) means that I have to control my
nausea and run a Windows<BR>session every once in a while. A well-layered
Illustrator file, saved as<BR>EPS will certainly do the trick.<BR>I wish I could
make Wine work for Illustrator, but not so far. The EPS<BR>utilities in DVIPS
work very<BR>well indeed.<BR><BR>If anyone has any answers that can release us
from these remaining<BR>dependencies on Windows, please let us hear it. Vector
graphics is still<BR>one of the weak points in a Linux environment.<BR><BR>I
tend to save in the Illustrator 8 format rather than in the<BR>Illustrator-CS
format, because the latter has been carefully designed to<BR>be an unreadable
mystery.<BR><BR>Pierre MacKay<BR><BR></P>
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<DIV RE><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Professor Steven J
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