[texhax] using latex from an external plotting package

[Philip TAYLOR]

Darren Dale wrote:

> That is correct. I would like to render text that has been laid out by latex 
> on screen, or in an image file like png, eps, pdf, or svg. Does anyone know 
> if there is an open source dvi parser available that is compatible with the 
> python (BSD) license? 

Knuth's DVITYPE is the skeleton from which
almost DVI parsers are derived.  No idea
about licence compatibility : all of Knuth;s
software is basically public domain with
constraints on use of the name (you can't alter
it in any way whilst keeping the same name,
but since you wouldn't be planning to do that,
I don't envisage any problem).

> Is that a big IF? I believe freetype works with AFM files, but dvi files seem 
> to reference tfm/vf files. Does anyone know if the tfm/vf information is 
> applicable to afm fonts? For example, a dvi file might reference 
> phvr7t.vf/phvr7t.tfm, but the helvetica afm file is phvr8a.afm. I'm sorry if 
> I'm confused, there are some things about working with fonts that I am trying 
> to learn.

I'll leave that to others better placed than I to advise.

Philip Taylor