[OS X TeX] pstricks in pdftex and xetex

[Jan Eden]

Hi Ross,

Ross Moore wrote on 12.10.2004:

>Hi Jan, Michael, and others
>
>On 12/10/2004, at 7:37 PM, Jan Eden wrote:
>
>>Michael Gedalin wrote on 12.10.2004:
>>
>>>I know two packages aimed to substitute/extend pstricks for using
>>>in non-postscript tex. One is pgf which defines its own commands
>>>instead of pstricks for produce directly pdf output. The other is
>>>pdftricks which is a kind of wrapper for pstricks, It uses
>>>\write18 (or --shell-escape). Both are working with pdfelatex for
>>>my, neither is working with xetex. While I do not get any
>>>error/warning I could understand from pgf, running pdftricks
>>>results in "no \write18 capability", although I enable 'xetex
>>>--shell-escape' via the TeXShop preferences.
>>
>>That is what I experienced - I am using the beamer class which uses
>>pgf for its various display tricks.
>
>Sorry for my ignorance --- what is  pgf ?
>
Portable Graphics Format. It is a package intended to extend the image drawing capabilities of tex documents while avoiding PostScript.
>>
>>Among other things, including a pdf image is not possible with
>>xetex and the beamer class: \usepackage[xetex]{graphicx} gives me
>>an option clash.
>
>Including  pdf images is certainly possible with XeTeX. Please
>provide an example file that is giving you difficulty.
>
Of course it is possible. It just does not work when using the beamer class and pgf as the underlying graphics package. I always get an option clash when using [xetex] and the xetex errors when leaving it out (as in \usepackage{graphicx}).
>>
>>I already tested several workarounds for using pstricks with
>>pdf(la)tex (like ps4pdf), and I wanted to switch to pgf finally.
>>But now, since xetex has problems with pgf, I am stuck again.
>
>It should indeed be possible to use {ps4pdf}, but perhaps not yet
>"out-of-the-box".
>When Jonathan fixes the reported \write18 problem, this should be
>tested again, and a full workable solution devised, if necessary.

[snip]

It seemed to me a bit cumbersome, and I want to get independent of pstricks anyway (having relied on it for some time now). While pstricks is a great package, it has to many requirements for the  regarding document processing.

Best regards,

Jan
-- 
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