[OS X TeX] Can I Make Pdftricks Even Faster?

[Vince McGarry]

Hi Herb,

Thanks for all your work on this---I have tried your modified pdftricks and
it works well.

Last night I tried ps4pdf, preparing all the files listed on the download
site and storing them in the appropriate locations. It was a little time
consuming, but not very hard.

Everything works fine up until the last command in the script---TeXShop
displays the pdf of the graphics that are to end up in the final file and
then the script apparently bails out. At that point I can manually pdflatex
the file and the graphics are embedded properly. I am still experimenting.
If anyone knows how to alter the script so that it will complete the final
step, compiling a document with embedded postscript under TeXShop with
pdflatex would be completely automated using ps4pdf.

There is a difference between how pdftricks and ps4pdf work. It can be seen
in how ps4pdf respects the declared picture size and does not trim to the
content. Also, rather that making an individual file for each graphic, one
file containing all the graphics is created.

I'm starting to agree with Michael that ps4pdf may be the best way to
go---I'd sure like to get that last step automated, though.

Vince

On 2/4/05 2:19 PM, "Herb Schulz" <herbs at wideopenwest.com> wrote:

> On 2/4/05 2:04 PM, "Michael Hoppe" <mh at michael-hoppe.de> wrote:
> 
>>>  Howdy,
>> 
>> As well,
>> 
>> the most painless way to use pstricks with all the fortunes of
>> pstricks is still ps4pfd, IMHO.  I've tried pdftricks with
>> (alt)pdflatex, but the easiest way still remains ps4pdf.
>> 
>> Michael
>> 
> 
> Howdy,
> 
> Well, I tried to use ps4pdf (the .sty file and demo file are part of gwTeX)
> but can't seem to get the demo file to compile. From the things I've seen on
> the WEB it looks like I've got to do a bunch of configuration changes to the
> Perl script and a Shell script. I'm in murky water as far as pstricks is
> concerned so this just adds to my confusion.
> 
> Doesn't ps4pdf do a similar thing as pdftricks? I.e., save the pstricks code
> to a .tex file (with headers to load the proper pstricks packages) and
> process that file? At first glance the only real difference seems to be that
> it checks to see if the generated .tex file has been processed and doesn't
> do that again; with pdftricks you've got to explicitly issue a
> \NoProcess{...} command once you've got what you want. What else does ps4pdf
> offer? Please, like I said, I'm a rank beginner at using pstricks or any
> PostScript commands; when it comes to graphics I'm too visual and use Create
> and LateX Equation Editor to generate .pdf's to include in my documents.
> 
> Good Luck,
> 
> Herb Schulz
> (herbs at wideopenwest.com)
> 
> --------------------- Info ---------------------
> Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
>          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
> TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
> List Post: <mailto:MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>
> 
> 

--------------------- Info ---------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
           & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Post: <mailto:MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>