[OS X TeX] graphics in presentations

[Gary L. Gray]

On Apr 28, 2008, at 9:51 PM, Gerard Walschap wrote:

> 	I'm trying to incorporate some mathematical illustrations into a  
> beamer documentclass file. I can do this using Adobe Illustrator and  
> Gary Gray's nifty WarmFigToPdf labeling freeware, but I'm wondering  
> if there are any more recent alternatives. I've seen some nice  
> graphics in beamer based presentations, but the freeware is based on  
> windows OS. Are there any Mac based alternatives?


Hi Gerard.

The past 2-3 years, we have been using Illustrator with a different,  
far easier, method of labeling figures. Here is a slightly modified  
version of the procedure I have posted before.

*********************

Here is the procedure we use to label figures -- it includes the  
ability to crop figures, but with AI CS3, you can use the "Crop Area  
Tool" to crop the figure prior to saving. This eliminates one file and  
one step in the process and it is very quick.

The general idea is that you can create the labels in a .tex file,  
convert the fonts in the resulting .pdf file to Postscript outlines,  
open that .ps file in AI, and then copy and post those outlines in the  
AI figure file. The steps are as follows:

(1) Download the archive at (the site is currently down -- email me if  
you can't get it via this link and I will email the zip file to you):

http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/PDF-Processing-Apps.zip

(2) Create your figure in AI and save it in "Adobe PDF (pdf)" format.  
I will assume it is called "test.pdf". We have a directory for each  
figure that will eventually contain 2 or 3 files, depending on whether  
or not you use the Crop Area Tool in CS3.

(3) Create the labels for your figure in a .tex file. I will assume it  
is called "labels.tex".

(4) Typeset the labels.tex file using pdflatex and then drop the  
resulting labels.pdf file on "TeX Font Outliner.app"

(5) After you drop the .pdf file on "TeX Font Outliner.app", the  
resulting .ps file will automatically open in AI. Copy the labels from  
the .ps file and place them labels in the fig you saved in part (1),  
i.e., in test.pdf

(6) Move the labels into position and save test.pdf.

(7 with CS3) If you using CS3, you will now Select All, double-click  
the Crop Area Tool, and then select "Fit Crop Area to selected art" in  
the subsequent dialog. Now save test.pdf.

(7 without CS3) With CS2 and earlier, drop test.pdf onto "PDF  
Cropper.app". This will rename test.pdf to test-AI.pdf (so that you  
will have your original file for later editing) and then it will crop  
that file by removing all white space and it will name the cropped  
file test.pdf.

That's all there is too it. I have only tested this with AI CS2 and  
CS3, though it should work with earlier versions with a slight  
modification of the AppleScript. Both apps are universal binary.

We have labeled hundreds of figures this way over the past couple of  
years and it works exceedingly well.

-- Gary