[OS X TeX] Adding text, etc. to figures... why don't we just do it like this...

[Joseph C. Slater PE, PhD]

On Feb 21, 2009, at 10:15 AM, David Watson wrote:

> On Feb 21, 2009, at 7:57 AM, Joseph C. Slater PE, PhD wrote:
>
>> I used to be a big fan of psfrag before pdtex. pdftricks, etc.,  
>> isn't quite as convenient (I might have the names wrong). I had to  
>> get something done quickly the other day and put $k_1$ on a figure,  
>> and simply did the following.
>>
>> \includegraphics[]{fig.jpg}\hspace*{-2.4in}\raisebox{1.2in}{$k_1$}
>>
>> Am I missing something, or why are some of the other tools  
>> necessary? Is this just not robust enough? Granted, it took a few  
>> compiles to get the positioning right.
>
> I have never used psfrag before, and so I cannot comment on its pros  
> and cons.
>
> Having said that, from reading the introductory material in the  
> psfrag documentation (i.e. "What is PSfrag") I can see the benefits  
> of such tools for certain circumstances.
> Say, for instance, that I had a plotting program such as gnuplot, or  
> alternatively, a program such as Illustrator which is more than  
> capable of making well-formed postscript output.
> If I want the text in such a plot/illustration to match with my  
> document text, and say I need to put something complicated into that  
> illustration (like matrices), I could insert a placeholder for that  
> material, which might more appropriately be handled within the scope  
> of LaTeX.
>
> It boils down to a choice of
> a) make LaTeX output and insert it into the illustration, à la  
> LaTeXiT, or to
> b) make the illustration first, and add the LaTeX inside your .tex  
> source.

I used to use psfrag all the time. Now I use gnuplot > metapost of a  
program that can output metapost. 
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