[metapost] MetaPost and XeTeX

[laurent at math.toronto.edu]

Hi all,

The problem is to have labels in MetaPost typeset with
XeTeX in right-to-left mode. The one presently valid
solution mentioned so far (by Dave Crossland) is to use MP
to get SVG output, then convert SVG to PDF with svg2pdf :-

 > wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Tools#svg2pdf &
 > code.google.com/p/svg2pdf/

Since svg2pdf seems to be currently for geeks only :) I
mention a classical solution:- apply a XeTeX onerlay on the
pure graphics part of the figure done with today's MP. A
macro package for constructing such labelling overlays is
"labelfig.tex" by Raymond S\'eroul and me.  I am presuming
that "labelfig.tex" is already compatible with XeTeX and
XeLaTeX.  If that compatibility poses problems, please
contact me.

Laurent S.

PS. Boguslaw Jackowski pointed out a few years ago that
EPS/PS figure placement by Tom Rokicki's "epsf.tex" can be
annoyingly inaccurate for some almost degenrtate EPS bounding
boxes. But I believe Rokicki has fixed that problem. If
not try my "boxedeps.tex".

PPS. All mentioned macro packages are on CTAN.