[texhax] using latex from an external plotting package

[Darren Dale]

Hello,

I am a contributing developer on the matplotlib project 
(http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/), an open source plotting library 
released under the python license. I have put a lot of effort into developing 
an option that uses latex to handle the text 
(http://www.scipy.org/Wiki/Cookbook/Matplotlib/UsingTex). This process is a 
bit convoluted, where we use dvipng to generate images of the text that can 
be displayed on screen, and a complicated system involving PSFrag to generate 
postscript/eps output.

I was hoping someone reading this list might have suggestions on how to 
improve this system. Is there a way to use latex in a kind of server mode to 
provide the layout information needed to render the glyphs on screen, or in a 
postscript, eps or pdf document? Matplotlib ordinarily uses freetype to 
render text, could it be possible to use latex in coordination with freetype? 
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you,
Darren Dale