PSTricks - Graphics for T<span class="e">e</span>X and L<span class="a">a</span>T<span class="e">e</span>X


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Extended translation of the the 5th edition

 


the 7th edition, total of 960 colored pages

 


2nd edition, 212 pages, includes 32 color pages

 


 


 


 


 


 

 

 


 


auto-pst-pdf |  dvipdfm |  epstool |  lualatex |  LyX and -shell-escape |  MiKTeX |  pst2pdf |  PSTtoEPS |  pdftricks |  ps2pdf |  ps4pdf |  pst-pdf |  TeXnicCenter and -shell-escape |  TeXShop and -shell-escape |  TeXWorks and -shell-escape |  VTeX/Free |  WinEdt and -shell-escape |  XeLaTeX | 


The PSTricks macros cannot be used directly with pdf(La)TeX, because PSTricks uses PostScript arithmetic, which isn't part of PDF. There are several more or less good possibilities to get a PDF output from PostScript. The absolute easiest way is using lualatex or the sequence latex->dvips->ps2pdf. When using a GUI, e.g. TeXstudio, there is a often a button for this. If you are using packages which works only with pdflatex or want to insert png- or jpg-images, then always use lualatex or the package auto-pst-pdf and you can run pdflatex with PSTricks related code.


lualatex

Since 2021 there exists the package luapstricks.lua which is a replacement for GhostScript if you run your document with lualatex. Then it is automatically be loaded and the PDF output will directly be created without any additional program. Only for examples with exessive mathematical calculations, e.g. for differential equations, it could take very long because the used Lua interpreter is not the fastest machine ...


ps2pdf

This is the absolutely easiest way to convert a complete document or a single PSTricks image to pdf:
ps2pdf <file>.ps
dvipdf is no alternative, because it cannot handle the PostScript prologue files. Use always dvips and then ps2pdf.

If you use a gui for creating your document, then set your output profile to LaTeX=>PS=>PDF, then your gui does it all.

To get all images as eps files create a document, which holds only the PSTricks images (use the following template):
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{pstricks}
\uespackage{pst-...}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
...  code for an image ...
\clearpage
...  code for an image ...
\clearpage
...
\end{document}
now run
latex <file>.tex
dvips <file>.dvi
ps2pdf <file>.ps
pdf2eps <pagenumber> <file>
pdf2eps is a script which converts a single pdf page to en eps image with a cropped whitespace (needs pdfcrop). "pdf2eps 2 <file>" builds an eps from the second page.

To get type 1 fonts, you should always use the following two packages in your document:
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % 
\usepackage{lmodern} % the latin modern font family

pst2pdf

pst2pdf is a Perl script which isolates all PostScript or PSTricks related parts of the document into single LaTeX files, which create an eps and pdf image. The pdf ones are then imported in a last pdflatex run for the pdf output of the main document.

Syntax: pst2pdf.pl <file>.tex [options]

alternative: perl PST2pdf.pl <file>.tex [option]

Some restrictions:
\begin{postscript}
...
\begin{pspicture}
....
\end{pspicture}
...
\end{postscript}

The pspicture environment can be nested, the postscript one NOT! pspicture can be inside of a postscript environment, but not vice versa.

The postscript environment should be used for all other PostScript related commands, which are not part of a pspicture environment, e.g. nodes inside normal text.

Restrictions for this version: Nested files are not possible! Hence PSTricks in \input and/or \include files cannot be used. Look into the Perl code for more informations ...

VTeX/Free

The program VTeX for linux from http://www.micropress-inc.com/linux is free available and procuduces a PDF output by default and can handle all pstricks code. See also:
http://www.os2voice.org/VNL/past_issues/VNL1203H/vnewsf4.htm

Package pst-pdf

The best solution is to use the package pst-pdf which itself needs the newest preview package, available from CTAN.
\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{pst-pdf}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\begin{pspicture}(-5.25,-5.25)(5.25,5.25)%
  \pscircle*[linecolor=cyan]{5}
  \psgrid[subgriddiv=0,gridcolor=lightgray,gridlabels=0pt]
  \Huge\sffamily\bfseries
  \rput(-4.5,4.5){A} \rput(4.5,4.5){B}
  \rput(-4.5,-4.5){C}\rput(4.5,-4.5){D}
  \rput(0,0){pst-pdf}
  \rmfamily
  \rput(0,-3.8){PSTricks}
  \rput(0,3.8){\LaTeX}
\end{pspicture}

\includegraphics{foo}% can be foo.jpg or foo.png

\end{document}
There is nothing more to do than loading the package; preview.sty is working in the background and extracts all important environments. Here you can see the pdf output of the above example. Load the example file from the website for more information to see how it works. The most major advantage is, that pst-pdf allows to create EPS images of all PostScript parts of the doc. There are shell scripts for *nix, Windows and MAC to make it easy to use. Without using one of these scripts you have to run manually (replace file with your own filename):
latex <file.tex>
dvips -Ppdf -o <file-pics.ps> <file.dvi>
#ps2pdf -dAutoRotatePages#/None <file-pics.ps> <file-pics.pdf># for Windows user 
ps2pdf -dAutoRotatePages=/None <file-pics.ps> <file-pics.pdf> 
pdflatex <file.tex>

pst-pdf writes with the help of the preview package the pspicture environment into a special DVI file. It is important, that pspicture has the correct coordinates, otherwise you'll get not the whole picture (see also topic baseline). dvips -E writes the contents into a special PS file with one picture - one page. With ps2pdf this file is converted into PDF images from which the last pdflatex run reads its images page by page and replace all with the pspicture environments.

Package auto-pst-pdf

simplifies the use of the package pst-pdf. For using the package with LuaTeX go here.
\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\begin{pspicture}(-5.25,-5.25)(5.25,5.25)%
  \pscircle*[linecolor=cyan]{5}
  \psgrid[subgriddiv=0,gridcolor=lightgray,gridlabels=0pt]
  \Huge\sffamily\bfseries
  \rput(-4.5,4.5){A} \rput(4.5,4.5){B}
  \rput(-4.5,-4.5){C}\rput(4.5,-4.5){D}
  \rput(0,0){auto-pst-pdf}
  \rmfamily
  \rput(0,-3.8){PSTricks}
  \rput(0,3.8){\LaTeX}
\end{pspicture}

\includegraphics{foo}% can be foo.jpg or foo.png

\end{document}
Important is the fact, that all PSTricks related code should be inside the pspicture-environment. Alternative you can use the environment postscript, which can include any kind of code:
\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}

\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\begin{postscript}
\psset{fillstyle=solid}
\psscalebox{0.75}{%
\begin{pspicture}(-5.25,-5.25)(5.25,5.25)%
  \pscircle*[linecolor=cyan]{5}
  \psgrid[subgriddiv=0,gridcolor=lightgray,gridlabels=0pt]
  \Huge\sffamily\bfseries
  \rput(-4.5,4.5){A} \rput(4.5,4.5){B}
  \rput(-4.5,-4.5){C}\rput(4.5,-4.5){D}
  \rput(0,0){auto-pst-pdf}
  \rmfamily
  \rput(0,-3.8){PSTricks}
  \rput(0,3.8){\LaTeX}
\end{pspicture}}
\end{postscript}

\includegraphics{foo}% can be foo.jpg or foo.png

\end{document}
Now run pdflatex -shell-escape file or alternatively for MikTeX distributions pdflatex --enable-write18 file. The four steps for creating a document with a last pdflatex run are now done internally by the package. The package itself loads pst-pdf by default with the option notightpage, which makes it easier to define the bounding box of each image. The programs ps2pdf and pdfcrop must be installed, which should already be the case for standard TeX distributions like TeXLive or MikTeX. pdfcrop needs an installed perl, which is the default for Linux. For Windows install the one from acitivestate.com.

For a GUI like TeXnicCenter insert the -shell-escape option with Alt-F7 (opens the output menu), choose LaTeX=>PDF and insert in the right window as optional argument "-shell-escape" (without a space between shell and -escape!)), just before the existing "-interaction=..." argument.

TeXnicCenter

TeXShop

WinEdt

TeXworks

LyX

PSTtoEPS, converting into EPS from inside pstricks

The first one is a real pstricks solution, it creates eps-images, which can be converted with epstopdf to PDF format. You need the package pst-eps.sty and the corresponding TeX file pst-eps.tex:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pst-eps,graphicx,epstopdf}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\pssave}[2]{%
	\PSTtoEPS[%
		headerfile=pstricks.pro,%
		headers=all,%
		bbllx=-2,bblly=-2,bburx=2,bbury=2]
	{#1.eps}{#2}%
}
\makeatother
\parindent=0pt
\begin{document}
\pssave{EPSfileName}{%
    \begin{pspicture}(-2,-2)(2,2)
	\psset{linecolor=red}
	\pscircle{2} % any pstricks stuff
    \end{pspicture}%
}
line before image

\includegraphics{EPSfileName}

line after image
\end{document}
PSTtoEPS is unable to calculate the bounding box. You can pass this values as options to the macro or leave it blank, then the image gets the default values of 2*2pt. In this case you have to reserve the space in your text by yourself. The saved EPS image can now be converted into any other format.


epstool

Adjusts the BoundingBox of an existing EPS file which was created by dvips -E. Also cuts all whitespace around the EPS image. Use the following bash script or run the commands by hand. epstool is available from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/epstool.htm for *nix and Windows.
#!/bin/sh
latex $1.tex				# run latex (file without extension)
dvips -j -E $1.dvi -o $1.eps		# run dvips
epstool --copy --bbox $1.eps $1.tmp.eps # run epstool
mv $1.tmp.eps $1.eps			# rename output

Package pdftricks

Another more elegant way, but much more difficult is to use the pdftricks package. This package circumvents this limitation so that the extensive facilities offered by the powerful PSTricks package can be made use of in a pdfTeX document. This is done using the shell escape function available in the web2c TeX compiler (limiting the use of this package to the web2c implementation of TeX). [Visit CTAN for more information or http://PSTricks.tug.org/]

MiKTeX users load the package with option miktex: \usepackage[miktex]{pdftricks} and have to pay attention that they have a directory called \tmp.

The following example can be run from a shell or a GUI with
pdflatex --shell-escape <testfile.tex>
(Linux)
pdflatex --enable-write18 <testfile.tex>
(MiKTeX)
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{ifpdf}
\ifpdf%
  \usepackage{pdftricks}
  \begin{psinputs}
    \usepackage{pstricks}
  \end{psinputs}
\else
  \usepackage{pstricks}
  \newenvironment{pdfpic}{}{}
\fi
 
\begin{document}
\section{Hallo}
Welt.

\begin{figure}[htb]
\centering
\caption{The image, converted with \texttt{pdftricks}}
\begin{pdfpic}
  \begin{pspicture}(5,2)
    \psline{|<->|}(0,0.3)(4,1.9)
  \end{pspicture}
\end{pdfpic}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

dvipdfm

Nearly all PSTricks packages uses PostScript header files (ending ".pro"), also called prologue, which cannot be understand by dvipdfm. Use always dvips and then ps2pdf or alternative the script dvipdf which does the same.

ps4pdf

This package is superceeded by pst-pdf!
There exists also a script ps4pdf, which is independent from the package and allows an easy use of the package pst-pdf.

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