.\" $Id: pic2graph.man,v 1.7 2008/09/29 21:55:15 wl Exp $
.\" This documentation is released to the public domain.
.TH PIC2GRAPH @MAN1EXT@ "@MDATE@" "Groff Version @VERSION@"
.IX pic2graph
.SH NAME
pic2graph \- convert a PIC diagram into a cropped image
.
.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B pic2graph
[
.B \-unsafe
]
[
.BI \-format\  fmt
]
[
.BI \-eqn\  delim
]
.
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
Reads a PIC program as input; produces an image file (by default in
Portable Network Graphics format) suitable for the Web as output.
Also translates
.BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
constructs, so it can be used for generating images of mathematical
formulae.
.P
PIC is a rather expressive graphics minilanguage suitable for
producing box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind frequently used in
technical papers and textbooks.
The language is sufficiently flexible to be quite useful for state
charts, Petri-net diagrams, flow charts, simple circuit schematics,
jumper layouts, and other kinds of illustration involving repetitive
uses of simple geometric forms and splines.
Because PIC descriptions are procedural and object-based, they are
both compact and easy to modify.
.P
The PIC language is fully documented in
.IR "Making Pictures With GNU PIC" ,
a document which is part of the
.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@)
distribution.
.P
Your input PIC code should
.I not
be wrapped with the \&.PS and \&.PE macros that normally guard it within
.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@) 
macros.
.P
The output image will be clipped to the smallest possible bounding box
that contains all the black pixels.
Older versions of
.BR \%convert (1)
will produce a black-on-white graphic; newer ones may produce a
black-on-transparent graphic.
By specifying command-line options to be passed to 
.BR \%convert (1)
you can give it a border, force the background transparent, set the
image's pixel density, or perform other useful transformations.
.P
This program uses 
.BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR gs (1),
and the ImageMagick
.BR \%convert (1)
program.
These programs must be installed on your system and accessible on your
$PATH for
.B pic2graph
to work.
.
.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-unsafe
Run 
.BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@)
and
.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@)
in the `unsafe' mode enabling the PIC macro
.B sh
to execute arbitrary commands.
The default is to forbid this.
.TP
.BI \-format\  fmt
Specify an output format; the default is PNG (Portable Network Graphics).
Any format that
.BR \%convert (1)
can emit is supported.
.TP
.BI \-eqn\  delim
Change the fencepost characters that delimit 
.BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
directives
.RB ( $
and
.BR $ ,
by default).
This option requires an argument, but an empty string is
accepted as a directive to disable
.BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
processing.
.PP
Command-line switches and arguments not listed above are passed to
.BR \%convert (1).
.
.
.SH FILES
.TP \w'\fB@MACRODIR@/eqnrc'u+2n
.B @MACRODIR@/eqnrc
The 
.BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@)
initialization file.
.
.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP
.B GROFF_TMPDIR
The directory in which temporary files will be created.
If this is not set
.B pic2graph
searches the environment variables
.BR \%TMPDIR ,
.BR TMP ,
and
.B TEMP
(in that order).
Otherwise, temporary files will be created in
.BR /tmp .
.
.
.SH BUGS
Due to changes in the behavior of ImageMagick
.BR \%convert (1)
that are both forward and backward-incompatible,
mismatches between your
.B pic2graph
and 
.BR \%convert (1)
versions may produce zero-sized or untrimmed output images.
For this version of 
.B pic2graph
you will need a version of
.BR \%convert (1)
that supports the
.B \-trim
option; older versions of 
.B pic2graph
used
.BR \-crop\~0x0 ,
which no longer has trimming behavior.
.
.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR eqn2graph (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR grap2graph (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@),
.BR gs (1),
.BR \%convert (1).
.
.
.SH AUTHOR
Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>, based on a recipe by W. Richard Stevens.
.
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