Greek characters in metapost

Greek characters in metapost

[Ron van Ostayen]

For my PhD thesis I'm experimenting with MetaPost figures (or actually 
gnuplot pictures on the MP terminal).
However, I've found that some characters, for example the greek 
characters, do not show in the generated postscript.

A minimal example (test.mp):

beginfig(0);
u = 1cm;
draw (1u,0)..(0,1u)..(-1u,0)..(0,-1u)..cycle;
label.top( btex $\alpha$ etex, (0,0));
endfig;

texexec --mptex test.mp

should produce a postscript file test.0 showing a circle with an alpha 
in the center.
The circle is there, the alpha isn't.

Instead, the postscript file prints a \013 character (which isn't 
visible on screen) from the CMMI-font.

I'm using the latest TexLive CD (v7).

Does anyone recognize this behaviour and knows how to solve it?
Thanks for any suggestions.

Ron van Ostayen

Re: Greek characters in metapost

[Jens-Uwe Morawski]

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 13:15:16 +0200
Ron van Ostayen <R.A.J.vanOstayen@WbMT.TUDelft.NL> wrote:

> For my PhD thesis I'm experimenting with MetaPost figures (or actually 
> gnuplot pictures on the MP terminal).
> However, I've found that some characters, for example the greek 
> characters, do not show in the generated postscript.

The PostScript file is not self-contained, i.e. no fonts
are included. Therefore the figure has to be embedded in
a ConTeXt document (\externalfigure).

> A minimal example (test.mp):
> 
> beginfig(0);
> u = 1cm;
> draw (1u,0)..(0,1u)..(-1u,0)..(0,-1u)..cycle;
> label.top( btex $\alpha$ etex, (0,0));
> endfig;
> 
> texexec --mptex test.mp

In order to pre-view your MP file you can use mptopdf.

texexec --mptex test.mp
mptopdf test

should give test-0.pdf. Here the \alpha should be visible.

Jens

Re: Greek characters in metapost

[Ron van Ostayen]

Jens-Uwe Morawski wrote:

> On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 13:15:16 +0200
> Ron van Ostayen <R.A.J.vanOstayen@WbMT.TUDelft.NL> wrote:
> 
> 
>>For my PhD thesis I'm experimenting with MetaPost figures (or actually 
>>gnuplot pictures on the MP terminal).
>>However, I've found that some characters, for example the greek 
>>characters, do not show in the generated postscript.
>>
> 
> The PostScript file is not self-contained, i.e. no fonts
> are included. Therefore the figure has to be embedded in
> a ConTeXt document (\externalfigure)

Thanks Jens,

This is true, however, I want to have a self-contained postscript file, 
or rather, a postscript file I can include in a *LaTeX* document.  (I 
know this is the ConTeXt-list but I expected to find a lot of MetaPost 
experts on this list. :-))

I have tried to add prologues:=2 to the file (which should produce a 
self-contained postscript file), but the resulting PS-file still doesn't 
show the alpha.

BTW, if I replace the $\alpha$ with $x$ I get a postscript file which 
shows the x without running it through mptopdf.

>  
> 
>>A minimal example (test.mp):
>>
>>beginfig(0);
>>u = 1cm;
>>draw (1u,0)..(0,1u)..(-1u,0)..(0,-1u)..cycle;
>>label.top( btex $\alpha$ etex, (0,0));
>>endfig;
>>
>>texexec --mptex test.mp
>>
> 
> In order to pre-view your MP file you can use mptopdf.
> 
> texexec --mptex test.mp
> mptopdf test
> 
> should give test-0.pdf. Here the \alpha should be visible.
> 
> Jens
> 
> 

Re: Greek characters in metapost

[Jens-Uwe Morawski]

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 22:27:35 +0200
Ron van Ostayen <R.A.J.vanOstayen@WbMT.TUDelft.NL> wrote:

> Jens-Uwe Morawski wrote:
> > The PostScript file is not self-contained, i.e. no fonts
> > are included. Therefore the figure has to be embedded in
> > a ConTeXt document (\externalfigure)
> 
> 
> This is true, however, I want to have a self-contained postscript file, 
> or rather, a postscript file I can include in a *LaTeX* document.  (I 
> know this is the ConTeXt-list but I expected to find a lot of MetaPost 
> experts on this list. :-))

If you embed the MP-output test.0 in your LaTeX document using
\includegraphics of the graphicx package, then the output
should show the \alpha. Depending, whether you are using pdflatex
or latex, pdflatex itself or dvips include the appropriate fonts
and encodings.

Try the following LaTeX file with pdflatex. It should show the \alpha.

%---snip---(mp-include.tex)
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}

\DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{mps}{*}{}

\begin{document}
\includegraphics{test.0}
\end{document}
%---snap----

If you really need a self-contained EPS stand-alone then the
best way is to use mptopdf and convert the resulting PDF back
to EPS using GhostScript.

 Jens

Re: Greek characters in metapost

[Ron van Ostayen]

Jens-Uwe Morawski wrote:

> On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 22:27:35 +0200
> Ron van Ostayen <R.A.J.vanOstayen@WbMT.TUDelft.NL> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Jens-Uwe Morawski wrote:
>>
>>>The PostScript file is not self-contained, i.e. no fonts
>>>are included. Therefore the figure has to be embedded in
>>>a ConTeXt document (\externalfigure)
>>>
>>
>>This is true, however, I want to have a self-contained postscript file, 
>>or rather, a postscript file I can include in a *LaTeX* document.  (I 
>>know this is the ConTeXt-list but I expected to find a lot of MetaPost 
>>experts on this list. :-))
>>
> 
> If you embed the MP-output test.0 in your LaTeX document using
> \includegraphics of the graphicx package, then the output
> should show the \alpha. Depending, whether you are using pdflatex
> or latex, pdflatex itself or dvips include the appropriate fonts
> and encodings.
> 
> Try the following LaTeX file with pdflatex. It should show the \alpha.

It does.  Thanks Jens.

There is a small difference in the header between the PS-files produced by:

mpost --tex=latex test.mp

and

texexec --mptex test.mp

If I include the PS-picture from the 1st command in a latex file and 
produce a PS file using:

latex test
dvips test -o test.ps

then the resulting PS-file *doesn't* show the \alpha
The PS-picture from the 2nd command *does*.

Any idea what causes this difference?

Ron

Re: Greek characters in metapost

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am Freitag, 13. September 2002 09:32 schrieb Ron van Ostayen:
> There is a small difference in the header between the PS-files produced by:
> mpost --tex=latex test.mp
> and
> texexec --mptex test.mp

> then the resulting PS-file *doesn't* show the \alpha
> The PS-picture from the 2nd command *does*.
> Any idea what causes this difference?

Because texexec is nice and does everything for you! ;-)

Grüßlis vom Hraban!
-- 
http://www.fiee.net
http://www.ramm.ch
---

Re: Greek characters in metapost (solution)

[Ron van Ostayen]

I've finally found what was causing the disappearance of the $\alpha$ in 
  the MP-figure.

RECAP:

This is a LaTeX and MP problem, but I think it could be a ConTeXt 
problem if you take the long way to your PDF-result.
(context, dvips, ps2pdf)

MP-file 'test.mp'
===================
% BEGPRE
verbatimtex
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
etex
% ENDPRE

beginfig(0);
label( btex $x-\alpha-x$ etex, (0,0));
endfig;

% BEGPOST
verbatimtex
\end{document}
etex
% ENDPOST

end.
===================

LaTeX-file 'test.tex'
===================
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\includegraphics{test.0}

$x-\alpha-x$
\end{document}
===================

Now, if we run:

mpost --tex=latex test
latex test
dvips -Ppdf test -o test.ps
ps2pdf test.ps test.pdf

the resulting test.pdf doesn't show the -\alpha- in the MP-figure

This is caused by the settings (at least for the texlive distribution) 
in config.pdf which is called by the -Ppdf option.

In this file the option G is set which means:

% Character shifting. You want to do this using the BlueSky/AMS/Y&Y fonts.
% It remaps certain ``control character'' positions to an another range
% where these characters are repeated. This character shifting works wround
% bugs in some tools such as older versions of the Acrobat Reader.

Apparently, there is a conflict between the shifted characters in the 
text and the non-shifted characters in the MP-figure.

So, I have turned this option off (hopefully without any repercussions),
and all is well.

Thanks for all your help.

Ron