importing figures in metapost

importing figures in metapost

[andrea valle]

Hi to all,
newbie here, so please pardon me if I'm asking obvious things.
I'm a latex user, but I am fascinated by context.
I've a project and I'd like to know if it's possible to do it in 
context.
The idea is the following:
I have to draw a directed graph representing relations between musical 
elements. My graph is made of nodes and links. Links are represented as 
arrows as usual, but they should include a label with text displayed 
near to each of them.
Nodes should be blocks of musical notation.
Now, I'm using lilypond to generate musical fragments 
(www.lilypond.org). Lilypond outputs ps, pdf  and png also. For my 
project actually I am using the pgf package under latex. In this way I 
can create graphs: I can draw lines with arrows, I can give each vertex 
an xy pair of coordinates, and I can associate  each vertex an external 
figure.
But I'n not satisfied with the output, and I like very much context  
capabilties:  more, metafun is amazing.
Taking a look at the metafun doc, it seems to me that the drawing the  
edges  should be a very simple task.
But: is it possible to import an external figure inside metapost giving 
it a precise place in terms of xy coordinates?

Thanks a lot

-a-

Re: importing figures in metapost

[Mojca Miklavec]

andrea valle wrote:
> But: is it possible to import an external figure inside metapost giving 
> it a precise place in terms of xy coordinates?

Sure:

externalfigure "filename.pdf"
	xyscaled (theWidth, theHeight)
	shifted (theLowerLeftX, theLowerLeftY);

(However, I don't know if there's a way to include a picture without the 
need to provide width and height explicitly.)

Mojca

Re: importing figures in metapost

[andrea valle]

Thanks Mojca,
(I put again the discussion on the list)

> andrea valle wrote:
>> Thanks a lot,
>> It seems that it is exactly what I need,as I want to use pdfs.
>> Actually I'm able to scale, but not to shift.
>
> I don't understand why not. Can you send an (non-working) example?
>
>>

It seems to me that this:


% 1
\setupcolors[state=start]
\starttext

\startuseMPgraphic{dummy}

externalfigure "mptext.pdf"
	xyscaled (10cm, 8cm)
	shifted (3cm, 6cm);

\stopuseMPgraphic

\useMPgraphic{dummy}

\stoptext

and

% 2

\setupcolors[state=start]
\starttext

\startuseMPgraphic{dummy}

externalfigure "mptext.pdf"
	xyscaled (10cm, 8cm)
	shifted (3cm, 6cm);

\stopuseMPgraphic

\useMPgraphic{dummy}

\stoptext



...have the same results.

(these are my pdfs in output:
http://www.semiotiche.it/andrea/conTest.pdf
http://www.semiotiche.it/andrea/conTest1.pdf
)

Where am I making a mistake?

>
> It is not extensively documented, it is only mentioned in metafun 
> manual (CTRL-F to search in Acrobat). Or, alternatively, you can take 
> a look at:
>

So, how do I know all the options I can use? Simply I can't?

Best

-a-

Re: importing figures in metapost

[andrea valle]

Thanks Mojca,
(I put again the discussion on the list)

> andrea valle wrote:
>> Thanks a lot,
>> It seems that it is exactly what I need,as I want to use pdfs.
>> Actually I'm able to scale, but not to shift.
>
> I don't understand why not. Can you send an (non-working) example?
>
>>

It seems to me that this:


% 1
\setupcolors[state=start]
\starttext

\startuseMPgraphic{dummy}

externalfigure "mptext.pdf"
	xyscaled (10cm, 8cm)
	shifted (3cm, 6cm);

\stopuseMPgraphic

\useMPgraphic{dummy}

\stoptext

and

% 2

\setupcolors[state=start]
\starttext

\startuseMPgraphic{dummy}

externalfigure "mptext.pdf"
	xyscaled (10cm, 8cm)
	shifted (3cm, 6cm);

\stopuseMPgraphic

\useMPgraphic{dummy}

\stoptext



...have the same results.

(these are my pdfs in output:
http://www.semiotiche.it/andrea/conTest.pdf
http://www.semiotiche.it/andrea/conTest1.pdf
)

Where am I making a mistake?

>
> It is not extensively documented, it is only mentioned in metafun 
> manual (CTRL-F to search in Acrobat). Or, alternatively, you can take 
> a look at:
>

So, how do I know all the options I can use? Simply I can't?

Best

-a-

Re: importing figures in metapost

[Mojca Miklavec]

andrea valle wrote:
> Thanks Mojca,
> (I put again the discussion on the list)
> 
>> andrea valle wrote:
> It seems to me that this:

Btw: take a look at the thread "MetaFun questions" in ConTeXt archive 
and at the command naturalfigure(expr name) defined in mp-figs.mp.

> externalfigure "mptext.pdf"
>     xyscaled (10cm, 8cm);
> 
> and
> 
> externalfigure "mptext.pdf"
>     xyscaled (10cm, 8cm)
>     shifted (3cm, 6cm);
> 
> ...have the same results.

Of course they do. Metapost is clever enough to calculate the proper 
bounding box. If you "draw origin" or "draw origin shifted 
anypointyoucanthinkof" and if that is the only thing you draw, than both 
figures will be identical.

If you would like the figure to be different, you can set the bounding 
box explicitely with:

setbounds currentpicture to unitsquare xyscaled ... shifted ...;

If you want your graphic to appear somewhere else on the page than you 
have to handle that with plain TeX/ConTeXt commands to achieve the 
desired placing ... or using layers in MetaFun.

> So, how do I know all the options I can use? Simply I can't?

The command externalfigure in MetaFun has no additional 
options/parameters. The best place to learn metafont/post/fun is:
- take The METAPOSTBook in a library (not necessary)
- metapost manual: http://www.tug.org/tutorials/mp/mpman.pdf
- MetaFun manual: http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/metafun-s.pdf
- sources: go to http://source.contextgarden.net/ and search for 
externalfigure for example

I usually use the metapost and metafun manual and simply the search 
function in Adobe Acrobat fo find what I'm looking for. Reading the 
whole metafun manual is no bad idea anyway.

If you're looking for ConTeXt documentation: well, yes, than you start 
reading one manual after another, keep looking into the source code and 
search through the mailing list archive & contribute to Wiki. I'm 
affraid there's no other way for the moment.

Mojca

Re: importing figures in metapost

[Taco Hoekwater]

andrea valle wrote:
> 
> It seems to me that this:
> 
> 
> % 1
>  ...
> and
> % 2
>  ...
> 
> ...have the same results.

That's what I would expect as well, from identical input ;)

Taco

Re: importing figures in metapost

[andrea valle]

(...)
ahem, yes.
Sorry, I forgot a % before a
>     shifted (3cm, 6cm);

in the second example

I suppose Mojca has already replied considering the %.
Thanks


-a-



On 13 Jun 2005, at 19:20, Taco Hoekwater wrote:

> andrea valle wrote:
>> It seems to me that this:
>> % 1
>>  ...
>> and
>> % 2
>>  ...
>> ...have the same results.
>
> That's what I would expect as well, from identical input ;)
>
> Taco
> _______________________________________________
> ntg-context mailing list
> ntg-context@ntg.nl
> http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
>
Andrea Valle
Laboratorio multimediale "G. Quazza"
Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione
Università degli Studi di Torino
andrea.valle@unito.it

Re: importing figures in metapost

[h h extern]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> andrea valle wrote:
> 
>> But: is it possible to import an external figure inside metapost 
>> giving it a precise place in terms of xy coordinates?
> 
> 
> Sure:
> 
> externalfigure "filename.pdf"
>     xyscaled (theWidth, theHeight)
>     shifted (theLowerLeftX, theLowerLeftY);
> 
> (However, I don't know if there's a way to include a picture without the 
> need to provide width and height explicitly.)

hack:

  texexec --fig=d *.png

and then in the mp file:

   input mpfigs.mp

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
                                              | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------