PSTricks 2006


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PSTricks is the work of Timothy van Zandt <tvz@econ.insead.fr>

PSTricks 97 is edited by Denis Girou <Denis.Girou@idris.fr>
and Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk>

PSTricks 2004 is edited by Herbert Voss <voss@PSTricks.de>
and Rolf Niepraschk <Rolf.Niepraschk@ptb.de>

PSTricks 2005/2006 is edited by Herbert Voss <voss@PSTricks.de>

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For more informations go to http://tug.org/PSTricks _and_ read the
news articles in the doc directory!


1 - Copyright
    ---------

COPYRIGHT 1993, 1994, 2000 by Timothy Van Zandt, <tvz@econ.insead.fr>.
COPYRIGHT 2004, 2005 by Herbert Voss <voss@PSTricks.de> and 
                        Rolf Niepraschk <Rolf.Niepraschk@ptb.de>.
COPYRIGHT 2006 by Herbert Voss <voss@PSTricks.de>  

This program can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms
of the LaTeX Project Public License Distributed from CTAN
archives in directory macros/latex/base/lppl.txt.

2 - Introduction
    ------------

This package is a re-release of PSTricks, incorporating all of the
beta releases and bug fixes made up to March 1997. It is *not*
intended as a full new release of PSTricks, but as a consolidation and
cleaned distribution. Because Timothy van Zandt does not currently have
enough time to work on PSTricks, he gave permission for Denis Girou, 
Sebastian Rahtz and Herbert Voss to produce this interim solution.

Some new features have been added in the 2004 version, except the release 
of the small pst-fill package for filling (tiling) arbitrary regions and the
various evolving contributions, but we have merged in all the bug fixes
and beta addons which Timothy produced.

We have renamed some of the files that make up PSTricks, for consistency.
The multido package is now in /macros/generic/multido

3 - Installation
    ------------

3.1 - (La)TeX files

      a - You have to move all the files from the "generic" subdirectory
to a directory part of your TEXINPUTS environment variable, or to add it
in your TEXINPUTS list of paths.

      b - If you are a LaTeX user (and not only a plain TeX one), you have
to do the same thing for the "latex" subdirectory, which define LaTeX
wrappers for all the PSTricks files.

3.2 - PostScript header files

      a - If you use the "dvips" DVI to PostScript converter, you have
to move all the files from the "dvips" subdirectory to a directory part
of your DVIPSHEADERS environment variable, or to add it in your DVIPSHEADERS
list of paths.

      b - If you use the Y&Y's "dvipsone" DVI to PostScript converter,
you have to rename generic/dvipsone.con to generic/pstricks.con and to move
all the files of the "dvips" subdirectory to the TeX input folder.

      c - If you use the MicroPress "VTeX" DVI to PostScript converter,
you have to rename generic/vtex.con to generic/pstricks.con and to move
all the files of the "dvips" subdirectory to the TeX input folder.

      d - If you use the "textures" (version 1.7/1.8 or 2.0) DVI to PostScript
converter (for Macintosh), you should proceed as follows:
          * create a new folder PSTricks97 (for instance) as a subfolder in
Textures' TeX inputs folder,
          * copy the "generic", "dvips", "latex" and "contrib" subfolders
from the "pst97" folder to the newly created "PSTricks97" folder,
          * open the "generic" folder and remove the file pstricks.con,
then rename the file textures.con to pstricks.con,
          * open the "dvips" folder and change the following line in the file
pstricks.pro (courtesy Michael J. Sharpe <msharpe@euclid.ucsd.edu>):
/STV { SDict begin normalscale end STP  } def
by
/STV { Mag 72.27 72 div mul dup neg scale STP  } def
          It was also reported that the `pst-text' package (to put text
along paths) doesn't work with the "textures" driver.
          Textures's users must also look at the page kindly maintained
by Michael Sharpe: http://math.ucsd.edu/~msharpe/pst-textures.html

      d - If you use another driver than these four ones, you have to adapt
a pstricks.con file for it, if the one for "dvips" doesn't work for it.
You can also look at the instructions of the old obsolete/src/pstricks.con
file. And if nothing work, ask for help on the PSTricks mailing list,
hopping that somebody on the list has the same configuration than you...

3.3 - Test of the installation

The file doc/test-pst.tex allow you to test all your installation and the
various components of PSTricks. It is the concatenation of most of the
examples of the PSTricks chapter of "The LaTeX Graphics Companion".
You must take care (mainly if you are "normally" a user of plain TeX only,
that it require LaTeX and some packages of it distribution (namely `calc',
`ifthen' and `graphicx'). It also require the `random' and `subfigure'
packages, which can be found on CTAN or the TeXLive cdrom - see the README
file of the doc subdirectory).

3.4 - Known pitfalls

      a - To use the standard `color' or `xcolor' package with PSTricks, you
must load the `pstricks.sty' package, which interface the two packages,
loading them in the right order, and overriding some small parts of 
PSTricks to allow it to use the `color' or `xcolor' package system for
specifying color. We STRONGLY recommend that you use this way today.
pstricks.sty loads by default the xcolor package, but there is an option
"noxcolor". If you are a LaTeX user then load _always_ first the
pstricks.sty package.

      b - LaTeX users must also take care that the `pstricks.sty' package is
required in place of the `pstricks.tex' one if the `graphics' or `graphicx'
package is also loaded.

      c - Don't try to load the `color' or `xcolor' package if you use 
`pstricks.sty' or `pst-all' (it is already loaded in the correct order).

      d - If needed, preferably load the `graphics' / `graphicx' package
after PSTricks, and in this case use the `graphics' syntax of \scalebox
(not the one described in the PSTricks documentation). pstricks.sty
redefines this macro so that both can be used (see doc).

      e - If you load `graphics' / `graphicx' before PSTricks without
loading pstricks.sty, you must use the PSTricks syntax of \scalebox 
in all cases (not the one described in the `grfguide' document). 

      f - We have rename some package files for consistency. But the reference
documentation in obsolete/doc subdirectory still refer to the old names.
So, take care that `pst2eps' is now `pst-eps', `charpath' is now `pst-char',
`gradient' is now `pst-grad', `textpath' is now `pst-text' and `pstree' is
now `pst-tree'.


4 - Contents
    --------

4.1 - Subdirectories

The distribution contain the following subdirectories:

contrib : various contributions
doc     : documentations (up to date ones - the obsolete/doc subdirectory
          contain the reference documentation for the version 0.93a and
          the additional old Beta material, which is still necessary to use...)
dvips   : PostScript header files
generic : TeX generic sources
latex   : LaTeX wrappers
obsolete: documentation and sources for the version 0.93a and the
          additional old Beta material

4.2 - PSTricks core files

The generic subdirectory contain the core files of PSTricks (and the latex
subdirectory contain the corresponding wrapper files). By alphabetic order:

multido : loop facility for Generic TeX -> /macros/generic/multido
pst-3d  : 3d projections
pst-char: stroking and filling character paths
pst-coil: coils and zigzags
pst-eps : conversion of PSTricks graphics to EPS files
pst-fill: fillings and tilings
pst-grad: gradients
pst-node: nodes and node connections
pst-plot: plots
pst-text: texts along a path
pst-tree: trees

In addition, there is a LaTeX package `pst-all' in the latex subdirectory,
which loads all of the PSTricks components, plus `pstricks.sty', in one go
(`pstricks' require also a color.cfg file defined; make sure you do _not_ load
the `color' package by itself). The only reason for _not_ using this is that
it uses extra memory for facilities you might not need.


5 - Documentation
    -------------

There is NOT a complete up to date _reference_ documentation for PSTricks 97.
You must still refer to the reference documentation of the version 0.93a and
the additional old Beta material, available in the obsolete/doc subdirectory
(it was put in the "obsolete" subdirectory to clearly show that it is not up
to date nor supported by actual mainteners). Take care to notice what has
changed in additional old Beta documents (betadoc?.ps files) comparing to the
ones for 0.93a version (pst-usr?.ps files).

Denis Girou maintain a list of known errors in both version 0.93a and
additional old Beta documentations, in obsolete/doc/pst-doc.err

A large chapter of "The LaTeX Graphics Companion", by Goossens, Rahtz and
Mittelbach, Addison Wesley 1997, is dedicated to PSTricks, and this
currently forms the only systematic description of the integration of
the basic PSTricks and the beta additions of 1993. The source of all examples
from that book is also on CTAN/info/lgc and most of them in the doc/lgc
subdirectory of the PST97 distribution. The second edition of this book
has no more a chapter of PSTricks.

There is also a supporting set of Web pages, actually maintained
by Denis Girou, on http://www.tug.org/applications/PSTricks with various
pointers and examples classified by categories.

And there is also a mailing list devoted to discussions on PSTricks usage.
The informations to subscribe to this list and to consult the archives can
be found on the Web page.

--
Denis Girou, Sebastian Rahtz and Herbert Voss (updated July 01, 2006)
