$Id: pic2graph.man,v 1.5 2003/10/28 07:46:24 wlemb Exp $
 This documentation is released to the public domain.
 PIC2GRAPH @MAN1EXT@ "@MDATE@" "Groff Version @VERSION@"
 pic2graph 
 NAME
pic2graph - convert a PIC diagram into a cropped image
.
.

 SYNOPSIS
 pic2graph [
 -unsafe ]
[
 -format  fmt ]
[
 -eqn  delim ]
.
.

 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
 @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@) constructs, so it can be used for generating images of mathematical
formulae.


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.


The PIC language is fully documented in "Making Pictures With GNU
PIC", a document which is part of the
 groff (@MAN1EXT@) distribution.


Your input PIC code should not be wrapped with the .PS and .PE macros
that normally guard it within 
 groff (@MAN1EXT@)  macros.


The output image will be a black-on-white graphic clipped to the
smallest possible bounding box that contains all the black pixels.
By specifying command-line options to be passed to 
 convert (1) you can give it a border, set the background transparent, set the
image's pixel density, or perform other useful transformations.


This program uses 
 @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),  @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),  groff (@MAN1EXT@),  gs (1), and the ImageMagick
 convert (1) program.
These programs must be installed on your system and accessible on your
$PATH for pic2graph to work.
.
.

 OPTIONS

 -unsafe Run 
 @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@) and
 groff (@MAN1EXT@) in the `unsafe' mode enabling the PIC macro
 sh to execute arbitrary commands. The default is to forbid this.


 -format  fmt Specify an output format; the default is PNG (Portable Network Graphics).
Any format that
 convert (1) can emit is supported.


 -eqn  delim Change the fencepost characters that delimit 
 @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@) directives
 ( $ and
 $ , by default). This option requires an argument, but an empty string is
accepted as a directive to disable
 @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@) processing.


Command-line switches and arguments not listed above are passed to
 convert (1). .
.

 FILES
 \w'@MACRODIR@/eqnrc'u+2n
 @MACRODIR@/eqnrc The 
 @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@) initialization file.
.
.

 ENVIRONMENT

 GROFF_TMPDIR The directory in which temporary files will be created.
If this is not set
 pic2graph searches the environment variables
 \%TMPDIR ,  TMP , and
 TEMP (in that order).
Otherwise, temporary files will be created in
 /tmp . .
.

 "SEE ALSO"
 eqn2graph (@MAN1EXT@),  grap2graph (@MAN1EXT@),  @g@pic (@MAN1EXT@),  @g@eqn (@MAN1EXT@),  groff (@MAN1EXT@),  gs (1),  convert (1). .
.

 AUTHOR
Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>, based on a recipe by W. Richard Stevens.
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