Arch Linux

modulus

Member

Registered: 2007-11-05

Posts: 14

export from Xfig for pdflatex

Anyone out there know all about Xfig and pdflatex?

I am having a bad time trying to get annotated figures through pdflatex.  I am restricted to pdflatex because it's for a presentation using beamer document class.  Anyway, xfig won't export images to "combined PDF/LaTex".  In the Xfig console:

Error during EXPORT.  Messages:
gs: error while loading shared libraries: libgssapi.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Error in ghostscript command
command was: gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sAutoRotatePages=None -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=square.pdf - -c quit

I installed ghostscript, but when it comes to library problems I'm pretty lost - other than...

$ slocate libgssapi
/usr/lib/libgssapi.a
/usr/lib/libgssapi.so
/usr/lib/libgssapi.so.1
/usr/lib/libgssapi.so.1.0.0

(Maybe I shoulda stuck this in Newbie Corner?:|)Please can somebody help me get this working?  I will be very grateful

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

Try to update more often: pacman -Syu

---

1000

modulus

Member

Registered: 2007-11-05

Posts: 14

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

Thanks, I think the problem has reduced!* Now I can export to pdf - but still no typeset annotations In Xfig's error console, after trying to export "combined PDF/LaTex" I get

Error during EXPORT. Messages:
  Argument -b unknown to latex driver.

Maybe this is something to do with texlive, do you think? I recently upgraded from tetex.

*...I think - see Newbie Corner thread "Core Dump"

Last edited by modulus (2007-11-25 04:33:44)

colinzhengj

Member

From: Cambridge, MA

Registered: 2007-03-20

Posts: 23

Website

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

What's your version of transfig? Can you paste the .fig file you want to convert?
IMHO fig->combined PDF/Latex doesn't need ghostscript at all. transfig simply puts the latex code (annotation) in a file which includes the EPS; that file you will include in your latex document.

If everything fails, try Ipe as a replacement for xfig.

modulus

Member

Registered: 2007-11-05

Posts: 14

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

transfig 3.2.4-2
The only .fig I've tried so far is just an oblong, with a bit of LaTex maths code '$\varepsilon_{x}$' beside it, as a test.
Hey thanks for the recommendation, maybe I'll try Ipe.

ezacaria

Member

Registered: 2007-12-10

Posts: 113

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

Hello,

I'm maybe going a bit off-topic, but this is about something similar with exporting.

There is a small problem with exporting to ps/LaTeX. It comes from the fact that transfig sends some lines to stderr without there being an error, and xfig believes that there was en error in the conversion process, and displays some messages. There is no actual error, the conversion works fine. I patched the code and built my local version, and the annoying messages dissapeared. I believe that this has been reported elsewhere, but we do not have it fixed in Arch.

The patch was in ./src/transfig.3.2.5/fig2dev/dev/genpdf.c as follows:

88c88
< fprintf(stderr,"here pstex_file[0] = %d\n",pstex_file[0]);
---
> /*fprintf(stderr,"here pstex_file[0] = %d\n",pstex_file[0]);*/ /* disable, since it causes warning in xfig */
101c101
< fprintf(stderr,"end picture\n");
---
> /*fprintf(stderr,"end picture\n");*//* disable, since it causes warning in xfig */

I'm wondering if someone has had the same problem?

Thanks!

Eduardo

aneiser

Member

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 59

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

Hello,

I'm maybe going a bit off-topic, but this is about something similar with exporting.

There is a small problem with exporting to ps/LaTeX. It comes from the fact that transfig sends some lines to stderr without there being an error, and xfig believes that there was en error in the conversion process, and displays some messages. There is no actual error, the conversion works fine. I patched the code and built my local version, and the annoying messages dissapeared. I believe that this has been reported elsewhere, but we do not have it fixed in Arch.

The patch was in ./src/transfig.3.2.5/fig2dev/dev/genpdf.c as follows:
I'm wondering if someone has had the same problem?

Thanks!

Eduardo

Yes I have exaclty problem but in the file genpstex.c, here is my patch:

--- old/fig2dev/dev/genpstex.c  2005-12-19 02:57:40.000000000 +0100
+++ new/fig2dev/dev/genpstex.c  2009-03-16 16:18:06.000000000 +0100
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@
 F_compound     *objects;
 {
        /* Put PostScript Image if any*/
-fprintf(stderr,"here pstex_file[0] = %d\n",pstex_file[0]);
+/*fprintf(stderr,"here pstex_file[0] = %d\n",pstex_file[0]);*/
         if (pstex_file[0] != '\0') {
                fprintf(tfp, "\\begin{picture}(0,0)%%\n");
 /* newer includegraphics directive suggested by Stephen Harker 1/13/99 */
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@
 #else
                fprintf(tfp, "\\special{psfile=%s}%%\n",pstex_file);
 #endif
-fprintf(stderr,"end picture\n");
+/*fprintf(stderr,"end picture\n");*/
                fprintf(tfp, "\\end{picture}%%\n");
        }
         genlatex_start(objects);

I will write the maintainer an email.

ezacaria

Member

Registered: 2007-12-10

Posts: 113

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

Hello,

Glad to see I was not the only one

When I read my post again, I realized that I also meant genpstex.c, because I was exporting to "combined PS/LaTeX" and not "combined PDF/LaTeX". So I made a typo, maybe from bash autocompletion

Thanks for contacting the maintainer!

Best regards,

Eduardo

aneiser

Member

Registered: 2008-07-21

Posts: 59

Re: export from Xfig for pdflatex

Thanks for contacting the maintainer!

Yes, and he replied and now there's a bug report here http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/13825.
I also contacted the maintainer of the upstream xfig stuff, since there was no bug tracker... So, let's negotiate all that stuff in Archlinux's bugtracker, I propose.