Name

pic2graph - convert a pic diagram into a cropped image

Synopsis

Description

pic2graph reads a pic(1) program from the standard input and writes an image file, by default in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format, to the standard output. It furthermore translates eqn(1) constructs, so it can be used for generating images of mathematical formulae.

The input PIC code should not be wrapped with the .PS and .PE/.PF macros that normally guard it within groff(1) documents.

Arguments not recognized by pic2graph are passed to the ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick program convert(1). By specifying these, you can give your image a border, set the image's pixel density, or perform other useful transformations.

The output image is clipped using convert's -trim option to the smallest possible bounding box that contains all the black pixels.

Options

--help displays a usage message, while -v and --version show version information; all exit afterward.

-eqn delimiters

Use delimiters as the opening and closing characters that delimit eqn directives; the default is “$$”. The option argument delimiters should be a two-character string, but an empty string ("") is accepted as a directive to disable eqn processing.

-format output-format

Write the image in output-format, which must be understood by convert; the default is PNG.

-unsafe

Run groff in unsafe mode, enabling the PIC command sh to execute arbitrary Unix shell commands. The groff default is to forbid this.

Environment

GROFF_TMPDIR

TMPDIR

TMP

TEMP

These environment variables are searched in the given order to determine the directory where temporary files will be created. If none are set, /tmp is used.

Authors

pic2graph was written by Eric S. Raymond, based on a recipe by W. Richard Stevens.

See also

W. Richard Stevens, Turning PIC into HTML

eqn2graph(1), grap2graph(1), pic(1), eqn(1), groff(1), convert(1)