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## NAME

mpost - MetaPost, a system for creating graphics

## SYNOPSIS

mpost

mpost --dvitomp dvifile [\fB.dvi\fP]

## DESCRIPTION

*(MP interprets the *(MP language and produces PostScript (EPS) or Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) pictures. The *(MP language is similar to Knuth's *(MF with additional features for including tex (1)or troff (1)commands and accessing features of PostScript not found in *(MF.

*(MP is normally used with some preloaded macros, and it will use its executable name as the name of the preload file to use. For example, when called as mpost the mpost.mp file is used, which is identical to plain.mp. When the --ini option is given, preloading does not happen.

The commands given on the command line to the *(MP program are passed to it as the first input line. (But it is often easier to type extended arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble up or misinterpret *(MP's favorite symbols, like semicolons, unless you quote them.) The normal usage is to say mpost figs to process the file figs.mp . The basename of figs becomes the ``jobname'', and is used in forming output file names. If no file is named, the jobname becomes mpout . The default extension, .mp , can be overridden by specifying an extension explicitly.

When the --dvitomp option is given, *(MP acts as DVI-to-MPX converter only. See dvitomp (1) for details.

This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for this version of *(MP can be found in the User Manual that should have been installed along with the program and is also available from http://tug.org/metapost. See the FILES section below.

The *(MP language is similar to *(MF, but the manual assumes no knowledge of *(MF. *(MP does not have bitmap output commands or *(MF's online display mechanism.

## FILES

plain.mp The standard preload file.

mfplain.mp The *(MF-compatible preload file.

$TEXMFMAIN/metapost/base/*.mp The standard *(MP macros included in the original distribution.

$TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/* Various tables for handling included tex and troff .

$TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/trfonts.map Table of corresponding font names for troff and PostScript.

psfonts.map Table of corresponding font names for tex and PostScript.

$TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/* The *(MP manual and tutorial source, also including sample figures

## SUGGESTED READING

Donald E. Knuth, The \*(MF\^book (Volume C of Computers and Typesetting ), Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13445-4.
TUGboat (the journal of the *(TX Users Group).

## SEE ALSO

dvitomp (1), epstopdf (1), mf (1), mptopdf (1), tex (1)

## AUTHORS

*(MP was designed by John D. Hobby, incorporating algorithms from *(MF by Donald E. Knuth. It was originally implemented on Unix, incorporating system-dependent routines from web2cwhile not relying on it except for the actual *(WB-to-C translator.

Ulrik Vieth adapted *(MP to take advantage of the advanced path searching features in more recent versions of web2c and worked towards fully integrating *(MP into the canonical Unix *(TX distribution.

The current, CWEB based version of MetaPost is maintained by Taco Hoekwater.

The manual and tutorial are maintained by Stephan Hennig and Troy Henderson.

## BUGS

Email bug reports to metapost@tug.org.