Table of Contents

NAME

xfig - Facility for Interactive Generation of figures under X11

SYNOPSIS

xfig [options] [file]

DESCRIPTION

Xfig is a menu-driven tool that allows the user to draw and manipulate objects interactively in an X window. It runs under X version 11 release 4 or higher and requires a three-button mouse. file specifies the name of a file to be edited. The description of objects in the file will be read at the start of xfig.

The TransFig package is used to print the output from xfig.

Note for previous xfig users:

The f2p and f2ps translators have been phased out because the TransFig package from Micah Beck is a more general purpose translator for more graphics languages. The TransFig package can be used as a back-end processor to xfig to produce various types of output:

LaTeX -
fig2dev -L latex translates xfig to LaTeX picture environment commands which can be processed along with other LaTeX commands.
Postscript -
fig2dev -L ps produces a PostScript output.
Pic -
fig2dev -L pic produces a pic output.
PiCTeX -
fig2dev -L pictex produces PiCTeX output. This contains macros that can be used with the PiCTeX environment under TeX or LaTeX.
Others -
fig2dev has options for these other languages: box, epic, eepic, and eepicemu.

The TransFig package is available from the contributed software on the distribution tapes of X11 Release 5 from MIT and from ftp.cs.cornell.edu (directory /pub/fig) and sun.soe.clarkson.edu (directory /pub/transfig) via anonymous ftp. It is also available by mail from the Clarkson archive server. To find out about using the server, send the one-line message "help" to archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu.

Note: TransFig versions 2.1.4 and later support color output for PostScript.

OPTIONS

-ri[ght]
Change the position of the side panel window to the right of the canvas window (default: left).
-le[ft]
Change the position of the side panel window to the left of the canvas window.
-mo[nochrome]
Use black and white only.
-L[andscape]
Make xfig come up in landscape mode (10" x 8"). This is the default.
-P[ortrait]
Make xfig come up in portrait mode (8" x 9").
-pw[idth] units
Make xfig come up units wide (where units are either cm or in).
-ph[eight] units
Make xfig come up units high (where units are either cm or in).
-tr[ack]
Turn on cursor (mouse) tracking arrows (default).
-not[rack]
Turn off cursor (mouse) tracking arrows.
-inc[hes]
Make inches the unit of choice (default).
-me[tric]
Make centimeters the unit of choice.
-inv[verse]
Use inverse video (white on black).
-fg color
Use color as the foreground color and default color for objects. -bg color Use color as the background color for the canvas and buttons.
-de[bug]
Turn on debugging mode. Prints various debugging messages like font names etc.
-nor[mal] font
Cause the font used for the message panel and ruler numbers to be font. This font is also used on the canvas when the selected font is not available in an X11 font (default = fixed).
-bu[tton] font
Cause the font used for most buttons to be font (default = 6x13).
-bol[d] font
Cause the font used for displaying confirmation messages to be font (default = 8x13bold).
-startf[ontsize] pointsize
Set the default font size for text objects (default = 12pt).
-startp[sFont] font
Set the starting font name for Postscript fonts.
-startl[atexFont] font
Set the starting font name for LaTeX fonts.
-sh[owallbuttons]
Show all the xfig indicator buttons instead of only those relevant to the current drawing mode. Normally, the buttons line width, area-fill, grid mode, text size, etc. are only visible when they are relevant to the current drawing mode. The -showallbuttons option makes all of the indicator buttons visible at all times. This takes up more screen real estate, but allows the user to see all settable parameters.
-internalBW width
Use lines of width width between all buttons and panels (default = 1).
-lat[exfonts]
Start xfig with LaTeX font selection. Normally, the PostScript fonts are available as the default. This flag selects the LaTeX fonts to start.
-sp[ecialtext]
Start xfig with the special text mode for text objects.
-sc[alablefonts]
Allows use of the X11R5 scalable fonts.
-k[eyFile] compose-key-file
Use compose-key-file instead of CompKeyDB for compose key database. This file must be in the xfig libarary directory, usually /usr/local/lib/xfig.

GRAPHICAL OBJECTS

The objects in xfig are divided into primitive objects and compound objects. The primitive objects are: ARC, CIRCLE, CLOSED SPLINE, ELLIPSE, POLYLINE, POLYGON, ENCAPSULATED POSTSCRIPT, BOX, ARC-BOX, SPLINE, and TEXT.

A primitive object can be moved, rotated, flipped vertically or horizontally, scaled, copied, aligned within a compound object or erased. The TEXT primitive may not be flipped. It may be rotated but only the markers show the rotation (on-screen). Text IS rotated on PostScript output. The attributes of any primitive object can be edited using a popup panel (discussed below), so you can, for instance, set the position of an object manually.

A compound object is composed of primitive objects. The primitive objects that constitute a compound can not be individually modified, but they can be manipulated as an entity; a compound can be moved, rotated, flipped vertically or horizontally, scaled, copied or erased. A compound that contains any boxes, arc-boxes, ellipses or circles may only be rotated by 90 degrees.

Regular polygons may be created using a special drawing mode, but a general POLYGON is created as a result, which may then be modified, i.e. the individual vertices may be moved if desired.

DISPLAY WINDOWS

Nine regions comprise the display area of xfig: the command region, top ruler, side ruler, drawing mode region, editing mode region, message region, indicator region with buttons to set and show current line thickness, line style, color, area-fill gray color and several other settings, mouse function indicator region and canvas region. (The mouse function indicator region was inspired by the UPS debugger from the University of Kent.) The drawing and editing mode regions may be placed (together) to the left or right of the the canvas window (default: left).

COMMAND PANEL FUNCTIONS

Quit
Exit from xfig, discarding the figure. If the figure has been modified and not saved, the user will be asked to confirm the action, by clicking the left button on a confirm/cancel popup menu.
Delete ALL
Delete all objects from the canvas window (may be undone).
Undo
Undo the last object creation, deletion or modification.
Redraw
Redraw the canvas.
Paste
Paste the object previously copied into the cut/paste file into the current figure (at its original position).
File
Left mouse button pops up a panel which contains several file-related functions:

Current Filename
This is a label widget showing the current filename. It is automatically updated from the Filename Ascii widget when the Load operation is executed, either by pressing the Load button or pressing return in the Filename window.
Filename
This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which contains the current filename. Pressing return in the Filename window will Load the file and update the Current Filename widget.
(File) Alternatives
Pressing the left mouse button on a filename in the file alternatives window will select that file by copying the filename into Filename window.
Filename Mask
A wildcard mask may be typed into this editable AsciiTextWidget to restrict the search of filenames to a subset ala the ls command. Pressing return in this window will automatically rescan the current directory. This string may be set by setting the resource *file_panel*mask*string.
Current Directory
This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which shows the current directory. It may be modified by the user to manually set a directory name. When return is pressed in this window the directory specified is scanned for files matching the Filenamemask, if any.

The ~ (tilde) character may be used to specify a user's home directory, ala unix shell tilde expansion.

(Directory) Alternatives
Pressing the left mouse button on a directory name in the directory alternatives list will do a "change directory" to that directory.

Pressing the right mouse button in either the file or Directory Alternatives window will do a "change directory" to the parent directory.

Home
This button will change the current directory to the user's home directory.
Rescan
This button will rescan the current directory.
Cancel
This pops down the file panel without making any changes to the directory or file name.
Save
Save the current contents of the canvas in the file specified in the File menu item. If the file already exists a confirmation popup menu will appear asking the user to confirm or cancel the save.
Load
The current contents of the canvas are cleared and the figure is read from the filename specified in the File menu item. This file will become the current file. Pressing return in the file name window will also load the file.

A popup message window will appear and diagnostic messages will be written if xfig changes any "illegal" object values to legal values. For example, older versions of xfig were lax about initializing unused parts such as depth, and would produce very large, random values. Xfig now will "clean up" bad values and inform you when it does so. Also, if you read in an older file format, xfig will inform you that it is converting it to the current format for that version of xfig.

This window can be popped down by clicking the mouse button on the Dismiss button. The messages will be cleared before reading a new file.

Merge Read
Read figure from the filename specified in the File menu item and merge it with the figure already shown on the canvas. The filename in the File will revert to the previous filename after this function is completed.

See Load above for a description of the popup message window.

Right mouse button invokes Save function without popping up the file panel.

Export
Will let you export the figure to an output file in one of several formats. Left mouse button pops up a directory browser widget and a menu with several export-related functions:

Magnification
This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which contains the magnification to use when translating figure to the output language.
Orientation
This button will toggle the output orientation between Landscape (horizontal) and Portrait (vertical). The default orientation is the same as the mode that xfig was started with.
Justification
This window will only be sensitive when the language selected is "ps" (PostScript). You may choose that the figure is flush left or centered in the output file.
Language
The translation language to use for xfig output when output is directed to a file. The default is PostScript. The figure may be saved as an X11 bitmap by choosing Xbitmap as the output language. The bitmap is created from the figure, the size of which is determined by the enclosing rectangle of all the figure plus a small border.
Default Output Filename
This is read-only AsciiTextWidget which contains the filename that will be used to write output to a file if there is no name specified in Output File. The default is the figure name plus an extension that reflects the output language used.
Output Filename
This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which contains the filename to use to write output to a file. Pressing return in this window will Export the file.
(File) Alternatives
Pressing the left mouse button on a filename in the file alternatives window will select that file by copying the filename into Filename window.
Filename Mask
A wildcard mask may be typed into this editable AsciiTextWidget to restrict the search of filenames to a subset ala the ls command. Pressing return in this window will automatically rescan the current directory. This string may be set by setting the resource *export_panel*mask*string.
Current Directory
This is an editable AsciiTextWidget which shows the current directory. It may be modified by the user to manually set a directory name. When return is pressed in this window the directory specified is scanned for files matching the Filenamemask, if any.

The ~ (tilde) character may be used to specify a user's home directory, ala unix shell tilde expansion.

(Directory) Alternatives
Pressing the left mouse button on a directory name in the directory alternatives list will do a "change directory" to that directory.

Pressing the right mouse button in either the file or Directory Alternatives window will do a "change directory" to the parent directory.

Home
This button will change the current directory to the user's home directory.
Rescan
This button will rescan the current directory.
Cancel
This button will pop down the print menu without doing any print operation.
Export
This button writes the figure to the file using the selected language. If the file already exists, a confirmation window will popup to ask the user to confirm the write or cancel. Pressing return in the Output Filename window will also Export the file.

Right mouse button invokes Export function without popping up the export panel.

Print
Left mouse button pops up a menu with several print-related functions:

Magnification
This is an AsciiTextWidget which contains the magnification to use when translating figure to the output language.
Orientation
This button will toggle the output orientation between Landscape (horizontal) and Portrait (vertical). The default orientation is the same as the mode that xfig was started with.
Justification
This button will bring up a sub-menu from which you may choose center or flush left to justify the figure on the page. The default is flush left.
Printer
This is an AsciiTextWidget which contains the printer to use if output is directed to a printer. The name of the printer may be set setting the resource *printer*string.
Cancel
This button will pop down the print menu without doing any print operation.
Print
This button sends the figure to the printer. Note that the figure that is printed is what you see on the canvas, not necessarily the figure file. I.e., if you haven't saved the figure since the last changes, the figure from the canvas is printed. Xfig writes the figure to a temporary file to do this. The name of the file is /tmp/xfig-printPID, where PID is the process ID of xfig.

Right mouse button invokes Print function without popping up the print panel.

INDICATOR PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

The indicator panel contains buttons to set certain drawing parameters, such as line thickness, canvas grid, rotation angle etc. All of the buttons use the same mouse buttons for setting values. Pressing the left mouse button on the indicator will pop up a panel in which either a value may be typed (e.g. for a line thickness) or the mouse may be clicked on one of several buttons (e.g. for grid style or font name). For those that expect a value, pressing return in the value part of the window will set the new value and pop down the menu.

Pressing the middle mouse button on an indicator will decrement the value (e.g. for line thickness) or cycle through the options in one direction (e.g. font names), while pressing the right mouse button will increment the value or cycle through the options in the other direction.

ZOOM SCALE
The canvas zoom scale may be set/increased/decreased with this button. The zoom scale is displayed within the zoom button. Ruler, grid and linewidth are scaled, too. Pressing the middle button will decrease the zoom factor by 1.0 unless it is less than 1.0 already in which case it will reduce to the nearest 0.25. Pressing the right button will increase the zoom factor by 1.0 unless it is less than 1.0 in which case it will increase it to the nearest 0.25. Pressing the control key and the right mouse button together will set the zoom scale to 1.

The figure may also be zoomed by defining a zoom rectangle by pressing the control key and left mouse button together. This will define one corner of the zoom rectangle. Move the mouse and click the left button again to define the opposite corner of the zoom rectangle.

GRID MODE
With this button the user may select no grid, 1/4 inch (5mm in metric mode) grid or 1/2 inch (10mm) grid.
POINT POSITION
This button controls the coarseness of object placement on the canvas. The options are arbitrary placement, 1/16 inch (2mm in metric mode), 1/4 inch (5mm) or 1/2 inch (10mm). This allows the user to easily place objects in horizontal or vertical alignment.

This also restricts which objects may be "picked up" by the mouse when editing. If a corner of an object is not positioned on the canvas on a multiple of the point positioning resolution you may not be able to pick it. If this happens, a black square will temporarily appear above the mouse cursor. This square will also appear anytime the user tries to pick a nonexistent object.

ROTATION ANGLE
The rotation angle for rotating objects may be set/increased/decreased with this button. Note that not all objects may be rotated, and certain objects may only be rotated by certain angles. Pressing the middle or right button will decrease(increase) the angle in steps of 15 degrees. To select other angles, press the left button and enter the angle in the popup menu.
DEPTH
The depth at which new objects will be created may be set/increased/decreased with this button.
NUMBER OF POLYGON SIDES
The number of sides used in creating a REGULAR POLYGON is set with this button.
SMART-LINKS MODE
This button controls the smart-links mode. When turned on, lines which link box-like objects together (henceforth called links) are treated specially when one of the box-like objects is moved. When set to MOVE mode, the end point of the link which touches (or is very near) the perimeter of the box is moved with the box so that the box and the end point remain linked. When set to SLIDE mode, the end segment of the link slides so that the box remains linked and the angle of the end segment is maintained. This is useful for keeping the last segment of a link horizontal or vertical.

(At the moment, this mode only works for the MOVE and COPY functions and only works for POLYLINE links and box-like objects. Another limitation at the moment is that if both ends of a link touch the box being operated on, only one end of the link will be adjusted.)

VERTICAL ALIGN
This sets the vertical alignment mode for the ALIGN button in the editing mode panel. The choices are no vertical alignment, align to top edge, middle or bottom edge of compound. The HORIZONTAL ALIGN and VERTICAL ALIGN indicator settings are used together to align objects inside a compound.
HORIZONTAL ALIGN
This sets the horizontal alignment mode for the ALIGN button in the editing mode panel. The choices are no horizontal alignment, align to left edge, middle or right edge of compound. The HORIZONTAL ALIGN and VERTICAL ALIGN indicator settings are used together to align objects inside a compound.
ANGLE GEOMETRY
The following settings are available to restrict the drawing angle of line segments in POLYLINES, POLYGONS and SPLINES.
UNRESTRICTED
Allow lines to be drawn with any slope.
LATEX LINE
Allow lines to be drawn only at slopes which can be handled by LaTeX picture environment lines: slope = x/y, where x,y are integers in the range [-6,6].
LATEX VECTOR
Allow lines to be drawn only at slopes which can be handled by LaTeX picture environment vectors: slope = x/y, where x,y are integers in the range [-4,4].
MANHATTAN-MOUNTAIN
Allow lines to be drawn in the horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction only.
MANHATTAN
Enforce drawing of lines in the horizontal and vertical direction only.
MOUNTAIN
Enforce drawing of only diagonal lines.

FILL STYLE
This button allows the user to select the area fill darkness (grey scale) for all objects except TEXT and ENCAPSULATED POSTSCRIPT, or to turn off area fill altogether.
COLOR
The user may select one of eight predefined colors to draw with, or select that the default (-fg) color is to be used. The eight colors are black, blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow and white. Note that TransFig versions 2.1.4 and later support color output for PostScript. On monochrome screens the objects are created with the selected color, but black is used to draw the objects on the canvas.
LINE WIDTH
The width of lines may be selected with this button. Zero width lines may be drawn for the purpose of having filled areas without outlines.
LINE STYLE
The choices for line style are solid, dashed and dotted. Once created, a dashed or dotted line may be edited to change the length of dashes or the spacing of dots respectively. The dash length and dot gap can be changed from the default using the popup menu.
BOX CURVE
The radius of the corners on ARC-BOX objects may be set with this button.
ARROW MODE
This button selects the auto-arrow mode for drawing lines. The options are no arrow heads, backward-pointing arrow head, forward-pointing arrow head or both. If one or both arrow head modes are turned on, then arrow heads are automatically drawn when drawing POLYLINE, SPLINE or ARC objects.
TEXT JUSTIFICATION
The adjustment of text may be set to left, center or right justification.
TEXT SIZE
The text size may be set/increased/decreased with this button.
TEXT STEP
The interline spacing of text may be set/increased/decreased with this button. The number displayed gives the multiple of the font height that will be placed between lines on hitting <return>.
TEXT FONT
This button allows a selection of 35 fonts available for most Apple PostScript printers. There are two buttons at the top of the menu. The cancel button pops down the menu without changing the current font. The use latex fonts will switch the menu to the LaTeX font choices. When the LaTeX font menu is up, besides a cancel button there is a button to switch back to the PostScript fonts.

The name of the font is printed in the font itself so that one may see what that font looks like. If a corresponding X11 font exists, new text is created on the canvas using that font. xfig uses the size of X11 font closest to that selected by the font size button. If the X11 font doesn't exist, xfig uses the font selected by the "-normal" option. To abort selection of a font, click the left mouse button on cancel.

DRAWING AND EDITING MODE PANELS

Icons in the drawing and editing mode panel windows represent object manipulation functions, modes and other drawing or modification aids. Manipulation functions are selected by positioning the cursor over it and clicking the left mouse button. The selected icon is highlighted, and a message describing its function appears in the message window.

DRAWING MODE PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

The drawing mode panel contains buttons used to create the various xfig objects. Once the drawing mode is selected, the object is created by moving the mouse to the point on the canvas where the object is to be placed and pressing and releasing the left button. After that the mouse is moved to the second point and the left button is again pressed for the next point. For those objects which may have more than two points (e.g. a line), the left button may be pressed for each successive point, and the middle button must be pressed to finish the object. To create a single point using the POLYLINE button, press and release the middle button. For the ARC object, which requires exactly three points the left button is used for all three points.

At any time the right button may be pressed to cancel the creation of the object.

ARC
Create an arc. Specify three points using the left button.
BOX
Create rectangular boxes. Start and finish with the left button.
ARC-BOX
Create rectangular boxes with rounded corners. Start and finish with the left button. The radius of the corners is selected by the BOX CURVE button.
CIRCLE
Create circles by specifying their radii or diameters. Click the left button on the center of the circle and drag the mouse until the desired radius or diameter is attained. Click the left button again to finish the circle.
ELLIPSE
Create ellipses using the same procedure as for the drawing of circles.
ENCAPSULATED POSTSCRIPT OBJECT (EPS)
Click the left button on either the upper-left or lower-right corner for the EPS object and finish by clicking the left button again on the opposite corner. The EDIT popup panel will appear and the file name of the EPS object may be entered. After pressing DONE or APPLY the bitmap part of the EPS object will appear in the box just created. If no EPS file is available yet or no name is entered or there is no preview bitmap in the EPS file, pressing DONE will pop down the edit panel and the word <empty> or the EPS file name will remain in the EPS box. Later, when the name of the EPS file is known or the file is available, you may re-read the EPS file using the popup edit panel and the bitmap part of the EPS file will replace the name in the box.
If you want the original size of the EPS object, press the "Use orig size" button and the eps bitmap will enlarge or shrink to the size specified in the preview bitmap of the EPS file. If you want the EPS object to be approximately the size of the rectangle specified with the mouse but want the aspect ratio to be same as the original, press either "Shrink to orig" or "Enlarge to orig" buttons. You must press the APPLY button to see these effects.
INTERPOLATED SPLINE
Create (cubic spline) spline objects. Enter control vectors in the same way as for creation of a POLYLINE object. At least three points (two control vectors) must be entered. The spline will pass through the entered points.
POLYLINE
Create polylines (line segments connecting a sequence of points). Enter points by clicking the left button at the desired positions on the canvas window. Click the middle button to finish.
POLYGON
Same as POLYLINE except that a line segment is drawn connecting the first and last points entered.
REGULAR POLYGON
The number of sides is first selected with the NUM SIDES button in the indicator panel. Then the left button is clicked on the center and the mouse dragged to the desired size. The object may be rotated as it is being created by moving the mouse up or down relative to the starting point. Click the left button to finish.
CLOSED INTERPOLATED SPLINE
Create closed or periodic splines. The function is similar to POLYGON except that a closed interpolated spline is drawn. The spline will pass through the points (knots).
CLOSED SPLINE
Create closed or periodic spline objects. The function is similar to POLYGON except that a closed spline will be drawn instead of polygon. The entered points are just control points; i.e., the spline will not pass any of these points.
SPLINE
Create (quadratic spline) spline objects. Enter control vectors in the same way as for creation of a POLYLINE object. At least three points (two control vectors) must be entered. The spline will only pass through the two end points.
TEXT
Create text strings. Click the left button at the desired position on the canvas window, then enter text from the keyboard. Text may be pasted from the PRIMARY cut buffer (xterm cut/paste buffer) by pressing F18 function key or any key/button defined in the translation table for the canvas. See the default Fig.ad file for example. Text is drawn using the current font, font size and justification settings. A DEL or ^H (backspace) will delete a character, while a ^X will erase the entire line. Finish by clicking the middle button or typing the <return> key. If <return> is used, the text pointer automatically moves to the next "line", a distance of the font height times the value in the TEXT STEP button, and text input mode is re-entered. To finish text fully, click the middle button or choose any panel button that changes modes (e.g. box, save, etc). To edit text, click on an existing text string with the left button. Insertion of characters will take place at that point. Or, use the popup EDIT mode to modify the text.

Eight-bit characters may be entered using the meta (compose) key. For example, to create an "a umlaut", hold down the meta key while pressing the letter "a", then press " (quote). To create a "c cedilla", use <meta>c followed by comma. The following is a list of all special characters available using the meta key:

Keys    Character Name

!!    upside-down exclamation point
??    upside-down question mark
C/    cent sign
L-    British pound
OX    currency
Y-    yen
__    broken vertical bar
SO    section
""    dieresis
CO    copyright
RO    registered trademark
_a    ordfeminine
_o    ordmasculine
<<    guillemotleft
>>    guillemotright
-|    notsign
--    hyphen
+-    plusminus
^-    macron
^*    degree
^.    periodcentered
^1    onesuperior
^2    twosuperior
^3    threesuperior
14    onequarter
12    onehalf
34    threequarters
\    acute
**    multiply
-:    division
/u    mu
P!    paragraph
A`    A accent grave
A'    A accent acute
A^    A accent circumflex
A~    A accent tilde
A"    A dieresis
A*    A ring
AE    AE
a`    a accent grave
a'    a accent acute
a^    a accent circumflex
a~    a accent tilde
a"    a dieresis
a*    a ring
ae    ae
C,    C cedilla
c,    c cedilla
D-    Eth
d-    eth
E`    E accent grave
E'    E accent acute
E^    E accent circumflex
E"    E dieresis
e`    e accent grave
e'    e accent acute
e^    e accent circumflex
e"    e dieresis
I`    I accent grave
I'    I accent acute
I^    I accent circumflex
I"    I accent dieresis
i`    i accent grave
i'    i accent acute
i^    i accent circumflex
i"    i dieresis
N~    N tilde
n~    n tilde
O`    O accent grave
O'    O accent acute
O^    O accent circumflex
O~    O accent tilde
O"    O dieresis
O/    O slash
o`    o accent grave
o/    o accent acute
o^    o accent circumflex
o~    o accent tilde
o"    o dieresis
o/    o slash
P|    Thorn
p|    thorn
ss    German ss (s-zed)
U`    U accent grave
U'    U accent acute
U^    U accent circumflex
U"    U dieresis
u`    u accent grave
u'    u accent acute
u^    u accent circumflex
u"    u dieresis
Y'    Y accent acute
y'    y accent acute
y"    y dieresis

EDITING MODE PANEL COMMAND DESCRIPTIONS

When a button in the editing mode panel is pressed, any objects that may be affected by that editing operation will show their corner markers. Only those objects may be affected by the particular edit mode. In cases where two edit modes exist for one button, it may be that the corner markers will appear for objects that may be affected by one button but not the other.

SELECTING OBJECTS

When multiple objects have points in common, e.g.
two boxes that
touch at one corner, only one object can be selected by clicking on that point. To select other objects, hold down the shift key while pressing the left mouse button: the markers of one object will be temporarily highlighted. By repeatedly clicking the left button while holding down the shift key, it is possible to cycle through all candidates for selection at that point. To perform the selected action, e.g. deleting one box, click on the point without holding down the shift key. The operation will be performed on the highlighted object.

Note: If the mouse is not clicked near enough to an object marker or for whatever reason xfig cannot "find" the object the user is trying to select, a black square will temporarily appear above the mouse cursor.

GLUE COMPOUND
Compound objects are created by first tagging the objects to be compounded and then pressing the right mouse button to group the tagged objects into a compound object. Single objects are tagged by clicking on them with the left button. A number of objects can be tagged at once by using the middle button to define the upper-left and lower-right corners of a region enclosing the objects. Tagged objects are shown with highlighted markers. Tagged objects which are selected (see the SELECTING OBJECTS section above) will be temporarily unhighlighted. There is currently no special command to tag or untag all of the objects within a figure. You can untag all of the objects by changing from GLUE mode to some other mode (apart from BREAK) and back again.
BREAK COMPOUND
Break a compound object to allow manipulation of its component parts. Click the left button on the one of the corner markers of the compound object or along one of the imaginary lines defining the compound box. Clicking with the middle button will achieve the same effect but will also tag the component parts (although you will not see the tags until you change to the GLUE mode). You can use this feature to easily alter the objects within a compound.
SCALE OBJECT
Any object may be scaled. If the left button is pressed on a BOX or ARC-BOX object, then that object will be scaled proportionally to its aspect ratio. If the middle button is pressed on any object, that object will be scaled up or down about its center. Text may only be scaled if inside a compound object and then only if its RIGID flag is set to NORMAL (using the popup edit panel). See the TransFig manual for description of text options.
ALIGN
This button will align objects inside a compound object according to the setting in the VERTICAL ALIGN and HORIZONTAL ALIGN indicators. The choices are the cumulative effect of vertically aligning the objects to the TOP, MIDDLE or BOTTOM edge and horizontally aligning to the LEFT, MIDDLE or RIGHT edge of the compound.
MOVE POINT
Modify the position of a point of any object except TEXT and COMPOUND objects. For unrestrained movement, click the left button over the desired point, reposition the point, and click the left button again. For horizontally or vertically constrained move, click the middle button on the desired point and move either horizontally or vertically. Notice that once you choose the direction (horizontal or vertical), movement is constrained in that direction. If, after moving the mouse initially, it is moved in the other direction a greater distance than the current position of the mouse relative to the starting point, then that will be the new constraint direction. In otherwords if you first move the mouse horizontally one inch (say) then move it vertically 1.3 inches, the direction will switch to vertical until any horizontal motion exceeds 1.3 inches. When the object is positioned where desired, click the left to place it if the left button was used to start the move (unconstrained), or the middle button (constrained) if that button was used.
MOVE
Move object. Click the left (unconstrained move) or middle (constrained move) button on any corner marker of the object to be moved. The horizontal/vertical constrained movement (middle button) works exactly as described for MOVE POINT.
ADD POINTS
Add points to POLYLINE, POLYGON, SPLINE, or CLOSED SPLINE objects (points of a BOX can not be added or deleted). Note that a REGULAR POLYGON is really an ordinary POLYGON, so adding points to this object is allowed and does NOT keep the polygon regular.
COPY / CUT TO CUT BUFFER
Copy object to canvas or cut buffer. Click the left (unconstrained copy) or middle (constrained copy) button on any corner marker of the object to be copied (for CIRCLE and ELLIPSE objects, mouse may also be clicked on their circumferences). The object will be duplicated and then moved exactly as in MOVE. If the right button is clicked on an object, that object is copied to the cut buffer for pasting into this or another figure. The file used for the cut buffer is called .xfig in the user's $HOME directory. This allows a user to run two or more xfig processes and cut/paste objects between them. If there is no $HOME, a file is created in /tmp, called xfigPID where PID is the xfig process ID.
DELETE POINTS
Delete points from POLYLINE, POLYGON, SPLINE, or CLOSED SPLINE. Objects (points of a BOX or ARC-BOX can not be added or deleted). Note that a REGULAR POLYGON is really an ordinary POLYGON, so deleting points from this object is allowed and does NOT keep the polygon regular.
DELETE
Click the left button on an object to delete the object. Delete a region of the canvas by clicking the middle button and dragging the mouse to define an area of objects to delete. Clicking the right button on an object will copy the object to the cut buffer (see COPY/CUT TO CUT BUFFER above).
EDIT OBJECT
Edit settings for an existing object. Click the left button on the object and a pop-up menu will appear showing existing settings for the object. Some of the menu entries may be changed by typing new values in the appropriate windows. These are editable Ascii%TextWidgets and allow cut and paste. Others pop up a sub-menu of multiple choices when pressed and held. Press the "done" button to apply the changes to the object and finish. Press the "apply" button to apply the changes but keep the menu up for further changes. Press the "cancel" button to cancel the changes and pop down the menu.

The following table shows which settings are used for the different objects.

ObjectAngleAreaLineLineBoxDepthColorRadiusText Font/
FillWidthStyleCurveJust./Size
ArcXXXXX
Arc-BoxXXXXXX
CircleXXXXXXX
EllipseXXXXXXX
EPSXX
Box,Polygon,XXXXX
Line,Spline
TextXXXX

The angle may be set, but the object will only be rotated on PostScript output.

The depth defines how overlapping objects are displayed. Objects with a greater depth value are obstructed by objects with smaller depth value. The maximum depth allowed is 1000.

UPDATE
By pressing the left button on an object, the current settings for the indicator buttons (line width, line style, area fill etc.) which have been selected for update are copied into that object. When xfig is started, all indicator buttons which are components of objects are selected for update. To unselect an indicator, click on the update button and click the left mouse button on the small button in the upper-right corner of the indicator. When that indicator is selected the foreground color (default black) shows. When it is unselected the background color (default white) shows.

If the middle button is clicked on an object, the settings in the object that are selected by the indicator buttons are copied into those indicator button settings. Thus, one may copy selected attributes of one object to another.

FLIP VERTICALLY
Flip the object up/down (left button) or copy the object and flip it (middle button). Point to part of the object, click the appropriate button. That object will be flipped vertically about that point.
FLIP HORIZONTALLY
Flip the object left/right (left button) or copy the object and flip it (middle button). Point to part of the object, click the appropriate button. That object will be flipped horizontally about that point.
ROTATE CLOCKWISE
Rotate the object (left button) or copy and rotate it (middle button) -N degrees (clockwise), where N is the amount set in the rotation indicator button. The object is rotated about the chosen point. Not all objects can be rotated, and not all can be rotated at arbitrary angles. For example, BOX, ARC-BOX and EPS objects may only be rotated by 90 degrees. Text objects may be rotated although only the markers are rotated on the screen, but the text itself is not displayed rotated because of the limitations of the X11 Window System. Text IS rotated correctly on PostScript output, however.
ROTATE COUNTER-CLOCKWISE
Rotate the object (left button) or copy (middle button) +N degrees (counter-clockwise), where N is the amount set in the rotation indicator button. The object is rotated about the chosen point.
SPLINE <-> POLYLINE
Turn POLYGON into a CLOSED INTERPOLATED SPLINE object, or turn POLYLINE into a INTERPOLATED SPLINE object.
ADD/DELETE ARROWS
Add or delete arrow heads of ARC, POLYLINE or SPLINE objects. Add an arrow head by clicking the left button on the endpoint of the object. Delete an arrow head by clicking middle button on the endpoint or arrow head.

PANNING

The figure may be panned by clicking the left, middle or right mouse button in the rulers. Clicking the left button in the top ruler will pan the image to left the by 1/2 inch (1cm in metric mode), adjusted for zoom factor. Clicking the right button in the top ruler will pan the image right by the same amount. By pressing and holding the middle button the user may drag the ruler by the amount desired, thus panning the image by that amount.

The figure is panned up and down in the same way by clicking the mouse in the ruler on the right of the canvas. Also, the figure can be returned to its origin by clicking the left mouse button in the units (e.g. cm or in) box.

The arrow keys may also be used to pan the image and the home key to return the figure to the origin. Also, pressing the Control Key and the middle mouse button will pan the figure to the origin.

X DEFAULTS

The overall widget name(Class) is xfig(Fig). These resources correspond to the command line arguments:
NameClassTypeDefaultCommand-line
equivalent
justifyJustify booleanfalse-left (false) and
-right (true)
landscapeOrientation booleantrue-Landscape and
-Portrait
pwidthWidthinteger10(8)-pwidth
pheightHeightinteger8(9.5)-pheight
trackCursorTrackbooleanon-track and -notrack
inchesInchesbooleantrue-inches, -imperial,
-centimeters and
-metric
reverseVideoReverseVideobooleanoff-inverse
debugDebugbooleanoff-debug
latexfontsLatexfontsbooleanoff-latexfonts
normalFontNormalFontstringfixed-normal
boldFontButtonFontstring8x13bold-bold
startfontsizeStartFontSizeinteger12-startfontsize
startpsFontStartpsFontstringTimes-Roman-startpsFont
startlatexFontStartlatexFontstringDefault-startlatexFont
showallbuttonsShowAllButtonsbooleanfalse-showallbuttons
internalborderwidthInternalBorderWidthinteger1-internalBW
scalablefontsScalableFontsbooleanfalse-scalablefonts
monochromeMonochromebooleanfalse-monochrome
keyFileKeyFilestringCompKeyDB-keyFile
color0Color0pixelblack
color1Color1pixelblue
color2Color2pixelgreen
color3Color3pixelcyan
color4Color4pixelred
color5Color5pixelmagenta
color6Color6pixelyellow
color7Color7pixelwhite

WIDGET TREE

Below is the widget structure of xfig. The widget class name is given first, followed by the widget instance name.

Fig xfig
   Form form
       Form commands
       Label message
           Command button (one for each of the 8 buttons)
       Label mouse_panel
       Box mode_panel
           Label label
           Command button (one for each of the 16 drawing mode buttons)
           Label label
           Command button (one for each of the 18 editing mode buttons)
       Label topruler
       Label canvas
       Label unitbox
       Label sideruler
       Box ind_panel
           Form button_form
               Command button (one for each of the 20 indicator buttons)
               Toggle update (some have update buttons, some don't)

       TransientShell xfig_ps_font_menu
           Box menu
               Form buttons
                   Command cancel
                   Command use_latex_fonts
               Command pane (one for each of the 35 Postscript font panes)

       TransientShell xfig_latex_font_menu
           Box menu
               Form buttons
                   Command cancel
                   Command use_postscript_fonts
               Command pane (one for each of the 6 LaTeX font panes)

   TransientShell xfig_file_msg
       Form file_msg_panel
           Text file_msg_win
           Command dismiss

   TransientShell xfig_file_menu
       Form file_panel
           Label file_status
           Label num_objects
           Label file_label
           Text file_name
           Label filename
           Viewport vport
               Core clip
               List file_list_panel
           Label mask_label
           Text mask
           Label dir_label
           Text dir_name
           Label dir_alt_label
           Command home
           Viewport dirvport
               Core clip
               List dir_list_panel
           Command rescan
           Command cancel
           Command save
           Command load
           Command merge

   TransientShell xfig_export_menu
       Form export_panel
           Label mag_label
           Text magnification
           Label orient_label
           MenuButton landscape
               SimpleMenu menu
                   SmeBSB portrait
                   SmeBSB landscape
           Label just_label
           MenuButton justify
               SimpleMenu menu
                   SmeBSB flush left
                   SmeBSB centered
           Label lang_label
           MenuButton eps
               SimpleMenu menu
                   SmeBSB box
                   SmeBSB epic
                   SmeBSB eepic
                   SmeBSB eepicemu
                   SmeBSB latex
                   SmeBSB null
                   SmeBSB pic
                   SmeBSB pictex
                   SmeBSB eps
                   SmeBSB ps
                   SmeBSB pstex
                   SmeBSB pstex_t
                   SmeBSB textyl
                   SmeBSB tpic
                   SmeBSB Xbitmap
           Label def_file_label
           Label def_file_name
           Label out_file_name
           Text file
           Label filename
           Viewport vport
               Core clip
               List file_list_panel
               Scrollbar vertical
           Label mask_label
           Text mask
           Label dir_label
           Text dir_name
           Label dir_alt_label
           Command home
           Viewport dirvport
               Core clip
               List dir_list_panel
           Command rescan
           Command cancel
           Command export

   TransientShell xfig_print_menu
       Form print_panel
           Label printer_image
           Label mag_label
           Text magnification
           Label orient_label
           MenuButton landscape
               SimpleMenu menu
                   SmeBSB portrait
                   SmeBSB landscape
           Label just_label
           MenuButton justify
               SimpleMenu menu
                   SmeBSB flush left
                   SmeBSB centered
           Label dir_label
           Text printer
           Command cancel
           Command print

   NOTE: The following is a typical popup edit panel (for ARC-BOX)
    The panel will be different for other objects.

   TransientShell xfig_edit_panel
       Form form
           Label POLYLINE:ArcBox
           Label image
           Command done
           Command apply
           Command cancel
           Label
           Label Width =
           Text Width =
           Label Color =
           Text Color =
           Label Depth =
           Text Depth =
           Label Area fill =
           MenuButton No fill
               SimpleMenu menu
                   SmeBSB No fill
                   SmeBSB Filled
           Label Fill density % =
           Text Fill density % =
           Label Line style =
           MenuButton Solid Line
               SimpleMenu menu
                   SmeBSB Solid Line
                   SmeBSB Dashed Line
                   SmeBSB Dotted Line
           Label Dash length/Dot gap =
           Text Dash length/Dot gap =
           Label Top Left:
           Label Top Left:
           Text Top Left:
           Label Top Left:
           Text Top Left:
           Label Bottom Right:
           Label Bottom Right:
           Text Bottom Right:
           Label Bottom Right:
           Text Bottom Right:
           Label Radius =
           Text Radius =

BUGS and RESTRICTIONS

Please send bug reports, fixes, new features etc. to:
bvsmith@lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)

Not all operations employ smart redrawing of objects which are altered as a by product of the operation. You may need to use Redraw in these cases.

Must compile xfig with -DOPENWIN in order to make xfig handle OpenWindows scalable fonts correctly.

There is a bug in OpenWindows 2.0 which relates to pixmaps in widgets. You must compile xfig with the -DOPENWIN_BUG option for this problem.

If the image is panned or the xfig window iconified and de-iconified during the middle of an operation (e.g. while drawing a line), the picture will be distorted. This can be corrected using Redraw after the operation is complete.

Rotated text, circles and ellipses will be displayed horizontally on the screen. They will be rotated only when printed on PostScript output.

Corners of object scaled with point positioning in one of the grid modes will not always fall on the grid line, but to the closest pixel.

SEE ALSO

Brian W. Kernighan PIC - A Graphics Language for Typesetting User Manual
fig2dev(1) (TransFig package)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many thanks goes to Professor Donald E. Fussell who inspired the creation of this tool.

COPYRIGHT

Original Copyright (c) 1985 by Supoj Sutanthavibul

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. M.I.T. makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

FILES

CompKeyDB - Data base of compose key sequences for 8-bit characters.
Must be installed in $(XFIGLIBDIR) with 'make install'. See the Imakefile.
Doc/FORMAT2.1 - Description of Fig file format.
CHANGES - Description of bug fixes/new features.

AUTHORS

Many people have contributed to xfig. Here is a list of the people who have contributed the most:

Original author:
Supoj Sutanthavibul, University of Texas at Austin

The LaTeX line drawing modes were contributed by:
Frank Schmuck, Cornell University (schmuck@svax.cs.cornell.edu)

Original X11 port by:
Ken Yap, Rochester (ken@cs.rochester.edu)

Variable window sizes, cleanup of X11 port, right hand side panel:
Dana Chee, Bellcore (dana@bellcore.com)

Cleanup of color port to X11 by:
John T. Kohl, MIT (jtkohl@athena.mit.edu)

Area fill, multiple line thicknesses, multiple fonts and font sizes, bottom panel, line style/thickness modification of objects by:
Brian V. Smith, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
(standard disclaimer applies)
(bvsmith@lbl.gov)

Popup change-object menu by:
Jon Tombs (jon%robots.oxford.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk), and
Frank Schmuck (schmuck@svax.cs.cornell.edu)

Zooming and panning functions, shift key select mechanism by:
Dieter Pellkofer (dip@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de), and
Henning Spruth (hns@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de)

Depth feature by:
Mike Lutz (mjl@cs.rit.edu)

Version 2.1 extensive modifications: Indicator panel, file menu popup, print menu popup, panning with rulers, mouse function window, regular polygon, rubberbanding of circles/ellipses, filled splines on canvas, dashed/dotted splines on canvas, update button, arbitrary angle rotation of objects, alignment in compound, object scaling, constrained copy/move, corner markers for compound, context sensitive corner markers, smarter redraw, undo for compound and point move for boxes, cancel object creation, point positioning to three resolutions, TransFig scalable text, hidden text, special text, save of figure on crash by:

Paul King (king@cs.uq.oz.au)
with help from:
Brian V. Smith (bvsmith@lbl.gov) and Micah Beck (beck@cs.cornell.edu)

Encapsulated PostScript importing by:
Brian Boyter (root@fstc-chville.army.mil)

Color implementation and pan/zoom with ctrl key/mouse by:
Henning Spruth (hns@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de)

International characters by:
Herver Soulard (soulard@corto.inria.fr)

Directory Browser based on XDir by:
Win Treese, Digital Equipment Corporation (treese@crl.dec.com)


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