Using xfig (was: Re: [OT] Drawing a rectangle with Gimp)
On Oct 02 2005, Alvin Oga wrote:
> i can only draw squares with xfig or dia or geda
> - too much buttons and menus just to make simple
> squares, rectangles, cirles, lines, and arrows
Really, using xfig is an excellent option for those interested in
generating (vector) graphics that can be used, say, with (La)TeX
documents.
The learning curve is not that steep (much less steep than learning
Emacs, I'd say) and if you know how to draw, you can do beautiful
things.
I only know the mechanics of using xfig and my necessities are just to
draw things like some graphs (the "vertex-edge thing" that
mathematicians study) and some other minor diagrams.
Using it (and its generated files) together with transfig is sooo damned
easy to use with both plain LaTeX (for generating PS documents) and
pdflatex (for generating PDF documents). I have written some makefiles
that make life easier and I am willing to share them with whoever is
interested in it.
I may, sometime, take a look into inkscape, but I'm not really motivated
to learn yet another program just to draw the basic things that I do.
BTW, a good thing to start drawing in xfig is to just turn on the grid
(so you have references for what you're doing) and turn on grid
positioning. With that in mind, using xfig for doing anything is a
piece of cake (provided you know how to draw---which I don't).
Hope this helps, Rogério Brito.
--
Rogério Brito : rbrito@ime.usp.br : http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito
Homepage of the algorithms package : http://algorithms.berlios.de
Homepage on freshmeat: http://freshmeat.net/projects/algorithms/
Reply to: