MetaPost

<h2 id="availability-and-usage">Availability and usage</h2>
<p>MetaPost is distributed with many distributions of the <a href="/facts/TeX/HDrl3Yvd">TeX</a> and Metafont framework, for example, it is included in the <a href="/facts/MiKTeX/Re9Qod0t">MiKTeX</a> and the <a href="/facts/TeX_Live/AuNS5c2V">TeX Live</a> distributions.
</p><p>The encapsulated postscript produced by Metapost can be included in <a href="/facts/LaTeX/c1lvjF0A">LaTeX</a>, <a href="/facts/ConTeXt/LQ0eHLtb">ConTeXt</a>, and <a href="/facts/TeX/HDrl3Yvd">TeX</a> documents via standard graphics inclusion commands. The encapsulated postscript output can also be used with the <a href="/facts/PDFTeX/6l1sDa20">PDFTeX</a> engine, thus directly giving <a href="/facts/Portable_Document_Format/C9Mn1vYL">PDF</a>. This ability is implemented in ConTeXt and in the LaTeX graphics package, and can be used from plain TeX via the supp-pdf.tex macro file.
</p><p>ConTeXt and <a href="/facts/LuaTeX/6PL2Bl2P">LuaTeX</a> supports the inclusion of MetaPost code within the input file. Inclusion of MetaPost code in LaTeX is also possible by using LaTeX-packages, for example gmp or mpgraphics.
</p>
<h2 id="examples">Examples</h2>
<p>This is a single file example.mp which when processed by the MetaPost interpreter (via the command mpost on <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a>) produces three eps files example.1, example.2, example.3. These are pictured on the right.
</p>

transform pagecoords;
pagecoords:=identity scaled 10mm shifted (100mm,150mm);
beginfig (1)
    fill ((0,0)--(2,0)--(2,1)--(1,1)--(1,2)--(0,2)--cycle)
        transformed pagecoords withcolor green;
    draw ((2,0)..(2,1)..(1,1)..(1,2)..(0,2))
        transformed pagecoords;
    drawarrow ((0,0)--(2,2)) transformed pagecoords;
endfig;
beginfig (2)
    draw (for i=0 upto 7: dir (135i)-- endfor cycle)
        transformed pagecoords;
endfig;
pagecoords:=identity scaled 15mm shifted (100mm,150mm);
beginfig (3);
    % declare paths to be used
    path p[],p[]t;
    % set up points by defining relationships
    z1=(0,0);   z2=z1+2up;
    z3=z1+whatever*dir (60)=z2+whatever*dir (-50);
    z4=z3+(-1.5,-.5);
    z5=z1+dir (135);
    z0=whatever[z1,z2]=whatever[z3,z4];
    % set up paths
    p0=fullcircle yscaled .5 rotated 45 shifted z0 ;
    p1=z2---z4..z0..z3---z1;
    p2=p1 cutbefore p0 cutafter p0;
    p3=p0 cutbefore p1 cutafter p1;
    p4=p2---p3---cycle;
    % define transformed versions of paths and points
    for i=0 upto 4: p[i]t=p[i] transformed pagecoords; endfor
    for i=0 upto 5: z[i]t=z[i] transformed pagecoords; endfor
    % do some drawing
    fill p4t withcolor (1,1,0.2);
    draw z1t---z2t withcolor .5white;
    draw z3t---z4t withcolor .5white;
    pickup pencircle;
    draw p0t dashed withdots scaled .3;
    draw p1t dashed evenly;
    draw p2t withcolor blue;
    draw p3t withcolor red;
    label.lrt (btex $z_0$ etex, z0t);
    label.llft (btex $z_1$ etex, z1t);
    label.top (btex $z_2$ etex, z2t);
    label.rt (btex $z_3$ etex, z3t);
    label.llft (btex $z_4$ etex, z4t);
    for i=0 upto 4:
        drawdot z[i]t withpen pencircle scaled 2;
    endfor
endfig;
bye

<p>The resulting three eps files can be used in <a href="/facts/TeX/HDrl3Yvd">TeX</a> via <a href="/facts/LaTeX/c1lvjF0A">LaTeX</a>'s \includegraphics command, <a href="/facts/ConTeXt/LQ0eHLtb">ConTeXt</a>'s \externalfigure, Plain TeX's \epsfbox command, or (in Plain pdftex) the \convertMPtoPDF command from supp-pdf.tex. To view or print the third diagram, this inclusion is necessary, as the TeX fonts (<a href="/facts/Computer_Modern/nQ3Mkxho">Computer Modern</a>) are not included in the eps files produced by MetaPost by default.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li>Free and open-source software portal</li></ul>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/PSTricks/4F144QVK">PSTricks</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/PGF%2fTikZ/mkpC4j6a">PGF/TikZ</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/METATYPE1/FpLKrM68">METATYPE1</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Asymptote_(vector_graphics_language)/Iqsw2g8m">Asymptote</a></li></ul>

<ul><li>Hagen, Hans. <a href="http://wiki.contextgarden.net/MetaFun">"MetaFun"</a> (modules for Metapost).</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Donald_Knuth/GozNzDM6">Knuth, Donald</a> (1986). <i>The <a href="/facts/METAFONT/j7vCXw8s">METAFONTbook</a></i>. <a href="/facts/Computers_and_Typesetting/rrxofCAh">Computers and Typesetting</a>. Vol. C. <a href="/facts/Addison-Wesley/A7UFATEG">Addison-Wesley</a>. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-201-13444-6.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ctan.org/">"Comprehensive TEX Archive Network"</a> (<a href="/facts/CTAN/efKgMbRx">CTAN</a>). Repository of the TEX source and hundreds of add-ons and style files.</li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130727021112/http://tex.loria.fr/prod-graph/zoonekynd/metapost/metapost.html">"(La)TeX Navigator provides 305 simple MetaPost examples"</a>. Archived from <a href="http://tex.loria.fr/prod-graph/zoonekynd/metapost/metapost.html">the original</a> on 2013-07-27. Retrieved 2006-11-17.</li>
<li>Hoekwater, Taco (2006). <a href="http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb27-1/tb86hoekwater-metapost.pdf">"MetaPost developments—autumn 2006"</a> (PDF). <i>TUGboat</i>. 27 (1).</li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li>The TeX Users Group (<a href="/facts/TeX_Users_Group/HDrl3Yvd">TUG</a>) <a href="http://www.tug.org/">http://www.tug.org/</a> has a page devoted to MetaPost: <a href="http://www.tug.org/metapost.html">http://www.tug.org/metapost.html</a></li></ul>

MetaPost open-in-new

MetaPost