(texdraw)Introduction

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1 Introduction
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TeX is a powerful typesetting program which allows for complex text
layouts but by itself lacks a general graphics capability.  However,
when coupled with an appropriate printer driver program, external
graphics files can be inserted into the printed document.  In this mode,
TeX is instructed to leave space for a drawing.  The drawing is inserted
by the printer driver program.  The TeXdraw macros described here
generate the external graphics file from within TeX and generate the
instructions to the the print driver program to position the graphics at
the appropriate position on the page.

   TeXdraw consists of a set of TeX macros that create line drawings and
other figures.  The drawing primitives include solid lines, patterned
lines, Bezier curves, circles and arrows.  Other commands allow for the
filling of a region with a gray level.  The drawing commands generate
PostScript code.  This limits TeXdraw to systems which use PostScript
printers.  TeXdraw also provides commands to position TeX text,
including mathematics, on the drawing.  The final drawing, with text and
graphics, can be positioned on the page like any other TeX box.

   The basic TeXdraw macros for TeX use the '\special' syntax recognized
by the printer driver program 'dvips'.  However, when invoked as a
LaTeX2e package, the TeXdraw macros can be used with any of the
PostScript printer driver programs supported by the standard 'graphics'
package for LaTeX2e.

   The basic TeXdraw macros provide only simple drawing commands.
However, TeXdraw provides a drawing segment environment which allows
parameter changes and coordinate scaling changes to be kept local to the
drawing segment.  This facility, together with TeX's macro capabilities
allows one to modularize drawing units and extend TeXdraw by building
more complex graphics entities from simpler elements.

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