embedded latex object with autoupdate

Bug #170736 reported by Bug Importer
0
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Inkscape
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Is it possible to add a latex-object. Unfortunately I
don't know enough c++ to code it up myself, but it
seems relatively simple to produce (even I can do it!)
a script to do

latex->dvi->eps->ppm->svg (last step with potrace)

so one can have a fragment of latex stored together
with the resulting svg-paths.... editing the latex
causes the paths to be updated?

I am not sure how hard this would be given a decent
knowledge of the inkscape code, but it would certainly
be an extremely useful addition to what seems like a
very nice project.

Tags: text
Revision history for this message
Bug Importer (bug-importer) wrote :

With the latex package "psfrag" you can change labels in
your figure to anything that you can write in Latex. I can,
for exemple, make a diagram in Dia and put a label (without
spaces) like "label_me", for example. The i export the
diagram as eps and include it in Latex with the commandsthe

\begin{figure}
\psfrag{label_me}{Text in Latex}
\includegraphics{my_figure.eps}
\end{figure}

However, this didn't work with a graphic exported to eps in
inkscape.
I guess it'is easier (and more useful, in my opinion) to
figure it out why it didn't work with inkscake than
implement a way to add a latex object in Inkscape directly.

Sorry about my english

Revision history for this message
Sorenh-users (sorenh-users) wrote :

I've written something similar to this as a plugin for
Skencil called SketchLaTeX
(http://www.2pi.info/latex/sketchlatex/), and there is
another one for Skencil, called skLaTeX
(http://home.comcast.net/~jbiddier/sklatex/). For both of
those plugins, you can enter the latex text in a dialog, and
it generates the beziers from it using latex, dvips and
pstoedit. Then they can later be editied, and the processes
repeated to regenerate the display. It works very well -
much nicer than psfrag - , and the code to implement it in
Skencil is pretty basic.

However, development on Skencil has been slow lately so I've
just started looking to see if there is a plugin
architecture in Inkscape that would allow something similar.
 From what I've seen of extensions so far, there hasn't been
anything easy I can base it on. What I'd like to know about
though is if there is an example of some plugin that does
the following types of things.

- creates a new object that can be later modified as an
object (including after being saved and opened again)
- accepts user input for parameters that can later be changed
- run an external program when an update is made
- import an external file to replace the current object curves

Once those things can be done, having a latex object is
fairly trivial. I'd appreciate if someone could point to
where to look for examples of extensions that do these
things under inkscape.

Revision history for this message
Pacoserra (pacoserra) wrote :

First of all, thanks for such a wonderful piece of art!

I agree that direct import of LaTeX text objects (such as
labels, math and paragraphs) would be really good, instead
of using just psfrag postprocessing.

In fact, the latest rebuilt of Ipe 6 (which also uses a XML
native format) already implements this feature with
on-the-fly pdfLaTeX compilaton of, not only simple text, but
full minipages:

http://ipe.compgeom.org

Also, their editor comes with a very interesting PDF import
tool ;)

Thanks again

Revision history for this message
Bug Importer (bug-importer) wrote :

I also really would like to see inkscape interact somehow
with laTeX.

I almost succeded using dvi2svg
(www.activemath.org/~adrianf/dvi2svg), but inkscape doesn't
support SVG fonts (yet). Since I needed only a few symbols
for a figure, ended up copying the content of the <path> tag
in the <glyph> corresponding to the symbols I was interested
in, and copying it as a stand-alone curve in another SVG
file. It worked, but I feel that support of embedded SVG
fonts would be a nice addition.

Revision history for this message
Gschintgen (gschintgen) wrote :

@nobody: The point of a separate latex object is to have
the exact output displayed on screen while working on
your illustration.

I've recently installed SketchLaTeX and I must say that
it's simply great. Now I'm in the situation that as soon as
I have to do something mathematics-related I'm using
Sketch.
For me personally this would be _the_ killer feature for
inkscape.

Revision history for this message
Pvirtanen (pvirtanen) wrote :

Originator: NO

You may want to check this out:

    http://www.iki.fi/pav/software/textext

It is a semi-quick hack that allows creating re-editable
Latex objects. But, as it is implemented as an Inkscape extension,
so the main window will freeze while the object is edited.

Changed in inkscape:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
status: New → Confirmed
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