Last modified: 2014-02-24 18:43:12 UTC
It would be wonderful to have support for scalable vector graphics via MetaPost. We are already using TeXnology for rendering mathematical formulas, so why not also use the TeX community's very elegant vector graphics engine? In contrast to many other scalable-graphics format alternatives (SVG, PDF, etc.), MetaPost was specifically designed to be easy to use when diagrams are edited with plain-text editors. MetaPost graphics should not be uploaded as separate files, they should be included into the main text, as it happens already with mathematical formulas. MetaPost is well established, very widely used to prepare high-quality diagrams in scientific publishing, and freely available as portable software. It is a very easy to learn elegant high-level graphics description language that the mpost interpreter converts into embedded postscript (which in turn is easy to raster via ghostscript). MetaPost descriptions are ideally suited to be manipulated with a plain-text editor. The language allows authors to select a level of abstraction appropriate for the diagram at hand. Example: <mpost width=200px> fill ((0,0)--(2,0)--(2,1)--(1,1)--(1,2)--(0,2)--cycle) withcolor green; draw ((2,0)..(2,1)..(1,1)..(1,2)..(0,2)); drawarrow ((0,0)--(2,2)); </mpost>
Updating URL to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaPost - old URL didn't work.