Changes

< [[Math]], [[MetaFun]], [[Graphics]] * John Hobby's page: http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/hobby/MetaPost.html* Current development: http://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/metapost/__TOC__MetaPost is a graphical programming language, based on Donald Knuth's MetaFont. Normally MP graphics are converted to PostScript and used with dvips, but ConTeXt can use it directly with PDF (see the[http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/sources/mptopdf.pdf MPtoPDFMP to PDF]manual). MetaPost is ConTeXt's "native" graphics mode, see [[MetaFun]].

== Documentation & Tutorials ==* [http://www.ctantug.org/tex-archive/graphicsdocs/metapost/mpman.pdf A User's Manual for MetaPost] <!-- http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/hobby/cstr_162.pdf has its pages reversed -->

== Different Packages, Extensions & Applications of Metapost ==

* [http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/metapost/contrib/macros/metaobj/ MetaObj] - object-oriented drawing, see also the page about [[MetaObj and Labels]]

=== 3D support ===

== MetaPost relatives ===== Font Creation ===

=== 3D drawing ===

=Testing plain MetaPost =To test whether MetaPost is installed on your system, create a file called {{code|test.mp}}:  beginfig(1) draw fullcircle scaled 3cm ; endfig ; end ; * apply MetaPost on the testfile  mp test.mp or mpost test.mp * that should create a postscript file test.1* open test.1 with a postscript viewer like Ghostview, Okular, … You should see a circle. = Testing MetaPost embedded in ConTeXt = If MetaPost is installed on your system and working correctly, you can   \starttext \startMPcode draw fullcircle scaled 3cm; \stopMPcode \stoptext * for mkii you need to have write18 support enabled and run texexec --pdf test.tex * for mkiv run context test.tex * that should create a pdf file test.pdf* open test.pdf with a pdf viewer like Adobe Acrobat, Okular... You should see a circle. = Text in MetaPost = Text that is typeset using `textext` or `btex … etex` adapts to the body font. However, when `label("Foo", pair)` or `"Foo" infont defaultfont` is used, which is not the recommended way, the text is typeset using the font `MetafunDefault`, which can be changed if desired. Example: <context mode="mkiv" source="yes" text="Gives:">\starttext \startMPcode label("Foo", origin); draw textext("Bar") yshifted -LineHeight; \stopMPcode  \definefontsynonym [MetafunDefault] [Bold*default]  \switchtobodyfont [pagella, 18pt]  \startMPcode label("Foo", origin); draw textext("Foo") yshifted -LineHeight; \stopMPcode\stoptext</context> The recommended way to typeset text is to use the `textext` macro and change the font using {{cmd |setupMPinstance}}. = Repetition of a Text Element to Fill a Bar Using textext = Imagine you want to create a frame which consists out of one glyph or a combination of different glyphs in order to make a decorative border. For this purpose a series of such elements should be placed on the bar as pictures, evenly spaced. Probably you want to have at the end of the bar a different glyph inserted as a picture too. The following code is working but the last picture is not the expected glyph. One would expect 14 times the "?" and at the end of the bar a "*": <context mode="mkiv" source="yes" text="Gives:">\starttext \startMPpage picture PicA ; PicA := textext("*"); picture PicB ; PicB := textext("?");  numeric Step ; Step := 2cm div bbwidth(PicB) ;  for i = 1 upto Step : draw PicB shifted (i*5mm,0) ; endfor ; draw PicA ; \stopMPpage\stoptext</context> What you get is 15 "?" but no "*"! In order to get this corrected one needs to calculate the boundingbox of the "?" on beforehand. Hans Hagen provided this solution on 14-10-2014. <context mode="mkiv" source="yes" text="Gives:">\starttext \startMPcalculation path PicX ; PicX := boundingbox textext("?") ; \stopMPcalculation  \startMPpage picture PicA ; PicA := textext("*"); picture PicB ; PicB := textext("?");  numeric Step ; Step := 2cm div bbwidth(PicX) ; % numeric Step ; Step := 2cm div bbwidth(PicB) ;  for i = 1 upto Step : draw PicB shifted (i*5mm,0) ; endfor ; draw PicA ; \stopMPpage\stoptext </context> Now you get 14 "?" and the "*". == A Full Example == <context mode="mkiv" source="yes" text="Gives:">\setupbodyfont [8pt] \defineoverlay[Myframe][\reuseMPgraphic{Frame}] \setuppapersize[A8][A8] \setuplayout [topspace=5mm, backspace=5mm, height=middle, width=middle, header=0pt, footer=0pt] \starttext % ======== Definition of the frame in Metafun ==========\startMPcalculation path PicX ; PicX := boundingbox textext("= : =") ;\stopMPcalculation \startreusableMPgraphic{Frame} numeric u,v,xshift,yshift,picwidth,remnant,nelements;  u := OverlayWidth; v := OverlayHeight; path p,w; p := unitsquare xscaled u yscaled v; w := fullcircle scaled 8pt; picture Edgepic,Linepic[]; color edgedotcolor,linelementcolorA; edgedotcolor := blue; linelementcolorA := red;  Linepic[1] := textext("\rotate[rotation=90]{= : =}"); Linepic[2] := textext("= : ="); Edgepic := textext("o"); %Calculations for the horizontal frame-element placement: % In order to make this work, the width of the line element needs to be calculated on beforehand. % path PicX; PicX := textext(")("); picwidth := bbwidth(PicX); nelements := u div picwidth; remnant := u mod picwidth; xshift := picwidth + remnant/nelements;   Linepic[3] := Linepic[2] shifted (0.5*picwidth,0);  for a = llcorner p, ulcorner p : for i = 1 upto nelements : draw Linepic[3] shifted ((xpart a + (i-1)*xshift),ypart a) withcolor linelementcolorA; endfor; endfor; %Calculations for the vertical frame-element placement: picheight := bbwidth(PicX); nelements := v div picheight; remnant := v mod picheight; yshift := picheight + remnant/nelements; Linepic[4]:= Linepic[1] shifted (0,0.5*picheight); for a = llcorner p, lrcorner p : for i = 1 upto nelements: draw Linepic[4] shifted (xpart a,ypart a + (i-1)*yshift) withcolor linelementcolorA; endfor; endfor;  for i = llcorner p, lrcorner p,ulcorner p,urcorner p : fill w shifted (xpart i,ypart i) withcolor white; draw Edgepic shifted (xpart i,ypart i) withcolor edgedotcolor; endfor; % For frame-element positioning checking:% draw p;%\stopreusableMPgraphic % ========== \startframedtext [width=0.8\textwidth,height=0.8\textheight,frame=off,background=Myframe, align={middle,lohi}] The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. \blank {\tfx Rabindranath Tagore}\stopframedtext\stoptext </context>  There is one important remark: The MPcalculation and the drawing itself must be inside \starttext ... \stoptext. = Other Links ==