Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

[Lawrence Bottorff]

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I'd like to embed images into my running org file -- for eventual
conversion to Latex or html. These would be simple diagram-style pictures
such as math or technical diagrams that cannot be done with gnuplot or
other formula-to-picture conversion software.

Examples:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol5-1/Queiroz_Emmeche_El-Hani_files/image003.gif
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/irvine/SBGN_process_description_cropped.jpg

I know emacs can draw some things, but I'd probably need better renditions.
So how does emacs/org handle such images and what sort of software (I'm on
Ubuntu) is available for making such drawings and diagrams? What about
software like "Processing"? Having Processing code embedded that then
produced images would be great.

Borgauf

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Re: Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

[Russell Adams]

Lawrence,

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:13:56AM -0500, Lawrence Bottorff wrote:
> I'd like to embed images into my running org file -- for eventual
> conversion to Latex or html. These would be simple diagram-style pictures
> such as math or technical diagrams that cannot be done with gnuplot or
> other formula-to-picture conversion software.
>
> Examples:
> http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol5-1/Queiroz_Emmeche_El-Hani_files/image003.gif
> http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/irvine/SBGN_process_description_cropped.jpg
>
> I know emacs can draw some things, but I'd probably need better renditions.
> So how does emacs/org handle such images and what sort of software (I'm on
> Ubuntu) is available for making such drawings and diagrams? What about
> software like "Processing"? Having Processing code embedded that then
> produced images would be great.

I routinely put diagrams in my technical documentation. I prefer to
create PDF files (ie: from Visio) and include them with Latex's
includepdf package, or inline with PNG images.

I must say however when I draw diagrams I use yEd, which is incredibly
powerful and auto-formatting. These diagrams can be exported to PDF
and put in Org easily.

Thanks.


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Re: Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

[John Hendy]

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:13 AM, Lawrence Bottorff <borgauf@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd like to embed images into my running org file -- for eventual conversion
> to Latex or html. These would be simple diagram-style pictures such as math
> or technical diagrams that cannot be done with gnuplot or other
> formula-to-picture conversion software.
>
> Examples:
> http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol5-1/Queiroz_Emmeche_El-Hani_files/image003.gif
> http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/irvine/SBGN_process_description_cropped.jpg
>

A few that come to mind for this sort of thing:
- ditaa: http://ditaa.sourceforge.net/
- graphviz/dot: http://www.graphviz.org/
- my personal favorite, but quite the learning curve, it PFG/TikZ:
http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/

All are possible with babel blocks.


Good luck!
John

> I know emacs can draw some things, but I'd probably need better renditions.
> So how does emacs/org handle such images and what sort of software (I'm on
> Ubuntu) is available for making such drawings and diagrams? What about
> software like "Processing"? Having Processing code embedded that then
> produced images would be great.
>
> Borgauf

Re: Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

[Nick Dokos]

Lawrence Bottorff <borgauf@gmail.com> writes:

> I'd like to embed images into my running org file -- for eventual
> conversion to Latex or html. These would be simple diagram-style
> pictures such as math or technical diagrams that cannot be done with
> gnuplot or other formula-to-picture conversion software. 
>
> Examples:
> http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol5-1/Queiroz_Emmeche_El-Hani_files/image003.gif
> http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/irvine/SBGN_process_description_cropped.jpg
>
> I know emacs can draw some things, but I'd probably need better
> renditions. So how does emacs/org handle such images and what sort of
> software (I'm on Ubuntu) is available for making such drawings and
> diagrams? What about software like "Processing"? Having Processing
> code embedded that then produced images would be great.
>

There is a myriad of graphics programs on Linux: graphviz/dot, ditaa,
plantuml, tikz, gimp, inkscape... There are many more. Some are general,
some are more specialized. Russell mentioned Visio but afaik that's
Windows only. Processing Processing code through a babel process should
be entirely processable too :-)

Once you produce output in some format (png, jpeg, svg, postscript -
whatever your emacs is capable of showing through the image.el
package[fn:1]), you can add a link to it in your org file. Then you can
toggle inline images on or off with C-c C-x C-v (or C-u C-c C-x C-v if
you have captions). Fundamentally, that's it - but of course, people
have been coming up with streamlined ways to do all that (e.g. Max M's
org-screenshot to take the most recent example).

Footnotes:

[fn:1] Mine can do png, jpeg, svg, xpm, but not postscript, even though
image-type-available-p says that it *is* available - there are other
formats that should also work, but that I have not tried: gif, pbm, xbm,
bmp, tiff. Not sure why postscript does not work for me.  On linux, the
various image types require that emacs be built with the various
libraries. On Windows, I think they are dynamically loaded, if present.

-- 
Nick

Re: Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2013-05-17, o godz. 11:40:17
John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> napisał(a):

> On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:13 AM, Lawrence Bottorff
> <borgauf@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'd like to embed images into my running org file -- for eventual
> > conversion to Latex or html. These would be simple diagram-style
> > pictures such as math or technical diagrams that cannot be done
> > with gnuplot or other formula-to-picture conversion software.
> >
> > Examples:
> > http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol5-1/Queiroz_Emmeche_El-Hani_files/image003.gif
> > http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/irvine/SBGN_process_description_cropped.jpg
> >
> 
> A few that come to mind for this sort of thing:
> - ditaa: http://ditaa.sourceforge.net/
> - graphviz/dot: http://www.graphviz.org/
> - my personal favorite, but quite the learning curve, it PFG/TikZ:
> http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/

Typo: it's PGF, not PFG, just in case you wanted to google it or
something;).

I'd also mention Metapost, on which I believe TikZ was modeled (at least
to some extent).

Since you mentioned embedding in LaTeX, I'd also suggest TikZ; it has a
huge manual, but /very/ well written, with quite a few tutorials and
examples. One benefit is that it is tightly integrated into LaTeX,
but it can also export SVG (though with a few limitations compared to
the pdfLaTeX-produced output).  Also, you might want to check out the
gallery of TikZ examples here: http://www.texample.net/tikz/ .

> Good luck!
> John

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

[John Hendy]

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 6:09 PM, Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> wrote:
> Dnia 2013-05-17, o godz. 11:40:17
> John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> napisał(a):
>
>> On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:13 AM, Lawrence Bottorff
>> <borgauf@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > I'd like to embed images into my running org file -- for eventual
>> > conversion to Latex or html. These would be simple diagram-style
>> > pictures such as math or technical diagrams that cannot be done
>> > with gnuplot or other formula-to-picture conversion software.
>> >
>> > Examples:
>> > http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol5-1/Queiroz_Emmeche_El-Hani_files/image003.gif
>> > http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/irvine/SBGN_process_description_cropped.jpg
>> >
>>
>> A few that come to mind for this sort of thing:
>> - ditaa: http://ditaa.sourceforge.net/
>> - graphviz/dot: http://www.graphviz.org/
>> - my personal favorite, but quite the learning curve, it PFG/TikZ:
>> http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/
>
> Typo: it's PGF, not PFG, just in case you wanted to google it or
> something;).
>

Oops -- typo on my part.

> I'd also mention Metapost, on which I believe TikZ was modeled (at least
> to some extent).
>
> Since you mentioned embedding in LaTeX, I'd also suggest TikZ; it has a
> huge manual, but /very/ well written, with quite a few tutorials and
> examples. One benefit is that it is tightly integrated into LaTeX,
> but it can also export SVG (though with a few limitations compared to
> the pdfLaTeX-produced output).  Also, you might want to check out the
> gallery of TikZ examples here: http://www.texample.net/tikz/ .
>

The examples are great. The link I provided goes right to the examples
vs. that sort of home page screen which only shows the most recent
couple that have been submitted.

I'll have to check out metapost, as I'd not heard of that one.


Thanks,
John

>> Good luck!
>> John
>
> Best,
>
> --
> Marcin Borkowski
> http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
> Adam Mickiewicz University
>

Re: Best way to make/add tech diagrams/graphics?

[Christopher Witte]

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Asymptote http://asymptote.sourceforge.net/ would also be another option in
a similar vein to TikZ.


On 18 May 2013 01:14, John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 6:09 PM, Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl>
> wrote:
> > Dnia 2013-05-17, o godz. 11:40:17
> > John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> napisał(a):
> >
> >> On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:13 AM, Lawrence Bottorff
> >> <borgauf@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > I'd like to embed images into my running org file -- for eventual
> >> > conversion to Latex or html. These would be simple diagram-style
> >> > pictures such as math or technical diagrams that cannot be done
> >> > with gnuplot or other formula-to-picture conversion software.
> >> >
> >> > Examples:
> >> >
> http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol5-1/Queiroz_Emmeche_El-Hani_files/image003.gif
> >> >
> http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/irvine/SBGN_process_description_cropped.jpg
> >> >
> >>
> >> A few that come to mind for this sort of thing:
> >> - ditaa: http://ditaa.sourceforge.net/
> >> - graphviz/dot: http://www.graphviz.org/
> >> - my personal favorite, but quite the learning curve, it PFG/TikZ:
> >> http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/
> >
> > Typo: it's PGF, not PFG, just in case you wanted to google it or
> > something;).
> >
>
> Oops -- typo on my part.
>
> > I'd also mention Metapost, on which I believe TikZ was modeled (at least
> > to some extent).
> >
> > Since you mentioned embedding in LaTeX, I'd also suggest TikZ; it has a
> > huge manual, but /very/ well written, with quite a few tutorials and
> > examples. One benefit is that it is tightly integrated into LaTeX,
> > but it can also export SVG (though with a few limitations compared to
> > the pdfLaTeX-produced output).  Also, you might want to check out the
> > gallery of TikZ examples here: http://www.texample.net/tikz/ .
> >
>
> The examples are great. The link I provided goes right to the examples
> vs. that sort of home page screen which only shows the most recent
> couple that have been submitted.
>
> I'll have to check out metapost, as I'd not heard of that one.
>
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
> >> Good luck!
> >> John
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > --
> > Marcin Borkowski
> > http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
> > Adam Mickiewicz University
> >
>
>

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