Guide to LaTeX, Fourth Edition

16 Drawing with LATEX

The inclusion of graphical material from other programs is treated in Chapter 8. Such ‘foreign’ files do add some complications (which are greatly reduced today with LATEX2ε) and can cause portability problems. What would be desirable is a means to do graphics with LATEX itself so that the source text file is fully self-contained.

Standard LATEX does contain the means to make somewhat primitive drawings on its own. The word ‘primitive’ should not be considered derogatory, for simple building blocks are the basic units for constructing very complicated, sophisticated structures. They are also useful for superimposing imported graphics or for adding embellishments to them, as demonstrated in Section 8.1.5.

This chapter describes ...