Re: [Matplotlib-users] TeX in xlabel ?

[Arnd B. <arn...@we...>]

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004, Chris Barker wrote:

> Gary wrote:
>
> > Matplotlib doesn't support \text, and it requires that the first and
> > last characters of a TeX string be $.  I guess it only processes
> > mathmode.    Well, it can't do *everything*.
>
> Oh well, I've always thought that if you want to support Math in a
> graphics package, you would actually use TeX, rather than emulating it.
> Maybe like PyX:
>
> http://pyx.sourceforge.net/
>
> The problem, of course, is that requiring a TeX system is a BIG
> dependency! It would be nice if one could re-package the Tex interpreter
> to be embedded. I have no idea how big a job that would be. You'd also
> have all the font issues, of course, but while that would all be a lot
> of work, I'm not sure it would be more work than trying to re-write TeX!
>
> -Chris

OTOH: many people working in science will already have a TeX system
installed, I'd guess.

Another thought: What about an optional PyX back-end for matplotlib?
(If one is interested in really good postscript
output I think PyX is great. Transparency etc.
might be problematic with postscript,
but a combination of postscript lines, symbols and math with bitmapped
graphics should be possible for the PyX back-end).

Best,

Arnd

P.S.: Just to be sure: I am not saying that the postscript
output of matplotlib is bad (Haven't even tested it).