![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 3 Command line options, auxiliary programs, and environment variables |
Ipe supports the following two options:
-sheet
style sheet name-geom
WxH+X+Y-geometry
).
The auxiliary program ipetoipe converts between the different Ipe file formats:
ipetoipe ( -xml | -pdf | -eps | -ps ) [ -export ] [ -noshading ] [-lastview ] infile outfileFor example, the command line syntax
ipetoipe -pdf figure1.eps figure1.pdfconverts
figure1.eps
to PDF format.
When you use the -export
flag, no Ipe markup is included in the
resulting output file. Ipe will not be able to open a file created
that way, so make sure you keep your original!
With the -noshading
flag, the background of generated PDF pages
will not be shaded.
With the -lastview
flag, only the last view of each Ipe page
will be created in PDF or Postscript format. This is often convenient
to make handouts for slides.
The auxiliary program ipetopng converts a page of the document to a bitmap in PNG format. (Of course the result contains no Ipe markup, so make sure you keep your original.) For instance, the following command line
ipetopng 3 150.0 presentation.pdf pres3.pngconverts page 3 of the Ipe document
presentation.pdf
to a
bitmap, with resolution 150.0 pixels per inch.
The auxiliary program figtoipe converts a figure in FIG format into an Ipe XML-file. This is useful if you used to make figures with Xfig before discovering Ipe, of if your co-authors made figures for your article with Xfig (converting them will have the added benefit of forcing your co-authors to learn to use Ipe). Finally, there are quite a number of programs that can export to FIG format, and figtoipe effectively turns that into the possibility of exporting to Ipe.
However, figtoipe is not quite complete. Most seriously, no attempt is made to represent FIG splines, FIG arc-boxes, and embedded images in FIG files. The drawing models of FIG and Ipe are also somewhat different, which makes it impossible to properly render some FIG files in Ipe. Ipe does not support depth ordering independent of grouping, pattern fill, and Postscript fonts. You may therefore have to edit the file after conversion.
You can convert arbitrary Postscript or PDF files into Ipe documents, making them editable. The auxiliary program pdftoipe converts (pages from) a PDF file into an Ipe XML-file. (If your source is Postscript, you have to first convert it to PDF using Acrobat Distiller or ps2pdf.) Once converted to XML, the file can be opened from Ipe as usual.
The conversion process should handle any graphics in the PDF file fine, but doesn't do very well on text--Ipe's text model is just too different.
Note that pdftoipe is not part of the Ipe source distribution. You can download and build it separately.
Ipe, ipetoipe, and ipetopng respect the following environment variables:
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | 3 Command line options, auxiliary programs, and environment variables |