[OS X TeX] from tex->ps to tex->pdf: advice needed

[Paulo Abreu]

Hi all:

Until now, I have been very happy with my tex->dvi->ps process. But
under macosx, displaying pdf is much faster then ps, so having pdf as a
final product makes more sense. Unfortunately, the ps->pdf step takes as
much time as the tex->dvi step, which makes the complete process
tex->dvi->ps->pdf quite long. So I am considering finnaly moving to
tex->pdf, with pdf(la)tex.

The problem are the figures. I have two needs that were perfectly
satisfied with the tex->dvi->ps process above: the creation of simple
figures and the labelling of complex figures. I created simple figures
with pstricks and I labeled the more complex figures (created usually
with comercial programs like adobe illustrator) with psfrag.

None of these tools are available for pdftex, which means I will have to
use new ones, and this is where I ask for your advice.

I know that there is metapost, and that is can be used with pdftex, so I
could use it to replace pstricks. I know nothing of metafont, but I
assume there is a way to learn metapost without having to learn
metafont.

Recently on this list someone pointed to the WARMreader. It is a way to
use xypic to place labels with TeX on any graphic. This seems like a
good alternative, both to psfrag and to metapost. Instead of learning
metapost and warmreader+xypic, I would just learn the latter, create
even the simple graphics with a commercial wysiwyg tool and use
warmreader+xypic to place the labels.

Dropping my knowledge of pstricks and psfrag and learning a new tool is
not an easy step. It took me some time to master pstricks as I do now,
and warmreader+xypic, although very powerfull, seem to required some
effort to master.

So the question is:
What do you have to say about labeling figures using pdftex. Is
warmreader+xypic a good choice and worth the effort of learning? Are
there other approches?

Thanks!

Paulo


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