mpost(1) General Commands Manual mpost(1)
NAME
mpost, pmpost, upmpost - MetaPost, a system for creating graphics r-
mpost, r-pmpost, r-upmpost - restricted MetaPost
SYNOPSIS
mpost [options] [commands]
mpost --dvitomp dvifile[.dvi] [mpxfile[.mpx]]
DESCRIPTION
MetaPost interprets the MetaPost language and produces PostScript (EPS)
or Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) pictures. The MetaPost language is
similar to Knuth's Metafont with additional features for including
tex(1) or troff(1) commands and accessing features of PostScript not
found in Metafont.
MetaPost is normally used with a set of basic macros, and it will use
its executable name as the name of the preload file to use. For
example, when called as mpost the mpost.mp file is used, which simply
reads plain.mp. When the --ini option is given, preloading does not
happen.
The commands given on the command line to the MetaPost program are
passed to it as the first input line. (But it is often easier to type
extended arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to
gobble up or misinterpret MetaPost's favorite symbols, like semicolons,
unless you quote them.) The normal usage is to say mpost figs to
process the file figs.mp. The basename of figs becomes the
``jobname'', and is used in forming output file names. If no file is
named, the jobname becomes mpout. The default extension, .mp, can be
overridden by specifying an extension explicitly.
When the --dvitomp option is given, MetaPost acts as DVI-to-MPX
converter only. See dvitomp (1) for details.
The pmpost program is a variant with Japanese support, and upmpost has
Unicode-enabled Japanese support, analogous to ptex and uptex.
All three variants are also installed with an `r-' prefix, that is,
r-mpost, r-pmpost, r-upmpost, which implicitly specify the --restricted
option to make MetaPost safe to run on unknown input; the tex, makempx,
and editor commands are disabled.
This manual page is a mere skeleton. For a list of all command line
options, run --help.
The main documentation for this version of MetaPost can be found in the
User Manual that should have been installed along with the program and
is also available from https://tug.org/metapost.
The MetaPost language is similar to Metafont, but the manual assumes no
knowledge of Metafont. MetaPost does not have bitmap output commands
or Metafont's online display mechanism.
FILES
plain.mp
The standard preload file.
mfplain.mp
The Metafont-compatible preload file.
$TEXMFMAIN/metapost/base/*.mp
The standard MetaPost macros included in the original
distribution.
$TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/*
Various tables for handling included tex and troff.
$TEXMFMAIN/metapost/support/trfonts.map
Table of corresponding font names for troff and PostScript.
psfonts.map
Table of corresponding font names for tex and PostScript.
$TEXMFMAIN/doc/metapost/*
The MetaPost manual and tutorial source, also including sample
figures
SUGGESTED READING
Donald E. Knuth, The Metafontbook (Volume C of Computers &
Typesetting).
TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
SEE ALSO
dvitomp(1), epstopdf(1), mf(1), mptopdf(1), tex(1),
MetaPost home page <URL: https://tug.org/metapost/ >.
AUTHORS
MetaPost was created by John D. Hobby, incorporating algorithms from
the Metafont program by Donald E. Knuth.
Ulrik Vieth adapted MetaPost to take advantage of the advanced path
searching features in more recent versions of Web2C and worked towards
fully integrating MetaPost into the canonical Unix TeX distribution.
The primary author of the current MetaPost was Taco Hoekwater, with
assistance from Hans Hagen and many others. It is currently maintained
by Luigi Scarso.
BUGS
The MetaPost home page is https://tug.org/metapost.
Web2C 2026 31 December 2018 mpost(1)
texlive-bin 2026.78235 - Generated Thu Mar 5 15:50:15 CST 2026