The 2009 Research Science Institute



Images FAQ

1. What is a good graphics program to crop an image and save it as a PS file?
2. How do I send a PS file from work to my Athena account?
3. How do I view a PS file?
4. How do I convert excel graphs to a form which can be inserted into a LaTeX document?
5. How do I convert my JPEG/GIF/BMP/PICT file to a PS file?

1. What is a good graphics program to crop an image and save it as a PS file?

Use the program xv:

athena% add graphics
athena% xv & 

2. How do I send a PS file from work to my Athena account?

If you have the good fortune to be working on a Unix machine of some type, then:

scp filename YOURUSERNAME@athena.dialup.mit.edu:filename

If you aren't on Unix but you can find an SCP client on your work computer, use it to connect to athena.dialup.mit.edu, giving your Athena username and password when prompted, and select the file you want to copy to your Athena account. Where the SCP client is (if there is one at all on your computer), how to run it, and how to use its interface will depend on your situation.

If you can't do either of the above, send email to your Athena account with the file attached, and then use pine to open that email and save the attachment.

3. How do I view a PS file?

athena% gv filename &

4. How do I convert excel graphs to a form which can be inserted into a LaTeX document?

Save the image as a graphic, preferably as PostScript or PNG. Then move the graphic to Athena and convert it to a PS file if necessary.

5. How do I convert my JPEG/GIF/BMP/PICT file to an EPS file?

If your file is called foo and you want the converted file to be named bar.eps:

athena% convert foo eps:bar.eps

if you're on a Linux box, and

athena% add graphics
athena% imconvert foo eps:bar.eps

otherwise.