What I produce is intended to be inserted into a lyx document as an eps file.
I am not able to use the builtin lyx table functions. The tables and figures
are separate eps files inserted/imported into a lyx document. What the
publisher gets, besides the printed version of the paper and figures, is a
disk containing the eps files for the figures and tables. IF I could create
the table, properly aligned, AND add arrows and lines within lyx I would do
that - but then export it as an eps file.
Here's the deal. I know that a text editor should be able to do it. As far
as that goes, using kspread to create the text portion worked acceptably BUT
it didn't matter, I couldn't use it because the only output options other
than straight printing to paper is to print to a ps file or a pdf file. I
cannot, thus far, properly edit either filetype.
I can import a ps file into the Gimp but...this is a genetics paper. There
are conventions, plus there are my local lab conventions. Besides nice, neat
columns containing data, I need horizontal lines to separate column titles
and certain segments of data. I also need horizontal arrows to from letter
to letter, ie, C -> T or G -> A, etc but the ascii arrow I just typed in is
not acceptable (vector graphics are what I am needing to work with). It must
be a true arrow which is available from normal vector drawing apps like
kontour and xfig. Neither app, however, can properly format text.
I will use CorelDraw, Freehand, MacDrawPro, and Adobe Illustrator here as
examples of the correct way things are done with vector graphics (I say
"correct" because, especially between Freehand and Illustrator, these are
industry standards, bar none). With ANY of the apps I listed a text field is
produced within which the text is handled consistent with the type of font.
A monospaced font IS a monospaced font no matter what. You draw lines or
arrows, no problem, then add a text field and depending on your needs the
text either aligns perfectly because it is truly monospaced, spaces AND
characters or it behaves the way all proportional fonts do. You manipulate
text fields as individual objects, scalable or movable as a unit.
Xfig is all wrong. First, the choice of monospaced fonts is tremendously
limited (to courier or courier new, it seems). Next, you don't get a text
field, you merely get individual lines of text units so if you wish to enter
multiple lines of data/info, every time you hit enter at the end of a line,
instead of going to the new line WITHIN a text field, you go to the beginning
of a new, independent text field, each one line deep but potentially
infinitely long. This has, apparently, two problems: 1) you cannot
manipulate a single text field, you have to mess with a whole slew of
independent text fields, and 2) each one-line field handles text
independently from the others so that a monospaced font behaves differently
in each line.
The problem with kontour is that even though it does the correct thing,
creating a growable field within which text is to be entered and manipulated
as a GROUP, it improperly handles monospaced fonts so that they do not behave
as monospaced fonts, they act like proportional fonts. Try writing out a
short DNA or RNA sequence alignment for publication without proper monospaced
fonts - impossible. The spaces between words or letters HAVE to be
monospaced - consistent no matter what text is entered or how you do
justification (left, right, center, etc). Kontour doesn't do this (neither,
it turns out, does kpresenter)
Gimp: not made for this sort of thing at all (Photoshop is also not a
table-creating tool). I have imported a ps file from kspread into gimp with
the intention of editing it by adding lines and arrows. Gimp can do the
lines but not the arrows EASILY. Plus you are stuck spending a great deal
more time in app one typing data, then exporting/printing to a ps file,
opening it up in app two and altering it to get anywhere. Why should all
these steps be required in linux when ONE app on a Mac or windoze PC will do
it all within minutes? It's indefensible. I am not trying to dig at linux,
I love and use linux almost exclusively. I WANT to be able to use it for all
my writing and graphics needs but I cannot. I either have to hop onto a
windoze PC or a Mac to do really simple tables! As an example, there is no
reason on this earth why kontour, which is sort of a clone of Illustrator,
shouldn't be able to do most of the same basic sorts of things Illustrator
can do with no effort at all. It cannot. I have used Illustrator before and
it would take me no more than the (literally) same 10 minutes it took me with
Freehand to make the table I need, vs the (literally) HOURS of struggling to
make it in linux using xfig, kontour, gimp, kpresenter, kivio, and qcad.
I had hoped that someone would be able to suggest an app that, perhaps, I am
unaware of that does the graphics and text work properly and
consistently...or that someone would know a trick other than "Well, in this
app, do your text work, export it as an eps. Now take that eps and
import/open it with this app and draw this or that. Then, save it and open
it up in this app and add the final touches. Should take you an hour to 2
hours tops." Why should it be necessary to spend all that time and effort
just to produce a truly simple table?
On Thursday 20 September 2001 04:03 pm, you wrote:
> > Does anyone know of some obscure graphics/vector-drawing app that
> > actually truly understands what monospaced fonts are and how they
> > are dealt with?
>
> I do not really understand your complaint. Almost every texteditor uses
> monospaced fonts, and if you want it as .ps there is always a2ps
> (or your favourite text editor).
>
>
> Maybe youi should simply try to describe the kind of things you want
> to do and maybe give some insight why you want it to do...
>
> Andre'
