\begin{document}
line. The
default preamble is just a \documentclass{article}
line. If you want to use preview while using your own TeX macros in
the text objects, you will have to include your own macro files in the
preamble. Use something like
Once you select a preview or print function from the File menu, Ipe will run LaTeX and\documentclass{article}\input{mymacros.tex}
dvips
on the drawing. You have
the choice between previewing/printing a single page (including
template) of the document, or processing the full document.
To print the current drawing, Ipe runs LaTeX and dvips
to
generate a Postscript file, and then calls the print command from the
configuration panel to print the generated
Postscript file.
For previewing, the behavior is different for the preview page
and preview all functions. To preview the full document,
Ipe processes it as for printing, but then calls a Postscript
previewer like gv
or xpsview
to view the Postscript
file. Again, the preview command has to be set in the configuration
panel.
When Ipe is asked to preview a single page, however, its behavior
is somewhat different. Again LaTeX and dvips
are run to
create a Postscript file, but then Ipe starts up the
Ghostscript Postscript interpreter. This Ghostscript process is
run in the background, and Ipe connects to it through a pipe.
Whenever you select preview again, the previewed image will
appear in the already present Ghostscript window. It is possible to
maintain some synchronization between the Ipe canvas and the
Ghostscript window. This is achieved by setting the Zoom & Pan
button in the configuration panel to
on. Now, whenever you do a zoom or pan operation
in Ipe's canvas, the Ghostscript window will follow the operation.
When you edit the canvas, however, what you will see in the
Ghostscript window will eventually not reflect the current drawing at
all, even if it still follows the zoom and pan operations done within
Ipe.
You can remove the Ghostscript window using the function kill preview in the misc menu. You can also kill the Ghostscript window from your window manager.
Note that when the Ghostscript window is created, it has the same size as Ipe's canvas. If you resize the Ipe window, however, the Ghostscript window will not change. You have to kill Ghostscript and start it again to resize it.