Including Figures in LaTeX

Having trouble including figures in your LaTeX document? Here's a procedure I've developed that should work on most computers that have Mathematica on them.

1. Create figure using whatever software you please.

2. Convert the figure to a bitmap file (.bmp). Most photo manipulation software will do this; sometimes the program you used to create the figure will do this.

3. Open Mathematica. Using the File menu, import the bitmap into the current blank notebook. You must import, not open.

4. Select the cell containing the figure.

5. Under the Edit menu in Mathematica, choose Save Selection As...

6. Choose EPS...

7. Save the file in the same directory as the .tex file you are editing.

8. In your LaTeX file, make sure you have the commands

\usepackage{graphics}

and


\usepackage{epsf}

in your header.

9. To include the file, use the following commands:

\begin{figure}
\scalebox{.6}{\epsffile{Filename.eps}}
\caption{Whatever you want to show up in the document explaining the figure goes here.}
\label{Fi:YourLabel}
\end{figure}

This should work. Note that the figure still does not show up in the .dvi file. That's ok. You're going to want to convert your final draft to .pdf. From the Yap dvi viewer, I convert to PostScript (.ps), and then with GhostScript (my postscript viewer), I convert to Portable Document Format (.pdf). The figures show up very nicely in those files, both the PostScript and .pdf files.

Further note: everything from Step 3 on down must occur on the same computer. I tried converting a bitmap to eps on a Mac, and then transferring it to PC. It didn't work.

Further note: Even if you create the figure in Mathematica, you cannot directly save it as a .eps file and expect it to work. You have to "wash" it through the bitmap converter.

Hope this helps. Yes, including figures in LaTeX is a royal pain, but if you follow this procedure, it should work out for you.

Here is a complete document in LaTeX for which this procedure worked.

[begin file FigureExample.tex]
\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{graphics}
\usepackage{epsf}

\begin{document}

Testing the Figure Environment.

\begin{figure}[h]
\scalebox{.4}{\epsffile{Groove.eps}}
\caption{MyLabel}
\label{Fi:Groove}
\end{figure}

Here is a sample document for which this procedure worked.

\end{document}
[end file: FigureExample.tex]

In Christ.