grap2graph
Convert grap (graph description) to graph format
SYNOPSIS
grap2graph [-h] [-v] [-Nnetfont] [-Ggraphfont] [-Ffontdir] [-dscale] [-Dscale] [-ooutfile] [files…]
PARAMETERS
-h
Print usage information and exit.
-v
Print version information and library paths.
-Nnetfont
Font for node labels (default: Helvetica).
-Ggraphfont
Font for graph title (default: Helvetica-Bold).
-Ffontdir
Additional directory to search for fonts.
-dscale
Scale factor for node distances (default: 1.0).
-Dscale
Scale factor for overall graph diagram (default: 1.0).
-ooutfile
Output file name (default: grap.dot).
DESCRIPTION
grap2graph translates input written in the grap language—a simple descriptive language for scientific graphs, plots, bar charts, and diagrams—into Graphviz's dot format. Originally designed to work with troff via the pic preprocessor, grap excels at data visualization. grap2graph enables rendering these diagrams using powerful Graphviz layout engines like dot, neato, or circo, producing high-quality SVG, PDF, or PNG outputs.
It reads grap source from files or stdin, internally invokes the grap and pic preprocessors (from groff), and generates a dot file with customizable fonts, scales for node distances, and diagram size. This makes legacy grap content compatible with modern tools, ideal for documentation, academic papers, reports, and web publications. No troff processing is needed, simplifying workflows.
CAVEATS
Requires groff with grap(1) and pic(1) support installed. Outputs dot source; use Graphviz tools separately to generate images. Limited to planar layouts depending on input complexity.
USAGE EXAMPLE
grap2graph -N Arial -d 1.5 -o mygraph.dot input.grap
dot -Tsvg mygraph.dot -o mygraph.svg
INPUT HANDLING
Concatenates multiple files; uses stdin if none provided. Supports standard grap syntax for plots, arrows, labels.
HISTORY
Developed by Jef Poskanzer <jef@mail.acme.com> at Acme Laboratories. First released around 2000s as a bridge between grap and emerging Graphviz ecosystem; maintained sporadically, available in groff-related packages on Linux distributions.
