Articles in the Software category

1. Gnuplot for the Plotless

   In the recent past, however painful it was, I had adopted a solution using TikZ-PDF, or Matplotlib, or Typst, without giving gnuplot any thought. Now I would venture first with gnuplot. Its syntax is uncluttered and unentangled. It may be easily tested interactively. Changes may be made and checked rapidly, to allow for a faster solution, without compromising on the quality of the output. Yes, gnuplot has come a long way. It is still recognizable. Just as powerful as before, if not more. But it has far more sheen than when I last met it. Power and Beauty have met at last!

2. Using Typst for Letters

   So, I was eager with anticipation when I first stumbled upon mention of Typst [1,2] which exhorted “Compose papers/theses faster”. The Typst home page claims it is a “A new markup-based typesetting system that is powerful and easy to learn.” Piqued by these promising assertions, I decided to take the plunge with Typst for the specific but express purpose of writing letters. I have chronicled my experiences here.

3. Image format conversions

   Although digital images are ubiquitous, one image format does not suit all applications. Printed paper, electronic displays, images on the Web, etc., each call for the same image in a different format. In this tutorial, we explore the different format conversion tools that are currently available. The ImageMagick suite, the cairo backend, the poppler utilities, the Inkscape vector graphics editor, and CairoSVG are each identified for their individual strengths, that make them the tools of choice for specific image conversion tasks.