The pict2e package

This package was described in the 2nd edition of "LaTeX: A Document Preparation System", but the LaTeX project team declined to produce the package. For a long time, LaTeX has included a "pict2e package" that merely produced an apologetic error message.

The new package extends the existing LaTeX picture environment, using the familiar technique (cf. the graphics and color packages) of driver files. The package documentation (pict2e.dtx) has a fair number of examples of use, showing where things are improved by comparison with the LaTeX picture environment.

Caveats:

1. Unpacking the package in the usual way (processing pict2e.ins) produces a file pict2e-example.cfg; this file is a satisfactory pict2e.cfg file, for most purposes. You can't generate the documentation (by processing pict2e.dtx) unless you have a pict2e.cfg file. so you are recommended to rename pict2e-example.cfg as pict2e.cfg, beforehand. The file pict2e.pdf, in the distribution, was generated in this way, using PDFLaTeX.

1. If you have not installed the 2003/12/01 release of LaTeX, you already have a pict2e.sty. You should ensure that you install the new pict2e.sty in such a way that it gets chosen by your TeX system in preference to the old version. One way of achieving this is simply to delete the old version, which is to be found on a TDS system in $TEXMF/tex/latex/base

Recommended TDS locations:

   pict2e.sty and driver files:  tex/latex/pict2e
   pict2e.pdf, p2e-drivers.pdf:  doc/latex/pict2e
   pict2e.cfg:                   tex/latex/[TEXDIST]/graphics.cfg

For bug reports use the GitHub repository: https://github.com/rolfn/pict2e/issues