SPECIALS

The TEX \special{} command is intended to allow the specification in a .tex file of a request to the DVI driver, usually for the insertion of graphical material at that point in the document. It is currently implemented only for DVIALW; other drivers will simply issue a warning message.

The TEX \special{} command is expected to look like one of the following:

    \special{overlay filename}          % absolute positioning
    \special{include filename}          % relative positioning
    \special{insert filename}           % relative positioning
In the first case, the file to be included will be mapped onto the page at precisely the coordinates it specifies. In the other two cases, the upper-left corner of the bounding box will be placed at the current point. The file must then contain (usually near the start) a comment of the form
%%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury
specifying the bounding box lower-left and upper-right coordinates in standard units (1/72 inch). Alternatively, if the comment
%%BoundingBox: (atend)
is found in the file, the last 1000 characters of the file will be searched to find a comment of the form:
%%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury
If the file cannot be opened, or the \special{} command string cannot be recognized, or for relative positioning, the bounding box cannot be determined, a warning message is issued and the \special command is ignored.

Otherwise, the section of the file between the comment lines

%begin(plot)
%end(plot)
is copied to the output file surrounded by
save
300 72 div 300 72 div scale % revert to standard 1/72 inch units
% if relative positioning, then
% (xcp(in 1/72in)-llx) (ycp(in 1/72in)-ury) translate
...PostScript file contents...
restore
Plot files produced by have all the expected commands in them to allow their use in TEX \special{} commands. The two parameters which influence the size of the plot are For example, if a device size of 5in is specified for a standard horizontal frame, the bounding box will be declared to be 5in wide and (8.5/11)×5in = 3.8636in high, so a TEX manuscript requiring the plot could have the following commands at the start of a new paragraph:
\special{include plotfilename}
\vspace*{3.9in}