1 2 POTRACE - transform bitmaps into vector graphics 3 4 README for Windows 5 _________________________________________________________________ 6 7This file contains instructions specific to the pre-compiled Windows 8distribution of Potrace. Please see the general README file and the 9man page for general information on usage, how to compile Potrace, 10etc. 11 12 13INSTALLATION for Windows 95/98/2000/NT/XP/Vista/7/whatever: 14=========================================================== 15 16Download the file potrace-XXX.win32.zip (or potrace-XXX.win64.zip if 17you want the 64-bit version). Unpack it with your favorite unzipping 18tool, such as unzip, 7-Zip, WinZip, or just right-clicking on the 19file. 20 21If you have "tar" and "gunzip" installed, you may also get the tar.gz 22file instead of the zip file. 23 24The distribution includes the executable programs potrace.exe and 25mkbitmap.exe. You need to move these files to a place where Windows 26looks for programs, for example C:\WINDOWS. Alternatively, you can 27amend your PATH environment variable, by adding something like the 28following line to C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT: 29 30 PATH=%PATH%;C:\DIRECTORY\WHERE\FILES\ARE 31 32Note: as of version 1.6, the Potrace Windows distribution is built 33using MinGW and not Cygwin. It is no longer necessary to install a 34separate DLL file with Potrace. 35 36 37RUNNING: 38======== 39 40For non-Windows specific usage information, see the file README. 41 42Potrace on Windows runs in much the same way as under Linux and other 43Unix-like operating systems. You must run Potrace from the command 44line (also known as the MSDOS Prompt). File names can be given in Unix 45style or Windows style, thus the following will both work: 46 47 potrace h:/data/file.txt 48 potrace h:\data\file.txt 49 50Wildcards can also be used, as in: 51 52 potrace h:\data\*.* 53 potrace h:/data/*.* 54 55Earlier versions of Potrace had some problems when wildcards and 56backslashes were mixed; these problems seem to have been solved by the 57switch from Cygwin to MinGW. 58 59Another problem that some users have reported is that the generated 60".ps" and ".eps" were not executable under Windows (i.e., one could 61not simply display these files by typing their name on the MSDOS 62Prompt, as should normally be the case if a default application for 63PostScript files has been configured). I was never able to replicate 64this problem, but I believe that it has also been solved by the switch 65to MinGW. 66