Install asymptote with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• asy
• xasy

Project history

The official manual documents Asymptote with copyright years beginning in 2004 for Andy Hammerlindl, John Bowman, and Tom Prince. The project describes itself as inspired by MetaPost, but with a cleaner C++-like syntax, mathematical coordinate framework, and LaTeX-quality label typesetting.

Asymptote grew beyond 2D PostScript-style technical figures into a language that can emit PostScript, PDF, SVG, WebGL, OpenGL, V3D, legacy PRC, and ImageMagick-supported bitmap formats. The current README calls it a powerful descriptive vector graphics language for technical drawing, inspired by MetaPost, and says source, binaries, and documentation are published from the official SourceForge site.

The GitHub repository became the documented development source: the official Git instructions clone https://github.com/vectorgraphics/asymptote, and the GitHub project record dates that public repository to August 2015. The project remains linked to SourceForge for website, downloads, forum, and documentation.

Adoption history

Asymptote adoption is strongly tied to TeX and mathematical publishing. The manual positions it as a standard for typesetting mathematical figures in the way TeX/LaTeX is the de-facto standard for equations, and documents the asymptote.sty workflow for embedding Asymptote code directly in LaTeX documents.

Package-manager adoption is broad because TeX users want asy available from normal system packages alongside TeX Live or distro TeX stacks. The input package facts list Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Alpine, Arch, MacPorts, Nix, and openSUSE package names.

How it is used

Users write .asy programs and run asy to produce technical figures, often from LaTeX builds. The manual documents direct command-line use, interactive mode, command execution with -c, user settings with -u, and LaTeX integration via \usepackage{asymptote}, \begin{asy}...\end{asy}, and latexmk automation.

Configuration is also Asymptote code. The manual says default option values may be placed in config.asy, or in the file named by ASYMPTOTE_CONFIG or the -config option, and that the typical user-level location is the .asy directory in the user's home directory, %USERPROFILE%\.asy on Windows.

Why package nerds care

Asymptote is a wonderful package because it is a whole little language hiding behind a tiny binary name. Installing it adds a compiler/interpreter, a graphics runtime, a LaTeX bridge, a GUI helper, examples, modules, and output pipelines that touch Ghostscript, ImageMagick, PDF, SVG, WebGL, and 3D formats.

For TeX-heavy systems it is also a dependency-shape lesson: the package itself is not just a renderer, but a reproducible figure source format. A .asy file can be versioned next to LaTeX, rebuilt by latexmk, and kept text-diffable, which is exactly the kind of thing package nerds love.

Timeline

• 2004: The official manual copyright period begins for Asymptote.
• 2015-08-03: The GitHub repository record for vectorgraphics/asymptote was created.
• 2024-2026: The manual documents Asymptote 3.x-era output targets, language server protocol support, and current configuration behavior.
• 2026: The manual identifies version 3.12-1095 in the generated documentation header.

Related projects

• MetaPost is the earlier drawing language that inspired Asymptote.
• LaTeX and TeX workflows are central to label typesetting and document integration.
• ImageMagick, Ghostscript, OpenGL, WebGL, PDF, SVG, and PRC are part of the output and rendering ecosystem described by the manual.

Sources

• https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/
• https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/doc/
• https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/doc/Description.html
• https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/doc/Git.html
• https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/doc/LaTeX-usage.html
• https://asymptote.sourceforge.io/doc/Options.html
• https://github.com/vectorgraphics/asymptote