diff --git a/lib/Makefile.am b/lib/Makefile.am
index ae317d7ad3..14c65493fd 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile.am
+++ b/lib/Makefile.am
@@ -882,8 +882,8 @@ dist_scripts_DATA = \
 	scripts/clean_dvi.py \
 	scripts/convertDefault.py \
 	scripts/fen2ascii.py \
-	scripts/fig2pdftex.sh \
-	scripts/fig2pstex.sh \
+	scripts/fig2pdftex.py \
+	scripts/fig2pstex.py \
 	scripts/fig_copy.py \
 	scripts/layout2layout.py \
 	scripts/legacy_lyxpreview2ppm.py \
diff --git a/lib/configure.py b/lib/configure.py
index 42a773e0ba..0b866144cc 100644
--- a/lib/configure.py
+++ b/lib/configure.py
@@ -391,8 +391,8 @@ def checkConverterEntries():
 \converter date       dateout    "date +%d-%m-%Y > $$o"	""
 \converter docbook    docbook-xml "cp $$i $$o"	"xml"
 \converter fen        asciichess "python $$s/scripts/fen2ascii.py $$i $$o"	""
-\converter fig        pdftex     "sh $$s/scripts/fig2pdftex.sh $$i $$o"	""
-\converter fig        pstex      "sh $$s/scripts/fig2pstex.sh $$i $$o"	""
+\converter fig        pdftex     "python $$s/scripts/fig2pdftex.py $$i $$o"	""
+\converter fig        pstex      "python $$s/scripts/fig2pstex.py $$i $$o"	""
 \converter lyx        lyx13x     "python $$s/lyx2lyx/lyx2lyx -t 221 $$i > $$o"	""
 ''')
 
diff --git a/lib/scripts/fig2pdftex.py b/lib/scripts/fig2pdftex.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3be7004fdf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/scripts/fig2pdftex.py
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: iso-8859-15 -*-
+
+# file fig2pdf.py
+# This file is part of LyX, the document processor.
+# Licence details can be found in the file COPYING.
+#
+# \author Angus Leeming
+# \author Bo Peng
+#
+# Full author contact details are available in file CREDITS
+
+
+# This script converts an XFIG image to something that pdflatex can process
+# into high quality PDF.
+
+# Usage:
+#   python fig2pdftex.py ${base}.fig ${base}.pdft
+# This command generates
+#   ${base}.pdf  the converted pdf file
+#   ${base}.pdft a tex file that can be included in your latex document
+#       using '\input{${base}.pdft}'
+#
+# Note:
+#   Do not use this command as
+#     python fig2pdftex.py file.fig file.pdf
+#   the real pdf file will be overwritten by a tex file named file.pdf.
+#
+
+
+import os, sys, re
+
+
+def runCommand(cmd):
+    ''' Utility function:
+        run a command, quit if fails
+    '''
+    if os.system(cmd) != 0:
+        print "Command '%s' fails." % cmd
+        sys.exit(1)
+
+
+# We expect two args, the names of the input and output files.
+if len(sys.argv) != 3:
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+input, output = sys.argv[1:]
+
+# Fail silently if the file doesn't exist
+if not os.path.isfile(input):
+    sys.exit(0)
+
+# Strip the extension from ${output}
+outbase = os.path.splitext(output)[0]
+
+# Ascertain whether fig2dev is "modern enough".
+# If it is, then the help info will mention "pdftex_t" as one of the
+# available outputs.
+fout = os.popen('fig2dev -h')
+help_msg = fout.read()
+fout.close()
+
+
+if 'pdftex_t' in help_msg:
+    # Modern versions of xfig can output the image without "special" text as
+    # a PDF file ${base}.pdf and place the text in a LaTeX file
+    # ${base}.pdftex_t for typesetting by pdflatex itself.
+    runCommand('fig2dev -Lpdftex -p1 %s %s.pdf' % (input, outbase))
+    runCommand('fig2dev -Lpdftex_t -p%s %s %s' % (outbase, input, output))
+else:
+    # Older versions of xfig cannot do this, so we emulate the behaviour using
+    # pstex and pstex_t output.
+    runCommand('fig2dev -Lpstex %s %s.pstex' % (input, outbase))
+    runCommand('fig2dev -Lpstex_t -p %s %s %s' % (outbase, input, output))
+
+    # manipulates the Bounding Box info to enable gs to produce
+    # the appropriate PDF file from an EPS one.
+    # The generated PostScript commands are extracted from epstopdf, distributed
+    # with tetex.
+    epsfile = outbase + '.pstex'
+    tmp = open(epsfile + '.??', 'w')
+    boundingboxline = re.compile('%%BoundingBox:\s+(\d*)\s+(\d*)\s+(\d*)\s+(\d*)')
+    for line in open(epsfile).xreadlines():
+        if line[:13] == '%%BoundingBox':
+            (llx, lly, urx, ury) = map(int, boundingboxline.search(line).groups())
+            width = urx - llx
+            height = ury - lly
+            xoffset = - llx
+            yoffset = - lly
+            tmp.write('''%%%%BoundingBox: 0 0 %d %d
+<< /PageSize  [%d %d] >> setpagedevice
+gsave %d %d translate
+''' % (width, height, width, height, xoffset, yoffset))
+        else:
+            tmp.write(line)
+    tmp.close()
+    # direct move(rename) may fail under windows
+    os.unlink(epsfile)
+    os.rename(epsfile + '.??', epsfile)
+
+    # Convert the ${pstex} EPS file (free of "special" text) to PDF format
+    # using gs
+    runCommand('gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=%s.pdf %s.pstex'\
+      % (outbase, outbase))
+    os.unlink(epsfile)
diff --git a/lib/scripts/fig2pdftex.sh b/lib/scripts/fig2pdftex.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index da241a6ab5..0000000000
--- a/lib/scripts/fig2pdftex.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,134 +0,0 @@
-#! /bin/sh
-
-# file fig2pdf.sh
-# This file is part of LyX, the document processor.
-# Licence details can be found in the file COPYING.
-#
-# author Angus Leeming
-#
-# Full author contact details are available in file CREDITS
-
-
-# This script converts an XFIG image to something that pdflatex can process
-# into high quality PDF.
-
-# Usage: sh fig2pdf.sh ${base}.xfig
-# to generate ${base}.pdftex_t
-# Thereafter, you need only '\input{${base}.pdftex_t}' in your latex document.
-
-# The external programs
-FIG2DEV=fig2dev
-# Used only by legacy_xfig
-GS=gs
-
-find_exe() {
-    test $# -eq 1 || exit 1
-
-    type $1 > /dev/null || {
-	echo "Unable to find \"$1\". Please install."
-	exit 1
-    }
-}
-
-# modern_xfig() and legacy_xfig() are the functions that do all the work.
-
-# Modern versions of xfig can output the image without "special" text as
-# a PDF file ${base}.pdf and place the text in a LaTeX file
-# ${base}.pdftex_t for typesetting by pdflatex itself.
-modern_xfig() {
-    # Can we find fig2dev?
-    find_exe ${FIG2DEV}
-
-    input=$1
-    pdftex_t=$2
-    pdftex=$3.pdf
-
-    ${FIG2DEV} -Lpdftex -p1 ${input} ${pdftex}
-    ${FIG2DEV} -Lpdftex_t -p${outbase} ${input} ${pdftex_t}
-
-    exit 0;
-}
-
-
-# This function is used only by legacy_xfig.
-# It manipulates the Bounding Box info to enable gs to produce
-# the appropriate PDF file from an EPS one.
-# The generated PostScript commands are extracted from epstopdf, distributed
-# with tetex.
-clean_epsfile() {
-    test $# -eq 1 || exit 1
-
-    # No bounding box info
-    grep '%%BoundingBox' $1 > /dev/null || return 1;
-
-    bbox=`sed -n '/^%%BoundingBox/p' $1`
-    llx=`echo ${bbox} | cut -d' ' -f2`
-    lly=`echo ${bbox} | cut -d' ' -f3`
-    urx=`echo ${bbox} | cut -d' ' -f4`
-    ury=`echo ${bbox} | cut -d' ' -f5`
-
-    width=`expr $urx - $llx`
-    height=`expr $ury - $lly`
-    xoffset=`expr 0 - $llx`
-    yoffset=`expr 0 - $lly`
-
-    temp=$1.??
-    sed "/^%%BoundingBox/{
-s/^\(%%BoundingBox:\).*/\1 0 0 ${width} ${height}\\
-<< \/PageSize  [${width} ${height}] >> setpagedevice\\
-gsave ${xoffset} ${yoffset} translate/
-}" $1 > $temp
-
-    mv -f $temp $1
-}
-
-
-# Older versions of xfig cannot do this, so we emulate the behaviour using
-# pstex and pstex_t output.
-legacy_xfig() {
-    # Can we find fig2dev and epstopdf?
-    find_exe ${FIG2DEV}
-    find_exe ${GS}
-
-    input=$1
-    pdftex_t=$2
-    pdf=$3.pdf
-    pstex=$3.pstex
-
-    ${FIG2DEV} -Lpstex ${input} ${pstex}
-    ${FIG2DEV} -Lpstex_t -p${outbase} ${input} ${pdftex_t}
-
-    # Convert the ${pstex} EPS file (free of "special" text) to PDF format
-    # using gs
-    clean_epsfile ${pstex}
-    ${GS} -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER \
-	-sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=${pdf} ${pstex}
-    rm -f ${pstex}
-
-    exit 0;
-}
-
-# The main logic of the script is below.
-# All it does is ascertain which of the two functions above to call.
-
-# We expect two args, the names of the input and output files.
-test $# -eq 2 || exit 1
-
-input=$1
-output=$2
-
-# Fail silently if the file doesn't exist
-test -r $input || exit 0
-
-# Strip the extension from ${output}
-outbase=`echo ${output} | sed 's/[.][^.]*$//'`
-
-# Ascertain whether fig2dev is "modern enough".
-# If it is, then the help info will mention "pdftex_t" as one of the
-# available outputs.
-CONVERT_IT=modern_xfig
-${FIG2DEV} -h | grep 'pdftex_t' > /dev/null || CONVERT_IT=legacy_xfig
-
-${CONVERT_IT} ${input} ${output} ${outbase}
-
-# The end
diff --git a/lib/scripts/fig2pstex.py b/lib/scripts/fig2pstex.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..54bd35558d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/scripts/fig2pstex.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: iso-8859-15 -*-
+
+# file fig2pstex.py
+# This file is part of LyX, the document processor.
+# Licence details can be found in the file COPYING.
+#
+# \author Angus Leeming
+# \author Bo Peng
+#
+# Full author contact details are available in file CREDITS
+
+
+# This script converts an XFIG image to something that latex can process
+# into high quality PostScript.
+
+# Usage:
+#   python fig2pstex.py ${base}.fig ${base}.pstex
+# This command generates
+#   ${base}.eps    the converted eps file
+#   ${base}.pstex  a tex file that can be included in your latex document
+#       using '\input{${output}}'.
+#
+# Note:
+#   Do not use this command as
+#     python fig2pstex.py file.fig file.eps
+#   the real eps file will be overwritten by a tex file named file.eps.
+#
+
+import os, sys
+
+# We expect two args, the names of the input and output files.
+if len(sys.argv) != 3:
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+input, output = sys.argv[1:]
+
+# Fail silently if the file doesn't exist
+if not os.path.isfile(input):
+    sys.exit(0)
+
+# Strip the extension from ${output}
+outbase = os.path.splitext(output)[0]
+
+# Generate the EPS file
+# Generate the PSTEX_T file
+if os.system('fig2dev -Lpstex %s %s.eps' % (input, outbase)) != 0 or \
+  os.system('fig2dev -Lpstex_t -p%s %s %s' % (outbase, input, output)) != 0:
+  print 'fig2dev fails'
+  sys.exit(1)
diff --git a/lib/scripts/fig2pstex.sh b/lib/scripts/fig2pstex.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 83dc296d98..0000000000
--- a/lib/scripts/fig2pstex.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
-#! /bin/sh
-
-# file fig2pstex.sh
-# This file is part of LyX, the document processor.
-# Licence details can be found in the file COPYING.
-#
-# author Angus Leeming
-#
-# Full author contact details are available in file CREDITS
-
-
-# This script converts an XFIG image to something that latex can process
-# into high quality PostScript.
-
-# Usage: sh fig2pstex.sh ${input} ${output}
-# to generate the pstex_t file ${output}.
-# In turn this file will \includegraphics{${output_base}}.
-# The necessary ${output_base}.eps is also generated by this script.
-#
-# Thereafter, you need only '\input{${output}}' in your latex document.
-
-# We expect two args, the names of the input and output files.
-test $# -eq 2 || exit 1
-
-# Can we find fig2dev?
-type fig2dev > /dev/null || exit 1
-
-input=$1
-output=$2
-
-# Fail silently if the file doesn't exist
-test -r $input || exit 0
-
-# Strip the extension from ${output}
-outbase=`echo ${output} | sed 's/[.][^.]*$//'`
-
-# Generate the EPS file
-outeps=${outbase}.eps
-fig2dev -Lpstex ${input} ${outeps}
-
-# Generate the PSTEX_T file
-fig2dev -Lpstex_t -p${outbase} ${input} ${output}
-
-# The end