The pantograph (Greek: "all-writer") is a four-bar mechanism used to enlarge or reduce drawings. Its basis is a parallelogram of four links with joints ABCD, as shown in the figure. Link AB is extended to E, which is a fixed point. Link BC may be extended to a point F. The line EF intersects two links at points H and G. F may be anywhere on CD or CD extended, and points H,G will lie on the corresponding links or their extensions. The key to understanding how the pantograph works is the realization that however F may move, the line FE will always pass through H and G. This is certainly not obvious, but a model of the mechanism will demonstrate that it is true. The proposition can be proved by considering similar triangles. If it is true, then it is clear that the motions of F, G and H will be proportional to their distances from the fixed point E. If F moves to F', then H will move to H', for example, and FF' and HH' will be parallel and in the ratio of FE to HE. In fact, this ratio will also be that of EA to EB. Therefore, if F traces out a figure, H will trace out a similar, but reduced, figure. If H traces out a figure, then F will trace out a similar, but enlarged figure.