"Georg" == Georg Baum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Georg> This problem has been discussed several times Georg> before, but to solve it we would need an algorithm to determine Georg> wether to convert to png or pdf from a given format, and up to Georg> now nobody came up with such a beast.
Good point about the bitmap thing, I'm definitely a vector fan. After looking a little at the devel mailing archives to get an idea of the discussion: I may be wrong, but could it be that people wrongly equate pdf=vector? AFAIK, pdf can hold both types of graphics, and e.g. imagemagick can produce pdfs, but *only* with bitmaps (last time I checked, or am I wrong here?). To my knowledge the only vector ways to go eps->pdf is ghostscript or acrobat. Again, please correct me if I'm wrong.
But maybe for output the bitmaps are not so bad as they seem at first. Most scholarly writing (the target group of lyx) is meant for something like 600dpi laser printer resolution, even if you never really print it out. You can convert your pngs in a way that looks good there. I mean for the same reason pngs mostly work well on the web, and many lyx users probably never noticed that it was being converted (?). See also my user option suggestion below.
I guess the best solution would be to associate a cost to each converter that tells how lossy conversion is.
Without any offense: As a user I would like to have control and not rely on some hidden fuzzy-logic algorithm. Why not an option in preferences-look&feel-graphics? This preference pane is almost empty now. What about something like a tick box "Warn when converting vector graphics to bitmap", and secondly an editable field "approx. target resolution for bitmapped images if necessary".
A completely different path of course would be to count on ghostscript, but maybe lyx shouldn't depend on that. Anyway, just my suggestions, no urgent need on my side (remember I just found out about the auto-conversion for pdflatex yesterday!)
-sven
