----Original Message Follows----
From: Uwe Stöhr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Curtis Osterhoudt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CC: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Graphics quality in PDF vs. PS, etc.
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 02:31:30 +0200
Curtis Osterhoudt wrote:
I'm currently producing documents using LyX, in which graphics are
often XFig figures. I like the fact that LaTeX fonts can be embedded in
such figures, and look great when the final document is produced*.
However, if such a figure is relatively complicated (for example, a
large color plot of experimental data in which there's lots of small
detail), the final .pdf (using pdflatex) from LyX usually has quite a bit
of detail lost in the figure (small details seem "averaged out" and
therefore blurry), whereas a .dvi or postscript document usually seems to
retain most of the detail of the original graphic. Is this because of a
convoluted conversion path, where at some (maybe more than one) step, some
graphics detail is lost? Is there a way to possibly fix this?
As I understood you, you insert the graphics as EPS in LyX and produce then
the PDF via pdflatex. I also use pdflatex for the PDF-output but insert all
graphics as PDF. This has the advantage that the compilation process is much
faster because JPG, PNG, and PDF-graphics can directly be embedded into a
PDF so that no conversion step is needed. This increases the compilation
time and avoids your problem.
A very good EPS -> PDF converter is Ghostscript (and of course Acrobat).
regards Uwe
Well... In a way. In fact, I'm using the Insert -> External Material ->
XFig way, which does indeed embed an EPS, along with whatever fancy LaTeXy
stuff XFig has shoved in there (I think). I tried converting the EPS to PDF
using "convert" (on a linux system, which I think uses ImageMagick to do the
conversion. This results in a slightly lower quality image than the original
EPS, but no [further] image degradation when exported using Pdflatex.
So from now on, I might use your method of creating PDF files, and just
including them as graphics.
On the other hand, the original problem remains: Why would
1. starting w/ an .eps image;
2. converting the .eps to .pdf using "convert";
3. inserting the .pdf into LyX; then
4. exporting the whole document w/ pdflatex
show (some) degradation, but
1. starting w/ .eps (actually XFig), as sharp as any .eps;
2. inserting the XFig figure into LyX, using Insert->External
Material->XFig;
3. exporting document w/ pdflatex
show (lots of unacceptable) image degradation?
I'd post a minimal example, but the graphics files I'm working w/ are on
the order of 5MB. I may be able to make up something simpler in a few days.
Best wishes, and thanks,
Curtis O.
