Jean-Pierre Chretien wrote:
X-Originating-Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Curtis Osterhoudt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Graphics quality in PDF vs. PS, etc.
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 22:31:00 +0000
Hi, all,
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?
Did you try to create the pdf directly fron xfig ?
Is there a difference with the fig->eps->pdf path
with your graphics ?
Lyx 1.4 can do this flawlessly. Make sure you use lyx 1.4, and:
1. Insert your xfig figures into lyx dirextly, using the external inset.
(Don't export any eps or whatever from xfig!)
When the external inset is used, lyx will do appropriate
conversions whenever you export to (latex, pdf, ps,...)
and lyx 1.4 gets this right. Lyx 1.3 can't use pdflatex
with external insets of the xfig type.
2. Create your pdf with file->export->latex(pdflatex)
This kind of export will create a pdf directly from a .tex file,
without the time-consuming conversions to .dvi and .ps first.
Lyx will invoke transfig (which you must have) in order to
convert the .fig directly to a .pdf image, without extra
conversions to/from .eps
Fine detail may of course end up very small in your pdf document,
but if you zoom in enough in your pdf viewer, all detail will be there.
Helge Hafting
