LyX, PDF Output and Image Quality

2009-11-10 Thread Rob Oakes 
Hi Stefano,

Since I've been playing with this for the past few days, I thought I would
offer my findings so far.

SVG can also be used to wrap bitmap images, but I wouldn't recommend it.

For the professional writing book, I've been experimenting with support for
the different formats and trying to see which one offers the best output
(for both screen and print).  (Since there's an entire chapter dedicated to
images and exchanging data between programs, I've had plenty of time to
play.)  So far, the leader seems to be PDF (with EPS running a close second
place), at least when using pdflatex.  I've experienced occasional weirdness
when processing with XeTeX and still haven't been able to determine why.

Unfortunately, SVG doesn't fare so well.  At least on my Ubuntu 9.10 box,
LyX has a hard time converting the images for preview and LaTeX will produce
all kinds of strange output.  Especially if the SVG makes use of unsupported
tags.

And of course, both Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator will produce SVG with
tags that other applications don't recognize.  (And just because it is SVG
doesn't mean that another SVG editor will be able to read it.  See
http://www.oak-tree.us/blog/index.php/2008/12/13/wpf-svg-xaml-part1 for
more.)  Luckily, however, Inkscape has FANTASTIC support for exporting to
PDF.  (I only discovered this the other day and Inkscape has now become my
new favorite program.)  It can import PDF files from Adobe CS3 and other
programs (while maintaining full support for text and other elements),
resize the document boundaries and then export back to PDF seamlessly.  It
also handles technical drawings created in Dia and Kivio (native file
formats for both programs).  I've even had good luck with material from
Visio (if it's first been exported to PDF).

For raster images, it seems like PNG works the best (though most of the
raster images I've been using are screenshots).  A friend who does
layout/design has suggested that I spend some time with PDF raster images,
but I haven't yet seen the need.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Rob Oakes

-Original Message-
From: Stefano Franchi [mailto:fran...@philosophy.tamu.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:14 PM
To: lyx-users@lists.lyx.org
Subject: Re: lyx and pdf fonts

On 11/10/09, Uwe Stöhr uwesto...@web.de wrote:
Steve Litt schrieb:
 If you draw something, make vector graphics rather than bitmaps, if
 possible. If you need screenshots, use png. Never jpeg, jpeg is only
 for photos.

This is wrong! PNG is as well as JPG or GIF a bitmap graphic. the
difference
 is inly the compression method.
Only PDF and SVG are vector graphics. EPS is also a vector graphics format
 but many EPS images are only wrapped bitmap images. 

Isn't the same true for PDF? You can wrap bitmap files in it, I think (e.g. 
when scanner software offer a Save as pdf option). File format in itself
is 
not necessarily an indication of bitmap vs. vector graphics. With the
possible 
exception of SVG, perhaps (which I use but am pretty ignorant about)?

S.
   





__
Stefano Franchi
Department of Philosophy  Ph:  (979) 862-2211
Texas AM University  Fax: (979) 845-0458
305B Bolton Hall  fran...@philosophy.tamu.edu
College Station, TX 77843-4237

LyX, PDF Output and Image Quality

2009-11-10 Thread Rob Oakes 
Hi Stefano,

Since I've been playing with this for the past few days, I thought I would
offer my findings so far.

SVG can also be used to wrap bitmap images, but I wouldn't recommend it.

For the professional writing book, I've been experimenting with support for
the different formats and trying to see which one offers the best output
(for both screen and print).  (Since there's an entire chapter dedicated to
images and exchanging data between programs, I've had plenty of time to
play.)  So far, the leader seems to be PDF (with EPS running a close second
place), at least when using pdflatex.  I've experienced occasional weirdness
when processing with XeTeX and still haven't been able to determine why.

Unfortunately, SVG doesn't fare so well.  At least on my Ubuntu 9.10 box,
LyX has a hard time converting the images for preview and LaTeX will produce
all kinds of strange output.  Especially if the SVG makes use of unsupported
tags.

And of course, both Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator will produce SVG with
tags that other applications don't recognize.  (And just because it is SVG
doesn't mean that another SVG editor will be able to read it.  See
http://www.oak-tree.us/blog/index.php/2008/12/13/wpf-svg-xaml-part1 for
more.)  Luckily, however, Inkscape has FANTASTIC support for exporting to
PDF.  (I only discovered this the other day and Inkscape has now become my
new favorite program.)  It can import PDF files from Adobe CS3 and other
programs (while maintaining full support for text and other elements),
resize the document boundaries and then export back to PDF seamlessly.  It
also handles technical drawings created in Dia and Kivio (native file
formats for both programs).  I've even had good luck with material from
Visio (if it's first been exported to PDF).

For raster images, it seems like PNG works the best (though most of the
raster images I've been using are screenshots).  A friend who does
layout/design has suggested that I spend some time with PDF raster images,
but I haven't yet seen the need.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Rob Oakes

-Original Message-
From: Stefano Franchi [mailto:fran...@philosophy.tamu.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:14 PM
To: lyx-users@lists.lyx.org
Subject: Re: lyx and pdf fonts

On 11/10/09, Uwe Stöhr uwesto...@web.de wrote:
Steve Litt schrieb:
 If you draw something, make vector graphics rather than bitmaps, if
 possible. If you need screenshots, use png. Never jpeg, jpeg is only
 for photos.

This is wrong! PNG is as well as JPG or GIF a bitmap graphic. the
difference
 is inly the compression method.
Only PDF and SVG are vector graphics. EPS is also a vector graphics format
 but many EPS images are only wrapped bitmap images. 

Isn't the same true for PDF? You can wrap bitmap files in it, I think (e.g. 
when scanner software offer a Save as pdf option). File format in itself
is 
not necessarily an indication of bitmap vs. vector graphics. With the
possible 
exception of SVG, perhaps (which I use but am pretty ignorant about)?

S.
   





__
Stefano Franchi
Department of Philosophy  Ph:  (979) 862-2211
Texas AM University  Fax: (979) 845-0458
305B Bolton Hall  fran...@philosophy.tamu.edu
College Station, TX 77843-4237

Re: LyX, PDF Output and Image Quality

2009-11-10 Thread Liviu Andronic 
Hello

On 11/10/09, Rob Oakes lyx-de...@oak-tree.us wrote:
  Since I've been playing with this for the past few days, I thought I would
  offer my findings so far.

This wiki page [1] discusses the various advantages and drawbacks of
different image formats. Although focused on R, there are many
pointers that could be of more general interest.

Regards
Liviu

[1] http://wiki.r-project.org/rwiki/doku.php?id=tips:graphics-misc:export

LyX, PDF Output and Image Quality

2009-11-10 Thread Rob Oakes 
Hi Stefano,

Since I've been playing with this for the past few days, I thought I would
offer my findings so far.

SVG can also be used to wrap bitmap images, but I wouldn't recommend it.

For the professional writing book, I've been experimenting with support for
the different formats and trying to see which one offers the best output
(for both screen and print).  (Since there's an entire chapter dedicated to
images and exchanging data between programs, I've had plenty of time to
play.)  So far, the leader seems to be PDF (with EPS running a close second
place), at least when using pdflatex.  I've experienced occasional weirdness
when processing with XeTeX and still haven't been able to determine why.

Unfortunately, SVG doesn't fare so well.  At least on my Ubuntu 9.10 box,
LyX has a hard time converting the images for preview and LaTeX will produce
all kinds of strange output.  Especially if the SVG makes use of unsupported
tags.

And of course, both Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator will produce SVG with
tags that other applications don't recognize.  (And just because it is SVG
doesn't mean that another SVG editor will be able to read it.  See
http://www.oak-tree.us/blog/index.php/2008/12/13/wpf-svg-xaml-part1 for
more.)  Luckily, however, Inkscape has FANTASTIC support for exporting to
PDF.  (I only discovered this the other day and Inkscape has now become my
new favorite program.)  It can import PDF files from Adobe CS3 and other
programs (while maintaining full support for text and other elements),
resize the document boundaries and then export back to PDF seamlessly.  It
also handles technical drawings created in Dia and Kivio (native file
formats for both programs).  I've even had good luck with material from
Visio (if it's first been exported to PDF).

For raster images, it seems like PNG works the best (though most of the
raster images I've been using are screenshots).  A friend who does
layout/design has suggested that I spend some time with PDF raster images,
but I haven't yet seen the need.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Rob Oakes

-Original Message-
From: Stefano Franchi [mailto:fran...@philosophy.tamu.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 12:14 PM
To: lyx-users@lists.lyx.org
Subject: Re: lyx and pdf fonts

On 11/10/09, Uwe Stöhr  wrote:
>Steve Litt schrieb:
>>> If you draw something, make vector graphics rather than bitmaps, if
>>> possible. If you need screenshots, use png. Never jpeg, jpeg is only
>>> for photos.
>
>This is wrong! PNG is as well as JPG or GIF a bitmap graphic. the
difference
> is inly the compression method.
>Only PDF and SVG are vector graphics. EPS is also a vector graphics format
> but many EPS images are only wrapped bitmap images. 

Isn't the same true for PDF? You can wrap bitmap files in it, I think (e.g. 
when scanner software offer a "Save as pdf" option). File format in itself
is 
not necessarily an indication of bitmap vs. vector graphics. With the
possible 
exception of SVG, perhaps (which I use but am pretty ignorant about)?

S.
   





__
Stefano Franchi
Department of Philosophy  Ph:  (979) 862-2211
Texas A University  Fax: (979) 845-0458
305B Bolton Hall  fran...@philosophy.tamu.edu
College Station, TX 77843-4237

Re: LyX, PDF Output and Image Quality

2009-11-10 Thread Liviu Andronic 
Hello

On 11/10/09, Rob Oakes  wrote:
>  Since I've been playing with this for the past few days, I thought I would
>  offer my findings so far.
>
This wiki page [1] discusses the various advantages and drawbacks of
different image formats. Although focused on R, there are many
pointers that could be of more general interest.

Regards
Liviu

[1] http://wiki.r-project.org/rwiki/doku.php?id=tips:graphics-misc:export