Creating .eps files from Windows Metafiles
When using the DVI or PS output from LaTeX, you actually have to put
any graphics into some external file, and include that in the final
output. This is because TeX does not manage your images like Word or
WordPerfect; rather, it simply says something like "leave this
box alone, because something else will go in there".
In this sense, WYSIWYG packages are somewhat superior, since it is
very easy to import images of all kinds. Nonetheless, there are times
when even this little extra pain makes LaTeX superior, due to its ability
to guarantee that the captions are correctly numbered, and that they
actually stay with the images.
Assuredly, it is very easy to produce figures for papers in drawing
packages such as PowerPoint, or Visio, as well as importing graphics
from the clipboard in Windows. Most of these files are already in (or
can be converted to) Enhanced MetaFile, or Windows MetaFile format,
which is a terse representation for graphics, storing the image as
a set of lines and text rather than bits. This allows it to be resized
with sharpness. It is such a good idea, that it has actually been thought
of before, notably in the EPS (Embedded PostScript) format. By an amazing
coincidence, this is a common input format to LaTeX's DVI/PS output
formats. By an even more amazing coincidence, there is a package to
convert from {W,E}MF to EPS.
- Download the EMFtoEPS package, from Dirk Struve, at http://www.projectory.de/emftoeps/ and
install it on you machine, making sure to choose a PostScript printer
in your output settings.
- Save your PPT, Word Drawing, or other image into Enhanced Metafile
Format (EMF) as, say, figure.emf
- Open EMFtoEPS (available on the desktop, when remotely logged in
to ransom) and open the EMF file you just saved
- Choose Convert from the menu to do either all files, or those selected
by you
- The files are saved in the same directory, with the extension *.eps,
say figure.eps
- Open the generated EPS file with GhostView,
and choose the File->PS to EPS, allow the bounding box to be automatically
calculated, and save with a different filename, say, figure_use.eps
- You may import figure_use.eps into a latex document.
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