[OS X TeX] Off-Topic: Tool to vectorize bitmapped line art

[Jens Noeckel]

On Dec 22, 2006, at 10:39 AM, Holger Frauenrath wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>
> I am sorry for this clearly off-topic post. But I seem to remember  
> knowledgable people on this list who were in a similar situation.
>
> I would like to convert (a larger number of) bitmapped line art  
> images into vectorized line art (for further editing and, of  
> course, inclusion into LaTeX files). Is somebody aware of any  
> software tool to do this semi-automagically?
>
> It is perhaps a good idea to email me off-list so as to avoid to  
> much list traffic related this off-topic post.
>
> Thank you very much in advance for any suggestions.
> Holger

Very briefly:
http://potrace.sourceforge.net/
http://www.inkscape.org/

I got both of these through fink (fink.sf.net). Inkscape requires X11  
and actually uses potrace. Incidentally, Inkscape's site says they're  
working on a Mac-native version, too. That's worth mentioning on this  
list, I think...

To use potrace, you may also need Imagemagick. The command sequence  
to get a jpg file converted into a vector EPS file is
convert pic.jpg pic.ppm
potrace pic.ppm -o pic.eps

As for your more recent question, I'm Applescript-atheistic, so can't  
help there. Maybe PStill can do this, see
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/3629


Jens



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