[pdftex] MediaBox?

[Hans Hagen]

At 06:23 PM 6/14/01 +0200, Heiko Oberdiek wrote:
>At 16:49 14.06.2001 +0200, Otfried Cheong wrote:
>>
>> > I am not an expert at pdf or pdftex nor at any evolving standards and I
>> > can't appreciate all the consequences of making some change especially
>> > when /ArtBox is a new feature in an evolving pdf standard. Having said
>> > that it strikes me that /MediaBox in pdf corresponds to %%DocumentSize
>> > in ps and /ArtBox corresponds to %%BoundingBox in ps. Hence when
>> > \includegraphics looks for %%BoundingBox for (e)ps inclusion it should
>> > look for /ArtBox for pdf inclusion.
>>
>>I agree.  This all sounds very much as if pdftex should check the
>>ArtBox, and fall back on the MediaBox if it's not defined.  The only
>>question is whether this should replace the current CropBox check, or
>>whether it should be an additional level.
>
>I think the following rules:
>  If ArtBox is not present, it should take the value of CropBox.
>  If CropBox is not present, it should take the value of MediaBox.
>  It is an error, if MediaBox is not present.
>(perhaps similar with TrimBox, ...)
>
>But it is a bad idea to start at ArtBox always.
>Some people wants to include the whole pages, especially,
>if they run pdfTeX to rearrange the pages of a pdf file
>(pdfpages, ...). So the syntax of \pdfximage should be
>extended to say, which Box type pdfTeX should looks first.

there's also bleed box and so. 

also, since pdftexc makes an xform, that can be reused, one should be able
to use multiple instances using different dimensions. 

generally, tex can quite well reposition, change dimensions and so on, so
the best would be not to have a key to pdfximage, but to the reference 

(1) with each graphic, kind of loaded by \pdfximage, pdftex stores all
relevant boxes, thereby the missing boses can default to crop/media as you say

(2) when fetching the image object with pdfrefximage, one can provide a key
that designates the dimensions wanted. 

(3) what about the width/height spec that comes with pdfximage? these
should be stored and (only when given) applied on the box specified when
recalled 
 
Hans
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma at wxs.nl
                      Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
 tel: +31 (0)38 477 53 69 | fax: +31 (0)38 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------