[pdftex] Native PDFtricks

[Tobias Haustein]

Hi folks,

we're using pdflatex to create PDF documents on the fly in a web application.
Therefore, speed is an important factor for us (every 1/10th second counts).

In order to accelerate the creation of the PDF documents and additionally
improve the quality of the documents, I'd like to use vector graphics instead
of bitmapped graphics for charts (e.g. pie charts, stock charts etc.). As far
as I can see, there are the following alternatives to reach this goal:

1. PSTricks --> does not work with pdflatex

2. MetaPost --> is slow because of external process

3. PDFTricks --> is slow because of multiple external processes

4. graphics/graphicx --> has only few features

5. Include native PDF document --> requires external PDF library

As far as I can see, there is no package that natively supports the PDF
graphics model. The graphics package seems to emit PDF operators through
\pdfliteral, but it is restricted to some very basic commands.

Question: Is there a package that natively (without calling external programs)
produces PDF code for _complex_ graphics?

I've looked on the pstricks package but could not figure out, why it shall not
be possible to emit PDF operations instead of Postscript operations. I've read
the PDF reference from Adobe but not the Postscript spec, therefore I'm not
sure whether PDF is powerful enough. However, it seems to me, that PDF should
contain nearly all required operations that are nescessary to implement a
powerful graphics package for pdfTeX.


Yours,

Tobias Haustein

--
Dipl. Inform. Tobias Haustein

aixigo AG - financial training, research and technology
Schloß-Rahe-Straße 15, 52072 Aachen, Germany
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eMail: tobias.haustein at aixigo.de, web: http://www.aixigo.de