[pdftex] PdfTeX and SVG graphics

[John Culleton]

On Saturday 13 November 2004 13:52, John Culleton wrote:
> On Saturday 13 November 2004 11:47, Ben Crowell wrote:
> > John Culleton wrote:
> > >I am reminded of the old story about the tourist asking for
> > > directions from a Vermont farmer. After several false attempts the
> > > farmer finally said: "Mister, if I wanted to go there, I sure
> > > wouldn't start from here!"
> > >
> > :-) I can't speak for Wendel, but personally I'm just trying to switch
> >
> > entirely from proprietary software to open source. SVG is actually the
> > format that is *most* widely supported in open-source software; it's
> > just that open-source vector graphics software doesn't seem to be very
> > mature yet.
>
> I use Metapost which produces EPS.   AFAIK it is vectored and not
> bitmapped. But I will check. I also use PSTricks, another TeX related
> program.  These are both programs of many years standing, mature and
> stable. I am checking on the vector vs. bitmapped question for each.
>
> What kind of graphics are you producing, XY charts, flowcharts, binary
> trees, technical diagrams?  Depending on your needs one or the other of
> these packages could fit.

Just to follow up, I checked with various sources and both PSTricks and 
Metapost create vector graphics, as I suspected. . When converted to pdf 
by e.g., ps2pdf they should still be vectored. Both are open source, 
mature and stable. So if you want to create vector graphics either program 
should do. Metapost is essentially standalone and PSTRicks requires a 
trivial bit of TeX code and a plain TeX run to create the graphic. There 
is no requirement to deal with SVG graphics to meet your requirements. .  

-- 
John Culleton

Short list of publishing/marketing books:
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