ImageMagick convert -- a required bundle to handle EPS on Windows and OSX?

[V Stuart Foote]

Looking at issue fdo#62051
<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=62051>  , why no versions of
LibreOffice seem to handle insertion of EPS.

Looking in OpenGrok at  ieps.cxx
<http://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/core/filter/source/graphicfilter/ieps/ieps.cxx>
  
Linux seems to use the GhostScript -- gs command that is commonly bundled. 
But Windows seems to require use of ImageMgaick convert command.  That is
not normally a program a Windows user would install!

So, I installed an ImageMagick binary (32-bit static
ImageMagick-6.8.9-0-Q16-x86-static.exe) from
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php  and all versions of
LibreOffice through 4.1.x now render a viable image of the EPS.

Can find nothing noting a requirement for ImageMagick as a install
dependency, should ImageMagick be bundled if EPS rendering is depending on
it?  Also, for releases from 4.2.0.4 on, the insert image from EPS results
in a fully black fill for the image preview--suspect that is the move from
PNG to BMP and needs to be adjusted.
 




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Re: ImageMagick convert -- a required bundle to handle EPS on Windows and OSX?

[V Stuart Foote]

So, poking around on this in Bugzilla and OpenGrok, seems there is no
"native" handling of EPS in LibreOffice, and the filters (input & output)
are a mess.

There has been a call for built-in EPS rendering as  fdo#67464
<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=67464>   as an enhancement.

Unfortunately for Windows use, until such an enhancement is implemented,
there are three helper programs that ieps.cxx can call on Windows.

GhostScript -- gswin32c.exe  (
http://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html ) 
ImageMagick -- convert.exe  (
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php#windows )
pstoedit -- pstoedit.exe (
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pstoedit/files/pstoedit/ )

The pstoedit  command is used for the RenderAsEMF calls, and either gswin32c
or convert is used for conversion to bitmaps with the RenderAsBMP calls--not
clear to me which is used where in the import and to make previews. 

So the question becomes which of these should be installed, and are there
any best metohds for doing so?  And  also what documentation/guidance on
their use in LibreOffice (or AOO or legacy OOo) is available?



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Re: ImageMagick convert -- a required bundle to handle EPS on Windows and OSX?

[Christian Lohmaier]

Hi Stuart, *,

On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 8:45 PM, V Stuart Foote  wrote:
> Looking at issue fdo#62051
>   , why no versions of
> LibreOffice seem to handle insertion of EPS.
>
> Looking in OpenGrok at  ieps.cxx
> 
> Linux seems to use the GhostScript -- gs command that is commonly bundled.
> But Windows seems to require use of ImageMgaick convert command.  That is
> not normally a program a Windows user would install!

Nope. ps2edit, convert and ghostscript are tried in that order on all
platforms. The first one that is available will be used.

> So, I installed an ImageMagick binary (32-bit static
> ImageMagick-6.8.9-0-Q16-x86-static.exe) from
> http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php  and all versions of
> LibreOffice through 4.1.x now render a viable image of the EPS.

That might just as well be because ghostscript has trouble with the
border/placement of the image in the preview - that is why the two
other variants are tried first. Those do a better job with that.

> Can find nothing noting a requirement for ImageMagick as a install
> dependency, should ImageMagick be bundled if EPS rendering is depending on
> it?

No. As all of the above is only used to create a preview image of the
EPS file if there is none embedded in the EPS file already.

EPS is a niche format that most of the users won't encounter. So no
need to confuse those by listing those helper programs as a
"installation requirement"

ciao
Christian
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Re: ImageMagick convert -- a required bundle to handle EPS on Windows and OSX?

[V Stuart Foote]

Christian, *,

Not sure I would characterize EPS as simply a niche use.

EPS, still much more so than SVG, is the preferred format for preparation of
vector based technical images, graphs and charts for academic and scientific
publication. When you consider that  Windows continues to hold  the high
percentage of user seats it does---poor support for EPS makes LibreOffice a
poor choice for such work, compounded further by continued lack of support
of TeX based renderings that alienates an entire class of academic users.

Notification that the three EPS helper programs are not bundled with
LibreOffice and that some mix of them is required, with some clear guidance
as to best practices seems reasonable until such time as native EPS handling
can be implemented.

We've cobbled together a simple Wiki entry:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/EPS regards EPS on LibreOffice including
what I believe to be the most functional work around of conversion of EPS to
EMF using Inkscape prior to placement into a LibreOffice document.  Fidelity
of the Inkscape conversion to EMF, for now, is better than that handled by
pstoedit when that helper has been installed for use in generating previews
by LibreOffice.  The vector based rendering of both are far superior to
support with GhostScript or ImageMagick bit maps.

Caolan has several commit in place to address the Impress and PDF issues,
which when the helper apps are installed should return function to all OS
builds.  The now need testing as they roll through the Tinderbox builds.

Stuart






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Re: ImageMagick convert -- a required bundle to handle EPS on Windows and OSX?

[Christian Lohmaier]

Hi Stuart, *,

On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 3:38 PM, V Stuart Foote  wrote:
>
> Not sure I would characterize EPS as simply a niche use.
>
> EPS, still much more so than SVG, is the preferred format for preparation of
> vector based technical images, graphs and charts for academic and scientific
> publication.

So this is perfect example of niche use.
I dare to say that it is not for the merits of eps format, but rather
due to the fact that this is one of the few/only formats that
latex/TeX can digest without any trouble.

(And for actual publication you supply the text and the graphics
separately anyway, as the layouting will be done by the magazine)

> When you consider that  Windows continues to hold  the high
> percentage of user seats it does---poor support for EPS makes LibreOffice a
> poor choice for such work, compounded further by continued lack of support
> of TeX based renderings that alienates an entire class of academic users.

If students are told to use TeX, they don't have a choice but to use
TeX anyway. Even if LO supported it, you'd still need to hand in your
paper created using TeX. And again: this is niche in my eyes.

And even more so as you also correctly stated:
a) on one hand the conversions using those are inferior to the
conversion using dedicated tools
b) for most users it will only be a bitmap representation, not a vector format.

The user is much better off converting EPS to a more suitable format
prior to using it with LibreOffice.

> Notification that the three EPS helper programs are not bundled with
> LibreOffice and that some mix of them is required, with some clear guidance
> as to best practices seems reasonable until such time as native EPS handling
> can be implemented.

I don't think so. LibreOffice doesn't understand EPS. It cannot embed
it as EPS as is in PDF (you need to print to real postscript, that's
the only part where the eps is actually used).
In all other cases a bitmap representation is used (as ~nobody will
have ps2edit installed). And it is a convenience that LibreOffice
hooks into those external programs to create one if there is none
embedded in the EPS.

ciao
Christian
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