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The program that I use as an editor for vector based images is able to export using the following standards:

  • Postscript 2 and 3 ( .ps )
  • PSTricks macro written in Latex ( .tex )
  • Eps ( .eps )
  • SVG ( .svg )

Now after using latex for some time I can't really say which one is better for a latex based workflow, but I have been able to write down some requirements, I need support for :

  • static images only ( no need for animations at this point, also my final goal is always a pdf anyway )
  • inclusion from external file ( I often use relative paths to organize everything in their own directories )
  • usable in styles .sty files
  • lightweight and easy to render in the final pdf ( sometimes latex creates some really hard-to-render images )
  • easy to avoid aliasing / not prone to poor rendering
  • text as path or text as text ( be able to incorporate the text from the image as "normal" text or viceversa )
  • a format that copes well with layouts properties like margins, the center of each element, scaling, etc etc .

Since I'm not new to the imaging world and to the graphics world in general, I see Postscript as the old ancestor of pretty much anything that fits in a pipeline for the production of documents and vector images, I don't wanna sound like I have a biased opinion but probably PS works better for pdf production ? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud. Anyway I'm more interested in the points I gave, especially the quality of the final product is everything to me.

As a special note I would like to know if latex uses an internal representation of a given vector image and what language is used for that.

Martin Schröder
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user2485710
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    Interesting that the program can output SVG, but not PDF (which would make things easier, because then you could use pdflatex directly). – Jake Feb 13 '14 at 13:46
  • @Jake it can, in theory, but I'm not really happy with the quality of this workflow, the program is inkscape by the way. – user2485710 Feb 13 '14 at 13:48
  • @Jake I'm not really happy with using pdflatex directly too, I noticed that is somehow better to first compile the .tex with latex. – user2485710 Feb 13 '14 at 13:50
  • Interesting, I always found the quality of the PDF generated by Inkscape to be fine. Do you have any particular issues that you noticed (both with the Inkscape PDF export and with pdflatex vs latex)? – Jake Feb 13 '14 at 13:59
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    In a nutshell, PS is the compiled raw Postscript instructions, EPS is a self-containing micro PS environment, PSTricks file is the to-be-converted-to-PS instructions and SVG is an independent format. So they are mostly the same except SVG. However, PDF is another complication on top of it :) More here http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/60778/fundamental-differences-pstricks-tikz-pgf-and-others – percusse Feb 13 '14 at 14:02
  • @Jake it's a situation where the the outcome isn't "bad", but there are no real benefits either and probably only small disadvantages in adopting this solution. Take the fact that a pdf it's not easy to edit as the others are, I can edit the other formats even with a text-editor, because the file itself is source code and is human-readable; this cause a list of small issues in the workflow, for example it's hard to optimize a pdf, and yes, sometimes inkscape generates some weird and heavy to render pdf . ... – user2485710 Feb 13 '14 at 14:13
  • There is also a major point for me: inkscape supports 1.4 or 1.5 pdfs, I would like to stay safe and try to lower the version number as much as possible, I noticed that even today, pdfs locked to a 1.3 version are not that rare, same things goes for pdf libraries and the entire pdf-based ecosystem in general, some softwares are really really old. – user2485710 Feb 13 '14 at 14:14
  • @percusse what would be the problem with svg ? not enough tools in latex world ? At this point, following your comment, I'm really between PS and Eps, eps has the "plus" that is quite popular among other vector based editors too. – user2485710 Feb 13 '14 at 14:17
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    ps and eps isn't really a choice. arbitrary postscript can do stuff that you would never want to happen in an image inclusion, it could make multiple pages, or reset the printer or change the font for the rest of the document, so ps is only usable if in fact it is "good" ps that doesn't do any of those things. "EPS" is essentially just a subset of ps that has structured comments asserting that it is safe for this usage. If using pdflatex then whether you use eps or svg effectively need to convert it to pdf to be merged into the document so if you can generate pdf that is likely to be better. – David Carlisle Feb 13 '14 at 15:00
  • @DavidCarlisle I would like a comment on my points, the requirements that I have, also the problem is having a flexible workflow, pdf are not flexible and my editor it's not able to produce the pdf as I would like it to. Please consider writing an answer and elaborate a little more. – user2485710 Feb 13 '14 at 20:27
  • Sidenote: "style files" are called "LaTeX packages" since 1994. – Martin Schröder Feb 14 '14 at 14:02

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