[Tex/LaTex] Why can’t pdflatex print EPS figures

epsgraphicspdftex

The images in my paper are in EPS format. If I execute pdflatex to get a PDF version of my paper, the figures won't appear. I have to typeset using the latex command, and then convert the DVI file to PDF using dvipdf.

Why doesn't pdflatex support EPS figures?

Best Answer

EPS is more than an image format: it's an entire programming language. The way that DVI mode includes EPS images is to simply leave a space for them in the output. If you look at a DVI, you'll find that the EPS images are not actually added to it: they have to be present for appropriate interpretation when looking at the DVI. When you convert the DVI to EPS format (or directly to PDF), it is the conversion tool that deals with the EPS, not TeX at all. (The usual DVI route uses GhostScript: it does contain all of the code to interpret EPS files.)

When producing a PDF directly, the images do have to be properly included by pdfTeX. It doesn't include an EPS interpreter (which would be much too complex to do), and instead expects that some other tool (probably GhostScript) is used first to make PDF files for inclusion. PDF files use some of the same concepts as EPS, but in a way that pdfTeX can use successfully.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Why does LaTeX not embed imported EPS images into the DVI file

DVI is never self-contained: It doesn't contain fonts. Apart from this: The pstricks package puts the code in the dvi (through \special commands). What should it do else? It can't refer to external files. The graphics package doesn't include eps as it is not necessary. The driver (dvips) will have to get the fonts anyway. So it can also load the eps.

[Tex/LaTex] Equivalent of bounding box when compile with pdflatex

As @egreg says in the comments, the original eps file is defective, and gets cropped when it is converted to pdf. The bounding box is wrong, but you probably won't see this in a viewer because the first line is also wrong, causing the file to be displayed as ordinary (non-encapsulated) postscript (so the bounding box will be ignored and you will see a lot of white space around the edges). Luckily, these problems are fairly easy to fix.

Method 1

Rename 'lipari-plot.eps' as 'lipari-plot.ps', and in the terminal, do

ps2eps --ignoreBB lipari-plot.ps

Method 2

Open the eps file in your favourite text editor. Delete the first six lines (those starting with %), and replace them with the following.

%!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-2.0
%%BoundingBox: 124 78 479 735
%%HiResBoundingBox: 124.000000 78.500000 479.000000 735.000000
%%EndComments

Either of these should produce an eps file that can be converted to pdf without any problems.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Why does LaTeX not embed imported EPS images into the DVI file

[Tex/LaTex] Equivalent of bounding box when compile with pdflatex

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