Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX and pdfLaTeX - Mirror

Then use the command \usebox{\mygraphic} wherever you want the graphic.
(The graphics can be scaled by placing the \usebox command inside a \scalebox
or \resizebox command.)
3. When the eps file contains vector graphics (as opposed to bitmapped graphics),
it is possible to write a PostScript command which draws the graphics 23 . The
graphic can then be included by issuing the PostScript command wherever the
graphic is needed. Section 16.1 on Page 50 describes this procedure.
Since the final PostScript file includes the graphics commands only once, the
final PostScript file is much smaller. Note that since the graphics commands
are stored in printer memory while the final PostScript file is being printed,
this method may cause the printer to run out of memory and not print the
document.
Although this method results in a small final PostScript file, it still requires
L A TEX to find and read the file containing the PostScript commands.
4. Like the previous method, define a PostScript command which draws the graphics,
but include this command in a L A TEX box. This results in a small final
PostScript file and only requires L A TEX to find and read the file once.
16.1 Defining a PostScript Command
This section describes how to created a PostScript command which draws the graphics
from an eps file containing vector graphics. This procedure does not work if the
eps file contains bitmapped graphics.
To convert the eps graphics into a PostScript command, the eps file must be
broken into two files, one which defines the PostScript dictionary and the graphics
commands, and another which includes the header information and the uses the
previously-defined PostScript command. For example, an eps file created by Xfig
has the form
%!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-2.0
%%Title: /tmp/xfig-fig017255
%%Creator: fig2dev Version 2.1.8 Patchlevel 0
%%CreationDate: Sun Sep 3 15:36:01 1995
%%Orientation: Portrait
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 369 255
%%Pages: 0
%%EndComments
/$F2psDict 200 dict def
$F2psDict begin
...
%%EndProlog
$F2psBegin
...
$F2psEnd
23 While it is possible to construct a PostScript command which draws vector graphics, it turns out
to be a “feature” of eps that is impossible to construct such a command for bitmapped graphics.
Bitmapped graphics are usually converted to eps by having the image (or colorimage) PostScript
operators read the current file as data. It is not possible to put such constructs into a PostScript
procedure. It is possible to change the eps file so that it passes the image data as PostScript strings
rather than reading the file, but this is difficult to automate and generally requires a fair amount of
hand editing of the PostScript.
Since most people are not PostScript experts, hand-editing the PostScript is generally not an
option. If the graphic can be described by PostScript vector primitives, it may be possible to use
the kvec program (see page 19) to successfully convert the graphic to vector format.
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