Importing Equations to Xara X

**remi** · 13 November 2006, 07:24 PM

Hi Bill,

there is an EPS file in post #12, but Xara Xtreme isn't able to interpret this.

Regards,
Remi

**Soquili** · 13 November 2006, 08:01 PM

Thanks Remi, I had overlooked that attachment.

That .eps file is version 3.0 and contains MathType defs within it.

The attached .eps file is version 2.0 and was created in Xara Xtreme and exported as an Artworks eps format.

Is it possible to select the version of post script and/or eps when exporting from LaTeX or MathType?

**jedfrechette** · 13 November 2006, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by Soquili

Is it possible to select the version of post script and/or eps when exporting from LaTeX or MathType?

This is probably configureable in LaTeX, although I can't say that I know how to do it off of the top of my head. My system seems to be generating postcript version 2.0 files at the moment. Trying to import them into Xtreme results in the dreaded "No Filter..." message. Given the large number of possible ways to generate a postscript file from a LaTeX source it may, in fact, be possible to come up with some combination that would make Xtreme happy.

I'll admit I haven't tried manually specifiying all of different flavors of EPS that Xtreme claims to support. Given that I don't think I've ever come across an EPS file generated by any program that Xtreme could import I'm not to optomistic.

In case any of the devels are reading I could care less about working PostScript filters if only there was a working PDF filter. Although I understand that this is a nontrivial problem to solve.

I've attached a couple of example files in case someone more knowledgeable in the black arts of PostScript wants to take a look at them.

**yildi** · 13 November 2006, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by Soquili

Is it possible to select the version of post script and/or eps when exporting from LaTeX or MathType?

Hi Soquili,
I have just tried to choose different formats when exporting from Mathtype, it seems that it is not very flexible. Moreover, it seems to include a binary description of the equation at the beginning of the file. So it does not seem to export slim eps with a chosen version from this soft. But I can open these EPS with GSView without any problem.
From Latex, dvips has probably some switches that could fine tune the ps conversion but this should not be a very comfortable way of getting equations since we must to a lot of acrobatics to convert only the equation instead of the full page (a tool like latex2html does this kind of conversions but its is voodoo magic for me, given my knowledge of these aspects of the Latex system).
Anyway, we would be happy if a next version of XaraX could better import WMF of OLE based WMF. In the waiting transiting a bitmap format seems the only feasible solution to me... Or using a drawing program more directly oriented to LaTeX like the very powerful ipe that can directly include Latex equations in its figures and can export in PDF and EPS its graphics...
Thank you very much.

**Availor** · 14 November 2006, 07:34 AM

I guess Xara does not like math

**Big Frank** · 14 November 2006, 07:51 AM

Or just perhaps I was right and Xara, despite any marketese you may read on their website, is not aimed at or designed for people who wish to use it for such high-end purposes. And trying to get Xara to implement some really useful features that would benefit a vast number of users, like decent text handling, is like pushing a rope, so you have little chance of getting your equation feature implenented. It's a very long queue and you are very much at the back!

**yildi** · 14 November 2006, 08:15 AM

I think that the issue is not specific equations, it concerns reliable OLE integration (but I am not a specialist), since other drawing softs that are not connected with mathematics can import these equations. So we should meet same kind problems while importing other WMFs containing text and symbols...

Moreover, I have bought XaraX because I was convinced that it was a very nice tool for producing pedagogical material for my courses. That is an important sector which has been developping a lot during the last few years. It would be a pity to leave such a market to competition ;-)

Best regards.

**Richard S** · 14 November 2006, 09:40 AM

Do you have a screen capture program? I have Snagit 8 and find it brilliant. It saves in various formats. You can then paste into extreme. regards Richard

**yildi** · 14 November 2006, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by Richard S

Do you have a screen capture program? I have Snagit 8 and find it brilliant. It saves in various formats. You can then paste into extreme. regards Richard

I think that we can get a better quality by pasting the WMF in a vector drawing program that supports it and then exporting to a bitmap format in quite a big size using this program. We can then control the density of the bitmap while this is not possible with a screen capture. Am I wrong?

Regards.

**jedfrechette** · 14 November 2006, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by yildi

I think that the issue is not specific equations, it concerns reliable OLE integration (but I am not a specialist), since other drawing softs that are not connected with mathematics can import these equations.

Agreed, and I would generalize this even more to say that the fundamental problem is that it is very difficult to get vector artwork created in most other programs into Xtreme. Most of the advice in this forum seems to boil down to 'Use Illustrator to convert to...'. If I need to buy a $500 piece of file conversion software in order to effectively use their software maybe Xara should start listing it as a requirement.

With that being said I'm very hopeful that Xtreme's new SVG import capability's will help to remedy this in the near future. What they have in the Linux version is already quite useful.