CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pdfgraphicsvectorizationfile-conversioneps
Wolpertinger
Wolpertinger

Reputation: 1301

Converting pdf to eps without rasterizing or changing fonts

I have been trying to convert a pdf vector graphic to eps. I tried two commands from the following answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44737018/5661667

The inkscape command inkscape input.pdf --export-eps=output.eps or rather, since --export-eps is deprecated now,

inkscape input.pdf --export-filename=output.eps

nicely converts to a vectorized eps. However, it strangely converts my Times New Roman fonts (the graphic was originally created using matplotlib) to some sans serif font (looks like Arial or something).

The ghostscript version of the conversion from the linked answer

gs -q -dNOCACHE -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -sDEVICE=eps2write -sOutputFile=output.eps input.pdf

keeps my fonts nicely. However, the eps seems to be rasterized despite the -dNOCACHE option.

Is there any way to get one of these to just convert my pdf to eps without modifying it?

Further info: I am using Mac OS. For the first part, my suspicion is that I only have an Arial Unicode.tff installed in /Library/Fonts/. I tried installing some other fonts, but no success for my conversion.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1418

Answers (1)

Luciano Ribas
Luciano Ribas

Reputation: 389

I had the same problem when trying to convert a powerpoint generated pdf to eps format using inkscape.

After trying with gs and disabling the transparency I noticed some areas turned black after eps conversion.

gs -q -dNOCACHE -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -dNOTRANSPARENCY -sDEVICE=eps2write -sOutputFile=output.eps input.pdf

Coming back to inkscape I noticed that Powerpoint added some transparent objects in these areas that turned black. So I manually removed them using inkscape and when converting to eps again the result was perfect!

In short: if there are transparent elements in your pdf, the fonts will probably be rasterized during eps conversion. So, you need to remove these elements.

Maybe there is an easier way to identify them in inkscape. In my case I was able to use Find/Replace (Ctrl+F) to search objects with string "clipPath" and with 'Search option = Properties'. Then I open the Objects Tab (Menu Object->Objects...) and use that to delete each transparent object generated by Powerpoint.

Upvotes: 0

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