Math & Science ⇒ Word drawings into LaTeX

[ghostanime2001]

Is there a way to get pictures made in Word into LaTeX without loss of quality (or minimal loss) ?

[Stefan Kottwitz]

You could save them in PDF format, either using a Word feature or a free PDF printer software. With pdfLaTeX you can include th pdf image without quality loss.

Stefan

[ghostanime2001]

Let's say i have a picture of a ferris wheel in PDF what happens to all the white space if I include it in LateX? By white space, i mean that if there is a single picture on a page in PDF what happens to that white space when i put it in latex?

[Stefan Kottwitz]

I would use the pdfcrop tool to remove the white space.

Stefan

[ghostanime2001]

Is that the only way? I made a picture of height: 2.72 in and Width: 2.29 can't I selectively take that picture in word and incorporate it into latex ?

[localghost]

Is there a way to get pictures made in Word into LaTeX without loss of quality (or minimal loss) ?

Which drawings done in W0rd are so "complex" that they can't be done in LaTeX (with appropriate packages)?


Thorsten

[frabjous]

Is that the only way? I made a picture of height: 2.72 in and Width: 2.29 can't I selectively take that picture in word and incorporate it into latex ?

What do you mean by "selectively"? Just parts of it?

You could probably clip the PDF with some commands from PGF/TikZ or similar, but I'd recommend either using pdfcrop as already suggested, or cropping it with something like BRISS which provides a GUI for manually selecting the crop region.

[ghostanime2001]

Why can't I attach word documents on this site? this really sucks! but anywho having 10 packages just to draw a simple diagram and knowing what each package's commands are is just too demanding.

Secondly, what i mean is how do u take drawings done in word in original dimensions into latex? and from your posts it seems i need to know PDFlatex or PGF/TikZ. Instead of flipping through the internet what is the command to take pictures made in word into latex?

[localghost]

Why can't I attach word documents on this site? […]

Because this is a LaTeX forum which rarely deals with W0rd documents. So there is no need to allow attachments in formats not related to LaTeX. But you can always put the file into a RAR or ZIP archive and attach it by upload to the forum server.

[…] Secondly, what i mean is how do u take drawings done in word in original dimensions into latex? […]

Stefan has already proposed a possible solution in his reply.

[…] Instead of flipping through the internet what is the command to take pictures made in word into latex?

Same answer as above. Since we mainly discuss here about LaTeX, it cannot be our primary problem to find that out. Furthermore we cannot teach you how to handle your word processor.

Nevertheless you can attach the document to your next post as explained above for those who will try to help.

[frabjous]

and from your posts it seems i need to know PDFlatex or PGF/TikZ.

You definitely don't need to know PGF/TikZ if you want to use the original dimensions. pdflatex is not something you need to "know" -- it works with regular LaTeX documents. The command for including a PDF image is the same as for including any other image:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{graphicx}

in the preamble and:

Code: Select all

\includegraphics{filename}

in the body.

If you need to use regular latex to compile and cannot use pdflatex (though this is a rare occurrence these days), you can convert the PDF to a PS file either using Ghostscript, or Inkscape or similar. For ghostscript

Code: Select all

pdf2ps filename.pdf filename.ps

should work.

But the real question is, why would anyone want to create images in Word anyway? If you don't want to use TikZ or PStricks, etc., surely, a dedicated image program like the GIMP for raster graphics or Inkscape for vector drawings would be better anyway?