Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ Displaying error of raster graphics

[Keckema2]

Dear Experts,

for my doctoral thesis, I do include raster graphics (file type JPG or PNG) via the common "figure"-environment into LaTeX documents, using MiKTeX 24.1 and TeXnicCenter 2.02 with the compiling mode "LaTeX -> PDF".

When the resulting PDF-file is displayed on screen in several PDF-viewers such as Adobe Acrobat (several versions including the latest), weird displaying errors occur at certain magnifications within the raster graphics. They come as horizontal offsets/misalignments which cut through the graphic like horizontal lines and are quite random regarding position, amount and magnification. Please find attached a corresponding, exemplary screenshot out of Acrobat XI Pro.

The error does not occur if the document is printed on paper. It also doesn't occur when the option "smooth images" is deactivated in Adobe Acrobat. However, just deactivating it would not be a solution, because the graphic looks too pixilated without smoothing, and the latter is activated by default in Acrobat AFAIK and thus will be for most readers of the thesis.

It seems to be a PDF- and/or Acrobat-related problem, not specific to LaTeX. I couldn't solve it by general search on the internet. Because the LaTeX-community and this forum are so sophisticated and helpful, I herewith would like to ask you for advice. Do I perhaps have to prepare the raster graphics in a certain way (resolution, file type; tried it randomly without success)? Something else?

Thanks a lot in advance for your interest and possible replies!

Keckema

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Keckema,

welcome to the forum!

Try producing vector graphics with your software. Perhaps it supports SVG, PostScript (PS), or PDF output. You can also print from that application to PDF with a PDF software print driver.

In my opinion, the perfect way would be to put the data into a pgfplots diagram that natively produces TikZ/LaTeX-based vector graphics output for a perfect PDF document.

Stefan

[Keckema2]

Thank you, Stefan, for your quick and sound advice. It shows me the optimal way to do it in possible future projects. However, for my doctoral thesis, it won't work, as I use a special thermodynamic software which only allows for raster graphics as output.

Kind regards,
Keckema