Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ Best way to edit .eps figures

[Eenzc]

Hello,

I've been using a mish mash of graphic formats in my documents, I usually try to go for .eps if I can because its vectored and looks nice.

I also use .png quite alot for other images as its got good compression and colour depth. Thus I use the epstopdf package which converts all my .eps files to .pdf files automatically then includes them in my \includegraphics{} (graphicx package).

Thats all nicely, nicely, however when I have a nice vectored graph produced by a program such as Igor or Origin and I want to include an arrow on it with a label etc. or perhaps I just want to edit it a bit. I have to convert it to .png before doing that and of course that means its no longer vectored as so doesn't look as nice as it did before.

What I'm really asking for is a decent graphics program that can handle .eps and re-outputs .eps nicely.

I traditionally use the following but they can't handle .eps:
GIMP
Jasc Paintshop Pro 9
Adobe Photoshop 5

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

[T3.]

What I'm really asking for is a decent graphics program that can handle .eps and re-outputs .eps nicely.

I simply use TeX if need to add something on top of the picture. If it is just a label and/or an arrow then psfrag or overpic can often do the job. For more complicated stuff I use PGF/TikZ and put my graphics into a node. If I need to export such an annotated picture as a separate file then I use preview package (PGF comes with its own externalisation solution).

If you actually need to edit your graphics, then I found Ipe program to be quite nice, but it works with .pdf instead of .eps.

Cheers,

Tomek