Re: Alternating text and music

[David Wright]

On Sat 27 Jul 2019 at 21:44:59 (+0200), David Kastrup wrote:
> David Wright <address@hidden> writes:
> > On Sat 27 Jul 2019 at 18:57:35 (+0200), David Kastrup wrote:
> >> David Wright <address@hidden> writes:
> >> > On Sat 27 Jul 2019 at 11:32:58 (+0100), Wols Lists wrote:
> >> >> On 26/07/19 12:23, Peter Toye wrote:
> >> >> > 
> >> >> > Thanks very much for all the suggestions. I had asked for an _easy_ 
> >> >> > way!
> >> >> > Also, I'm not 100% fussed about the exact layout as it's only for an
> >> >> > example.
> >> >> 
> >> >> Just a thought ... can't lily chuck out png's? I've never used it, but
> >> >> if it can chuck out one png per line it'll cost a little bit of effort
> >> >> to assemble it in your word processor of choice, but you could import
> >> >> them, and then put the text between the lines.
> >> >
> >> > I would advise against that because PNGs are rastered. The hint is in
> >> > the name: portable-Network-graphics.
> >> 
> >> Uh, what in the name indicates rasterisation?
> >
> > Perhaps I was a little oblique: "Network" indicates that the format is
> > designed for transfer of images over the network, rather than between
> > local applications.
> 
> PDF is a compressed and limited form of PostScript that also allows for
> compressing whole objects.  It supports vectorised {as well as rasterised}
> objects comparatively effectively {and is used a tiny bit on networks}.

Ignoring what's in {} braces, that's the reason why I use PDFs in the
workflow I originally proposed in this thread. Until pdflatex (and
lualatex) appeared, I was including graphics in LaTeX documents using
formats like EPS which involved a lot more effort, not necessarily
because of the formats' intrinsic properties but because of the tools
I had available.

Now that the PDF tools mentioned earlier are available, along with
others (like pdfjam), I can't see any advantage in introducing another
format into a workflow that's aimed at producing a PDF.

I'm not sure what "tiny bit on networks" means, but as for rasters,
of course PDFs support them, otherwise you wouldn't be able to have
photographs in PDF documents. Most of the images that I've scanned
are contained in a PDF "wrapper", which I find a major convenience.

> > I'm not overconcerned whether people see this as a hint not to use
> > PNGs in this workflow. But I assume you're not supporting their use,
> > are you.
> 
> I have no idea who "you" is supposed in that context and what "support"
> is supposed to mean.

I wasn't sure whether your (dak's) comment on my reaction to Wol's
post was expressing (supporting, as in football) a preference for
PNG-based workflows rather than PDF-based or not.

Cheers,
David.