Re: Convert the svg files to pdf/eps for a project automatically.

[Hongyi Zhao]

On Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 8:57 AM Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 8:39 AM Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 20, 2021 at 2:18 AM Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> writes:
> > >
> > > > On Mon, Jul 19, 2021 at 4:22 PM Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>     2. Usage of package svg
> > > >>
> > > >>     The purpose of this package is to include standalone SVG graphics 
> > > >> into
> > > >>     a LaTeX document.  The command \includesvg is defined which does 
> > > >> all
> > > >>     necessary steps for this task. It first launches the export of a 
> > > >> SVG
> > > >>     file to a supported file format with Inkscape, if necessary, and
> > > >>     includes the exported graphic file afterwards.
> > > >
> > > > If so, this step will also generate the supported file format by
> > > > LaTeX, then all subsequent jobs will be done by graphicx package
> > > > normally. So, I suspect that the svg package will invoke the graphicx
> > > > package with the above command internally after the supported file
> > > > formats have been generated correctly. If this is the logic used by
> > > > the above command of svg package, then I can't see we need much job
> > > > for writing something like graphicx.el for svg package, I mean, once
> > > > the supported file formats has been exported with inkscape, all
> > > > subsequent workflows, in essential, will be done by other packages.
> > >
> > > I'm not sure if I understand your text above.  For me the case is easy:
> > > If you want to include a svg into your .tex file, you either transform
> > > the svg file into a format which LaTeX understand (e.g. .pdf) in advance
> > > and use \includegraphics to include it (i.e. \includegraphics{pdf-file})
> > > or use the svg package and the command \includesvg
> > > (i.e. \includesvg{svg-file}) which does the transformation on the fly
> > > and in background and includes the file format which is understood by
> > > LaTeX.
> >
> > This is exactly what I want to express. But unlike graphicx package,
> > which support so many graphic file formats, so I also realized another
> > point which may bring some inconveniences: we must keep in mind that
> > which graphic files are supplied with svg format when we're writing
> > the document.
>
> OTOH, considering that svg is not the mainstream graphics file format
> required by major academic journals, so I think the best way to use
> SVG files in LaTeX documents is to pre-convert it to a format that
> LaTeX can understand (for example, PDF) and then include it with
> \includegraphics.
>
> Suppose you use \includesvg in your manuscript and supply the SVG file
> to the publisher, this means that they will do the conversion on the
> fly with their LaTeX typesetting system and additional tool, i.e.,
> inkscape, which, too, would inconvenience publishers.

Based on all above comments, I suggest the following workflow when
using svg graphic file in LaTeX document preparation: once the user
try to include a graphic file which is only available in svg format,
then convert it to pdf/eps automatically.

Regards
-- 
Assoc. Prof. Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com>
Theory and Simulation of Materials
Hebei Vocational University of Technology and Engineering
No. 473, Quannan West Street, Xindu District, Xingtai, Hebei province