Hi Folks, I have a JPEG (from rhe Web) of a map of the regions in The Gambia. I want to use that as the basis for preparing an EPS file of the various borders of these regions. The objective is to import it into a document (a number of times).
If I just use ImageMagicks 'convert' program to convert the JPEG into EPS, it's big -- 2.4MB -- because it plants each pixel separately. So the resulting document would be enormous. Also the text in the JPEG doesn't come out too well. And, anyway, in effect it's still a bit-map under another name!
I would be content with an EPS with just the outlines as vector graphics.
So what I'm thinking of is using the JPEG as "background" or "underlay" in a drawing program so that I could simply use the mouse to plot in the outlines I want into a (transparent layer on top of that, and then save the resulting layer (outlines only, but maybe a few text annotations as well) as an EPS file.
I'm not (so far) seeing anything that corresponds to that aim in ImageMagick (but could be wrong, because the documentation for that is massive). I'm guessing that the GIMP could, but I might need some initial guidance on how to start that up for this purpose!
In short, I want to trace the outlines of an image on screen into an EPS file.
There's another program called 'xfig', but I'm pretty sure this doesn't allow a background as I've described.
Any suggestions/help/advice most welcome. Thanks, Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Apr-10 Time: 19:13:45 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
Follow-up: I've found out that the GIMP only deals with raster formats, so the result is going to be a bit-map anyway!
So I guess I'm looking for something completely different (yes, life gets into Monty Pythin mode from time to time.
Ted.
On 25-Apr-10 18:13:47, Ted Harding wrote:
Hi Folks, I have a JPEG (from rhe Web) of a map of the regions in The Gambia. I want to use that as the basis for preparing an EPS file of the various borders of these regions. The objective is to import it into a document (a number of times).
If I just use ImageMagicks 'convert' program to convert the JPEG into EPS, it's big -- 2.4MB -- because it plants each pixel separately. So the resulting document would be enormous. Also the text in the JPEG doesn't come out too well. And, anyway, in effect it's still a bit-map under another name!
I would be content with an EPS with just the outlines as vector graphics.
So what I'm thinking of is using the JPEG as "background" or "underlay" in a drawing program so that I could simply use the mouse to plot in the outlines I want into a (transparent layer on top of that, and then save the resulting layer (outlines only, but maybe a few text annotations as well) as an EPS file.
I'm not (so far) seeing anything that corresponds to that aim in ImageMagick (but could be wrong, because the documentation for that is massive). I'm guessing that the GIMP could, but I might need some initial guidance on how to start that up for this purpose!
In short, I want to trace the outlines of an image on screen into an EPS file.
There's another program called 'xfig', but I'm pretty sure this doesn't allow a background as I've described.
Any suggestions/help/advice most welcome. Thanks, Ted.
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Apr-10 Time: 19:13:45 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Apr-10 Time: 19:28:47 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
Hi,
On 25 April 2010 19:13, Ted Harding Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk wrote:
Hi Folks, I have a JPEG (from rhe Web) of a map of the regions in The Gambia. I want to use that as the basis for preparing an EPS file of the various borders of these regions. The objective is to import it into a document (a number of times).
GMT [1] can do PS output (not sure about EPS). Perhaps that would be more useful to you?
Srdjan
[1] - The Generic Mapping Tools - http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/
On 25-Apr-10 18:40:34, Srdjan Todorovic wrote:
Hi,
On 25 April 2010 19:13, Ted Harding Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk wrote:
Hi Folks, I have a JPEG (from rhe Web) of a map of the regions in The Gambia. I want to use that as the basis for preparing an EPS file of the various borders of these regions. The objective is to import it into a document (a number of times).
GMT [1] can do PS output (not sure about EPS). Perhaps that would be more useful to you?
Srdjan
[1] - The Generic Mapping Tools - http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/
Thanks, Srdjan! In fact, according to that web-page, EPS seems to be its primary output format (Not that there's any problem with converting PS to EPS -- all it needs is a "%%BoundinBox" line planted in the file). However, when I look at the Ref-Man & Tutorial link, there still doesn't seem to be any provision for using an underlying layer to provide the data for tracing into the main layer. Maybe I missed something -- I'll keep looking.
However, you have also reminded me of GIS systems, e.g. 'grass', which do work in layers. So I'll embark on a hunt around there too.
Thanks, Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Apr-10 Time: 20:07:23 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
-
Srdjan Todorovic -
Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk