Output File: Raster and Vector?

[alleytree]

Hello,

I hired a team of developers to create an online design tool for a printing company. They used ImageMagick in conjunction with FLEX. The tool looks and works great for front-end users, but the developers have not been able to deliver a usable output file for large scale printing.

My question is this:

Is it even possible for ImageMagick to produce PDF or AI output files that keep raster JPGs raster and vector EPS or TTF files vector?

Right now, the tool combines all elements into a single raster file and then traces the image to produce a single large vector. This introduces errors to the shape of text, JPGs and even EPS files. Since I don't know much about ImageMagick, I can't tell if this is a limitation of the tool that we simply cannot overcome or if there is a solution that my developers just haven't discovered.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[fmw42]

I am no expert, but I think the answer is no. see http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/formats/#vector

[alleytree]

Thanks, Frank. That was the perfect link to clarify my question.

If ImageMagick converts everything to raster during import, is it even possible to produce large, high quality output files for printing?

We need to print files as large as 3 feet by 6 feet (1 meter by 2 meter). The early output examples I've seen had highly pixelated text and objects. This makes me question if ImageMagick is the right tool for our needs. I know another firm that uses a combination of Ajax and Dojo. But I would think FLEX and ImageMagick would have worked just as well.

[magick]

If ImageMagick converts everything to raster during import, is it even possible to produce large, high quality output files for printing?

If your input is vector, you can scale at any density. For example:

• convert -density 2400 image.pdf image.png

[alleytree]

Thanks, Magick. So you're saying if I import a vector clipart to ImageMagick, it won't become raster until the output?

The original problem with this output file was that ImageMagick totally pixelated text on output. There were no smooth curves around the letters whatsoever. This really shocked me because I thought that would be the simplest element for ImageMagick to handle.

Is text reproduction a known issue with ImageMagick or do I need to find help for my developers?

Sorry for my amateur questions. I'm a little out of my element here, but I'm just trying to get a better, high level understanding of ImageMagick capabilities before I determine if we need to scrap our project and start from scratch with a different platform.

Thanks!

[magick]

Post an example command here with a URL to your input and output images. We need to visualize the problem before we can comment.

[alleytree]

Hi Magick. Thanks so much for the reply. To help give you a visual for this problem, here are a few links:

Here's the kind of file we'd like to produce using ImageMagick:
http://www.businessearth.com/output_ideal_quality.pdf (Note: Smooth text and clipart that stays sharp (vector) at all resolutions

Here are the kinds of files ImageMagick is currently producing:
http://www.businessearth.com/output_raster_text.pdf (Problem: Text is too pixelated)
http://www.businessearth.com/output_vec ... ed_egg.pdf (Problem: Tool vector traced a raster image to produce smooth but irregular curves)

In the last example, the developers had us increase the file size of the EPS clipart below to 2000 x 2000 pixels, save it as a PDF and upload to the design tool for output: http://www.businessearth.com/easter_tha ... artlab.eps

As you can see between the last two links, the retracing added extra curves to both text and the easter egg clipart.

The question is, can ImageMagick create an output file that maintains vector and raster properties (i.e. a raster JPG isn't traced to be a vector and a vector isn't converted into a lossy raster)? If not, is there another PHP script library that can generate such high quality output files for a commercial printer?

Countless thanks for the help!

[magick]

We get reasonable results with:

• convert -density 144 output_raster_text.pdf -resize 12% image.png

You might get better results with the Poppler or XPDF libraries. There are a number of commercial solutions such as http://www.appligent.com but we do not have any specific recommendations.