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<H1>4.2. Creating Figures</H1>
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<H2><A NAME="Types of Figure Formats">4.2.1. Types of Figure Formats</A></H2>
<P>Figure formats are typically either:</P>
<UL>
<LI><EM>vector</EM> based, i.e. a set of drawing instructions
<LI><EM>bitmap</EM> based, i.e. a set of pixels.</UL>
<P>For diagrams which look good when printed, a vector format (e.g. EPS) is required. For window snapshots, a bitmap format (e.g. GIF) is sufficient.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="Generating Bitmap-based Figures">4.2.2. Generating Bitmap-based Figures</A></H2>
<P>With the current popularity of the World Wide Web, most diagramming and image processing tools can now export JPEG, PNG and/or GIF formats. Therefore, if HTML is the only output format you care about for a given document, getting a figure into it is easy.</P>
<P>Occasionally, GIF format is also sufficient for paper-based documents. However, a GIF figure which displays fine in a browser may or may not display correctly in a PostScript document! The reason is that FrameMaker 5.x has problems importing:</P>
<UL>
<LI>certain GIFs in 89a format
<LI>GIFs with interlacing
<LI>GIFs with transparent backgrounds.</UL>
<P>Therefore, if you want to import a GIF file into a PostScript document, you will probably need to stick with GIF 87 format and avoid anything fancy.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="Generating Vector-based Figures">4.2.3. Generating Vector-based Figures</A></H2>
<P>For good quality diagrams, you will need to export your figure from your drawing application into a vector-based format that FrameMaker can successfully import.</P>
<P>The following information may be useful in selecting a vector-based format:</P>
<UL>
<LI>99% of Windows tools have a good WMF export filter, but EPS export is rarely supported and often broken (Visio 3.0 and Adobe Illustrator are known exceptions)
<LI>FrameMaker 5.x on Solaris 2.x has a good EPS import filter, but the WMF import filter seems buggy
<LI>FrameMaker 5.x on Windows 95/NT has a good WMF import filter.</UL>
<P>So, if you are using FrameMaker on Windows 95/NT, WMF is the vector format to use and generating it from a Windows-based tool should be easy. However, if you are using FrameMaker on Solaris, EPS is the vector format to use, but generating it from a Windows-based tool might be tricky.</P>
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<H2><A NAME="Generating EPS From Windows Applications">4.2.4. Generating EPS From Windows Applications</A></H2>
<P>The following approach can often be used to generate an EPS file from a Windows program:</P>
<OL>
<LI>Print PostScript to a file, typically via a PostScript printer configured to use the FILE: port.
<LI>Run Ghostscript's ps2epsi program on the file.</OL>
<P>Depending on the combination of application and printer driver, you may need to hand edit the ps file before you run ps2epsi. See the <A HREF="../faq/faq.html">SDF Frequently Asked Questions</A> for examples.</P>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="Generating FrameMaker Figures">4.2.5. Generating FrameMaker Figures</A></H2>
<P>FrameMaker can be used to produce figures which SDF can import when it is generating PostScript. To do this, the steps are:</P>
<OL>
<LI>Create an anchored frame.
<LI>Draw the figure within it using FrameMaker's drawing tools.
<LI>Save the file into MIF format.</OL>
<P>The main disadvantage with this approach is that FrameMaker 5.x does not provide an easy way to convert the figure to other formats (e.g. GIF).</P>
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