Converting .wmf files to .tiff, .jpeg or the like

[Art Alexion]

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:19 PM, Matthew Flaschen
<matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu> wrote:
> john d. herron wrote:
>> Hello.
>> Is there in Linux any way to convert .wmf (Windows Metafile) image files
>> to some more 'universal' (i.e. less MS'y) format like .tiff, .jpeg or
>> the like?
>> Thanks for  helping.
>> jdh
>
> I found libwmf-bin, which is packaged in Ubuntu
> (http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/libwmf-bin).  It includes a library,
> as well as a simple front-end, wmf2svg.
>
> You can use it like:
>
> wmf2svg file.wmf -o file.svg
>
> or if you prefer, you can open WMF files in Inkscape.
>
> If you just want to convert it directly to a bitmap format like PNG, try:
>
> convert file.wmf file.png
>
> to use the ImageMagick convert program.

In case you didn't catch Matt's reasoning for converting to SVG, WMF
files are vector based and scale nicely.  To retain that scalability,
convert to SVG (scalable vector graphics), instead of a bitmap format
like JPEG.

One other thing to keep in mind if you are converting for the sake of
converting.  Some conversions involve lossy compression.  That means
every time you save the file, you are sacrificing detail.  Even 85%
JPEG compression discards data, and every time you save you discard
more.  An overly converted or saved JPEG starts to look like a
photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy...




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artAlexion
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