4.2. Creating Figures

4.2.1. Types of Figure Formats

Figure formats are typically either:

vector based, i.e. a set of drawing instructions
bitmap based, i.e. a set of pixels.

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.

4.2.2. Generating Bitmap-based Figures

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.

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:

certain GIFs in 89a format
GIFs with interlacing
GIFs with transparent backgrounds.

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.

4.2.3. Generating Vector-based Figures

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.

The following information may be useful in selecting a vector-based format:

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)
FrameMaker 5.x on Solaris 2.x has a good EPS import filter, but the WMF import filter seems buggy
FrameMaker 5.x on Windows 95/NT has a good WMF import filter.

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.

4.2.4. Generating EPS From Windows Applications

The following approach can often be used to generate an EPS file from a Windows program:

Print PostScript to a file, typically via a PostScript printer configured to use the FILE: port.
Run Ghostscript's ps2epsi program on the file.

Depending on the combination of application and printer driver, you may need to hand edit the ps file before you run ps2epsi. See the SDF Frequently Asked Questions for examples.

4.2.5. Generating FrameMaker Figures

FrameMaker can be used to produce figures which SDF can import when it is generating PostScript. To do this, the steps are:

Create an anchored frame.
Draw the figure within it using FrameMaker's drawing tools.
Save the file into MIF format.

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).