BM
The output produced by the various graphic export options is not consistent. Specifically:
1. PDF files, whilst appearing to be vector based (as expected) shows pixellated fonts at high zoom. Also, lines connecting boxes do not contain the curved corners of the original image, and lines crossing other lines do not show the "bridge" (indicating non-connection) of the original.
2. EMF files, whilst appearing to be true vector files (ie they retain detail on high zoom), can be huge compared to the PNG version - in my case 5.6 MB vs 116 KB. Surely, the point of vector graphics is that they are considerably smaller than bitmap images. Trying to convert the EMF file to PDF using Acrobat Pro Distiller (versions 6 & 9) failed with a postscript error. Importing the EMF into MSWord then PDF'ing the document resulted in a small PDF file (68KB) containing a true vector image - the only problem being that each object in the image contained artefacts (small white triangles at the corners of objects), which are too large to ignore.
Finally, in the original graphic (the ADF file) multiple lines entering a single box mistakenly overlap rather than condensing to a single line.
Are there plans in place to address these shortcomings and to improve consistency between the various graphic formats?
Hi Mr. Bob,
when we generate PDFs we have to insert the graphics as PNG due to (a) internal API limitations and (b) efforts (it is not completely easy to add vector graphics to PDF). But we have this feature on our list :-)
The EMF format unfortunately does not support all graphical features used by ARIS Express: for example color gradients are not supported, therefor we have to embed them as bitmap graphics. In addition those bitmaps can only be embedded in an uncompressed format in EMF, which explains the large size.
In Word the EMFs are first converted to WordArt images and when saved to the PDF they are converted by Word to vector images (including the errors you have found ... )
Torsten & Ralf
