Vector Formats
Raster Formats
Text Formats
Common Questions About File Formats
File Formats
What are my options for extracting text?
When using one of the text extraction tools – either via command-line or API, you can choose to:
- completely strip the text of white space, non-printing characters, etc
- extract text while preserving the placement of all characters on a page
- generate excepts or abstracts
I need my extracted text to be formatted. Is this possible?
It depends on what you mean by “formatted”. With ASCII text, “formatted” means that the characters are in certain positions on a page. A few examples would be:
- when text is printed on a check, the text must be in specific areas for the check to print accurately
- when spreadsheets are saved as text, it’s important to see what’s in each column.
- if reports are converted to ASCII, the data should be in the correct tables
- if a form is converted to text, the descriptions must align with corresponding fields for data
With the text extraction tools from Visual Integrity, you can count on precision placement of each character. Since the format does not support attributes such as bold, underline or italic, these will all be sacrificed in the conversion process.
CGM – Levels & Profiles
The Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) format is primarily used for the storage and exchange of technical data in industries such as Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, Oil & Gas.
CGM files may contain vector graphics as well as raster images and font text. They are typically used for technical illustrations in SGML/XML documentation systems, and now, more and more, for Web-based systems like IETMS (Illustrated Electronic Technical Manuals) and e-Catalogs.
Over the years, several different versions of CGM have been spawned to meet the needs of various industries. There are specific industry profiles (ATA, MIL, PIP) and four different levels as well as WebCGM. As a result of this diversification, interoperability is often a problem: the target application is unable to reliably interpret the particular flavor of CGM generated by the source application. Many content creation applications have started outputting Level 3 or 4 CGM. However, many applications on the receiving end have not yet implemented full support for these higher levels.
Visual Integrity helps industry manufacturers, suppliers and software vendors turn graphical data into the CGM format. It does so for many source applications which do not offer CGM output, and also for applications which already do – but are incompatible with the end user’s target application.
CGM files generated by our software are compliant with all levels and industry profiles. By default, our software produces the common denominator subset of CGM (we like to call it ‘vanilla CGM’) to ensure optimal interoperability with the viewing, authoring, and publishing environment downstream. This ‘vanilla CGM’ handles files typically produced and used in technical industries.
When should I choose GIF?
GIF is a good format for any simple image with few colors. It is also the only image format that supports animation of a series of files. It is supported well on all browsers, including legacy versions of Internet Explorer. When creating new content online today, most people choose PNG because of it’s better transparency, alpha-channel support, indexed color and smaller file size. GIF is still an absolutely fine, safe choice. if that’s what your editing software outputs and 256 colors is enough, go ahead and use GIF.
What is a lossy format?
Lossy and lossless are terms that describe whether or not an image can be recovered perfectly when it is uncompressed.
With lossless compression (think “Loss -less”), all data that was originally in the file is completely restored when uncompressed. GIF and PNG are Web image formats that provide lossless compression.
On the other hand, lossy compression (Lose) reduces a file by permanently eliminating some information which is imperceptible to the viewer. When the file is uncompressed, only a part of the original information is still there although this may not be noticeable. Lossy compression is generally used for video and sound, where a certain amount of information loss will not be detected by most users. The JPEG image file, commonly used for photographs and other realistic or high-definition images on the Web, is an image that has lossy compression. Using JPEG compression, the creator can decide how much loss to introduce and make a trade-off between file size and image quality. The larger the file size, the higher the quality.
When should I choose PNG?
Most of the time! PNG is a very versatile image format and is generally good in any situation. It’s a safe choice. It’s compact for an image format and supported well by both Web browsers and desktop applications such as Microsoft Office. It is a better choice than GIF for line-art and illustrations which do not contain many colors and it is an equally good choice for high-color images like scans and photos. It supports transparency. At the high-end, JPEG may still be a better choice for detailed photographs and realistic pictures. It’s good to do a few experiments with your images by converting them to both JPEG and PNG-24 and then judge quality versus file size/load time to make your choice.
Why won’t my drawing convert?
There are two types of PDF files – raster PDF and vector PDF. If your drawing will not convert, it is probably a scanned drawing saved as a raster PDF file. Unfortunately, there is no useful data in a raster PDF file for us to extract about the objects or text. When a drawing is scanned, it is reduced to a flat image, comparable to a snapshot or a photocopy. There’s nothing you can do except trace over it manually or with tracing software (raster-to-vector software). One way or another, you need to recreate it.
Our software is designed to convert vector PDF files. These files are created on computers using save, export, print-to-file, etc. These vector PDF files contain a rich data set and all the information we need to accurately extract the drawing and render it in a format Visio or AutoCAD, etc can digest.
For comparison sake, below is a snip of a raster PDF file at 500% where the characteristic “jagginess” or pixelation of raster PDF files can easily be seen. Below it is a snip of a vector PDF file which is remarkably smooth and clear even though it has also been zoomed to 500%. This visual method is a very easy and accurate way to determine if your PDF file is a raster or vector. Most people get both types of files so pdf2cad or pdf2picture may be useful for some of your files.
A raster PDF (scanned drawing) – jagged and grainy at 500% – you need raster-to-vector software to trace or recreate this or you’ll need to manually redraw it.

A sample vector PDF file at 500% – notice how smooth the lines are and how clear the text is. This type of file is best converted with vector-to-vector software like pdf2cad and pdf2picture.
Do I still need an SVG Viewer?
SVG has come a long way since 1999. At that time, Adobe offered a special browser plug-in so SVG files could be viewed. Now, 12 years later, SVG is the graphics foundation of HTML5 and built into all of the major browsers. Below is a list of each browser and when it added reasonable SVG support. If you are using this release or later, you should be able to view SVG without problems. The Adobe SVG Viewer is no longer required.
- > FireFox 4
- > Opera 10
- > Chrome 10
- > Safari 5
- > IE 8
Using SVG in Visio is a Perfect Way to Unlock PDF Content
SVG in Visio is a versatile format for print and Web
Now, you can easily use SVG in Visio and other ps applications. Scalable Vector Graphics, the W3C and HTML5 standard (SVG) is one of the vector output formats in pdf2picture. Just select the PDF files you want to convert and choose SVG as the output format. The resulting file can be opened directly giving you an easy and accurate way to use SVG in Visio.
Using SVG in Visio is a perfect way to unlock PDF content.With the move to HTML5 applications, more and more programs are integrating internal SVG suppport. Visio is one of them. Now, you can convert any PDF file into SVG and open it in Visio in just a few steps which are outlined below. We are finding it to be a better choice that WMF for fonts support and text placement. Here’s how you do it:
The key steps:
1. Use pdf2picture to convert your PDF file to SVG
2. To open in Visio, choose Scalable Vector Graphics
3. Once in Visio, right click on the drawing and Ungroup (ignore any errors Visio may present). You may need to delete an exterior container and right click to ungroup again.
5. When fully ungrouped, you should see pink. Click anywhere outside the margins of the drawing and this will deselect all objects.
6. You are now ready to select and edit whatever you want, including the text.
What Types of PostScript Files Need Conversion?
Many scientific and engineering applications are limited in their export capabilities but one common thread is that they can all output PostScript files. In order to take the output from these applications and use it in the documentation and book-building systems, PostScript is converted to publishing formats such as WMF, CGM, EPS, SVG and MIF. Types of graphics include:
- Schematics from EDA systems such as Mentor Graphics and Cadence
- GIS output from ArcView
- Reports and print streams from mainframes and database systems
- Graphics from legacy systems such as Interleaf and older versions of FrameMaker
- Data plots from medical and technical instruments
- Drawings from CAD systems such as UniGraphics, CATIA, Microstation
Why can’t I see this EPS file on screen?
The EPS format is derived from a printer language and was not intended for display. Some EPS graphics have a preview file attached to them, usually in the TIFF format so that they can be seen on-screen; others display as a grey box. EPS files are very high quality and look great in print and are a universal exchange format in the printing and publishing worlds. To make better use of them, you can:
- open the EPS file in a viewer
- convert the EPS to a native publishing format and edit it
- run the EPS through Acrobat or Distiller to make a PDF that can be viewed
- import the EPS into an illustration package like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw
How do I create a WMF file?
WMF files can be created in several ways on Microsoft Windows systems:
- Most applications support WMF and/or EMF in their Save As or Export menus.
- Ever since Office 2003, you can select graphics, in an application right-click on them, choose Save as Picture… and then select Windows Enhanced Metafile.
- In earlier Office versions, you could copy graphics to the clipboard and use VBA routines to save them as WMF or EMF disk files.
- If you are a software developer, you can feed your GDI display or print code directly to the META FLY library or save them as WMF or EMF files first.
Steps for using PDF in Visio (WMF)
Using the results of pdf2picture or PDF FLY in Microsoft Visio
pdf2picture and PDF FLY can both create files that Visio can import using the native Windows vector graphic format (WMF). It’s also possible for Visio to open DXF files generated by pdf2cad although WMF will yield a better result in most instances.
To use your PDF files in Visio, perform the following steps once you have generated your converted file using either pdf2picture or PDF FLY:
1. Open the file using one of the methods below:
- Choose Open, File and then select File Type: Windows Metafile from the drop-down menu. It’s the last choice at the bottom of the “File Types” drop-down. Once you see your file on-screen, you are ready to move to Step #2.
- Alternatively, if you want to import the file into an existing document or presentation, open that file and select Insert Picture…., From File and choose the file from your hard drive or network file system
2. You should now see the converted drawing on your screen. Important! The drawing is imported as one grouped object and needs to be ungrouped if you wish to edit, remove or add parts of the drawing. To Ungroup your drawing, Select Shape, Grouping, Ungroup.
3. When ungrouping Visio will highlight every discreet object in pink. In order to deselect everything, you need to click anywhere on the page outside of the drawing boundaries.
4. Once the drawing is ungrouped and the objects are deselected, you may select whatever you want to change and it will appear with editing handles.
TIP! If you want to scale the drawing, make sure you “regroup” it by selecting Grouping, Group so that everything is scaled proportionately.
Contact Us if you have problems. The best way to get help is to send the file you are having trouble with along with any comments to support@visual-integrity.com. We’re happy to help!
When do I need the MIF format?
If you need to provide graphics to someone using FrameMaker from Adobe or you are using it yourself, MIF is an important format. MIF stands for “Maker Interchange Format”. It’s an exchange format used extensively in the past in technical documentation groups. It’s sun is fading now as SVG begins to rise in importance at Adobe and in the world-wide web in general as the standard vector format of HTML5.
Why should I choose your PDF output over all the others out there?
Visual Integrity is well know for turning PDF into other formats but our software is also an excellent choice for creating PDF files. Unlike other technologies which use printer-drivers as an intermediate step to create their PDF-files, we have developed core technology which generates the PDF-file directly from within our engine. This leads to a faster, more accurate conversion.
How can I tell if my PDF file is a vector or a bitmap?
As easy way to see if your PDF file contains vector or bitmap content is to magnify the drawing to more than 800%. If you see smooth curves and straight lines, it’s a vector file and the conversion results will be successful. If what you see on screen looks jagged, ragged or pixelated, it is a bitmap file and you will only be able to create a drawing template to aid in redrawing the file in your engineering application.
When converting a CAD drawing, can I preserve the layers?
When a CAD drawing is saved as a PDF file, it still retains information about layers that can be extracted. When converting, pdf2cad looks at color attributes, or other definitions in the PDF file, to create layers. If the option to recognize layers is turned on, pdf2cad gathers all objects with same color and put them on one layer. If the PDF file has three colors, the resulting DXF file will have three layers. It is then easy in AutoCAD to turn off a complete layer. This setting can be found in the Options->DXF tab of PDF FLY or simply under Options in pdf2cad.
How do I edit a PDF file in my MS Office application?
If you want to edit the graphics in a PDF file in Microsoft Office or Visio, you’ll want to try pdf2picture. It operates in both vector and image mode and you can choose which is most appropriate at the time of conversion. Vector mode explodes the file into editable text and objects while image mode makes a high-fidelity copy of the file in an MS Office friendly format.
pdf2image is also available as a low cost option when you just need to use raster image formats. It is ideal for those who work on websites or printed publications like newsletters, brochures and customer bulletins.
To use the graphics produced by either pdf2image or pdf2picture in MS Office, you use Insert > Picture > From File… to add the converted graphics into your document. If you used vector mode (Windows Metafile WMF/EMF), you can now edit text and graphic elements using the Office drawing tools.
Note: Neither pdf2image or pdf2picture are for converting Word documents or reports heavy in text.
Will the software convert any PDF file that I throw at it?
Products from Visual Integrity are designed to convert all well-formed PDF files. If a PDF file was created in an application, it should convert successfully in either vector or image mode. However, if a PDF file was created by a scanner and has already been reduced in the process to a flat image, it will only convert in image mode. If you encounter a file that does not convert or returns errors, send it to us so we can troubleshoot it. These problems are most often caused by poorly formed PDF files.
When should I choose vector or image mode?
There are two basic formats for graphics – vector and image. Vector graphics are made up of objects, lines, curves and text while images are made up of a collection of dots or pixels. Images are also referred to as bitmaps or rasters.
Visual Integrity can convert most PDF files into either vector or image formats. It’s important to know which is best for the job you are doing.
If you need to break a PDF file down into objects and text for editing, then you want to choose a vector format. The vector formats supported in our software are DXF, PDF, PS, EPS, SVG, WMF, EMF, CGM, HPGL and MIF.
If you do not need to edit the file and simply want a sharp copy to insert into a document or to publish on a web-site, you’ll want to go with image formats. The image formats that we support are TIFF, GIF, PNG, JPEG and BMP. If you will be printing the graphic on a laser or ink-jet printer, convert at 150 or 300 dpi (dots per inch) resolution. If publishing to a web-site, use 96 or 72 dpi is best for screen display. Keep in mind that the higher the dpi (resolution), the larger the file size. It’s best to use the lowest resolution which achieves the level of quality you want.
Note! Scanned images can not be transformed by vector mode into lines, text and other vector objects because they are not vector source files. Instead, you will get an exact replica of the PDF as an image that can be used as a tracing layer which aids in the duplication effort. To convert scanned images into vector objects, you need a special class of software called “raster to vector”.
I am sure that my files are PDF files but I can not find them to convert. Why not?
When adding files, pdf2image, pdf2picture and pdf2cad will only display files with a .pdf extension. If the file you want to convert has a different extension, but you are sure that it is a PDF file, you should rename it to include a .pdf extension. PDF FLY is capable of digesting more input formats so it expects files with a .pdf, .ps, .eps or .prn extension.
Can I use pdf2picture to convert PDF to PowerPoint?
pdf2picture converts PDF files into bitmap images as well as WMF, the native vector graphics format for Microsoft Windows. All of the Microsoft Office applications, including PowerPoint and Visio allow import of a variety of graphic types using “Insert, Picture from File”. Depending on the jb, you’ll want to convert using either vector or image mode:
Vector Mode- If you want to edit text or modify the graphic, you’ll want to choose a vector format – either WMF or EMF. Once you have your scalable file, follow the instructions to insert it onto a slide as editable objects. If you notice any problems with the appearance of your text, please see our font troubleshooting tips for how to map them. The fonts defined in the original file may not be on the target system or have a slightly different name.
Image Mode – If you want a true replica of the original file and do not have a need to modify the information, then choose image mode (PNG, GIF, JPEG). It will create a smaller file with high-fidelity.
In pdf2picture, WMF or EMF should be chosen if any of the following are of primary importance:
- scalability
- editability
- ability to magnify with losing sharpness
In the following case, image mode should be chosen when:
- No further editing is required
- Image will not be scaled up in size
- An absolutely identical match is required
- to lock or protect the information from editing or copying
Can I edit PDF files in Visio?
It is definitely possible to edit PDF files in Visio! It involves just a few simple steps:
- Convert the PDF file to WMF or EMF (see which format produces the best results for your file) using pdf2picture. WMF and EMF are the native vector graphic formats for Microsoft applications. Note: if you have previously tried using pdf2cad to convert your PDF file for use in Visio, you might want to try pdf2picture now. Since the the resulting WMF file is a native Windows format, it usually produces a better Visio file.
- Open the WMF file in Visio. You can do this by “right-clicking” on the file and choosing “Open with Microsoft Visio” or by selecting “Open, File” (choose files type Windows Metafile (WMF). > details (PDF)
- Adjust your drawing. You should see your file on the screen now. Adjust your paper size and orientation if necessary. Ungroup the Drawing. Select “Shape, Grouping, Ungroup…” to explode the drawing into individual editable objects and you are ready to make any changes that you want.
- Save as Visio Drawing. That’s it. Once you save the drawing, it is now in the native .vsd format and ready to share with your colleagues if necessary
A Few Words of Caution
- Is your drawing scanned? Before converting, make sure that your PDF file in not a scanned image. If it is, it can not be edited at the object level using this approach. To see if your file can be converted or not, open it in Adobe Acrobat and magnify it to 1000%. If the lines look smooth, you’ll have success. If the lines look jagged or boxy, it is scanned and you will need to use a different approach. > more on how to determine what type of PDF file you have.
- Text as curves. Sometimes, when drawings are originally authored in CAD systems, the text is “plotted” when it is saved to PDF. This means that the text is converted to a series of pen strokes or “curves” and the character information is lost. In this case, you will not be able to edit the text but you will have a graphical representation of it that you can use or replace in context. If you just find that the font does not match the original file, you may need to use the font mapping feature during conversion.
- Objects or shapes? When the drawing is saved to PDF, all information about pre-defined shapes is lost. When opened in Visio, an octagon is eight lines which can be grouped or ungrouped.
- Mind your Memory. Because of the large number of objects in many Visio drawings generated from PDF files, you’ll need a bit of power on your desktop. Every file is different so it’s hard for us to make general recommendations. If you find that the file is opening slowly or takes a while to refresh, you’ll need more memory. It’s not unusual for a converted PDF file to be comprised of more than 50,000 individual objects. This may sound intimidating but pdf2picture makes quick work of it!
- Ask for Advice. If you try to convert a PDF but are not getting the results you expect, ask us to troubleshoot it for you. It’s free and we are happy to help you achieve optimal results. Just send your PDF file tous along with a brief description and your contact info. The most complete requests are handled first.
What is the difference between WMF and EMF?
WMF, or Windows Metafile, is the original 16-bit metafile format. It is the native vector graphics format for the Microsoft Windows platform. It is also the standard format for scalable graphics in Microsoft Office and many other Windows applications. Even though it has been enhanced and extended as a 32-bit format (EMF -Enhanced Metafile), WMF is still the most widely used and supported metafile format on the Windows platform.
The DXF drawing looks fine but it is not to scale. Can this be improved?
The DXF file format does not define physical dimensions using absolute measurements from a ruler. Instead it uses units which the user defines. When you create a PDF file from a CAD drawing, it is transformed to paper/print dimensions and the meaning of the original CAD units are lost but the xy relationship remains. As a result, pdf2cad can not restore the intended dimensions but it does preserve the scale. This means that you can calculate a scaling factor to apply during the conversion to achieve the size drawing you want. By default, pdf2cad uses 1mm(0,03937 inch) in the PDF = 1 unit in the DXF. You can change this under the DXF Options tab. You can also scale the DXF after import into your CAD application.
Tip: Sometimes pdf2cad delivers better precision and more accurate coordinates if you change one of the values in your pdf2cad.ini file. Please try setting the ctm_scale to 10.0 instead of 1.0 (default) in the pdf2cad.ini file. If this does not help, please send us the file to diagnose.
I can’t edit the text when I open the DXF file in AutoCAD. Why not?
If the PDF file contains characters, pdf2cad will convert them and map them as MTEXT objects in the DXF file. Unfortunately, when creating a PDF file from a CAD drawing, the text is not always retained. Sometimes it is “plotted” as pen strokes or turned into curves. When this happens, the character definition is lost. There is nothing that pdf2cad can do about this – it can only reproduce the curves (=SPLINES entities) in the DXF file. What looks like text in the original file may actually just be an object, comprised of a series of pen strokes that looks like a letter.
Tip: to see if the text in your PDF drawing is live and searchable, open the PDF file in Acrobat (Reader) and use the Text Select tool. If you cannot highlight any words, the text is already outlined to curves. If a PDF file contains searchable text, pdf2cad will reproduce it as MTEXT in the DXF file, preserving the fonts and styles.
Tip: To create a PDF with searchable text from AutoCAD, make sure to use TrueType fonts in the drawing and ensure that your printer driver is set to retain text as text instead of converting it to curves. Text can be lost in either of these two steps in creating a PDF file. See how to create a PDF file with searchable text from CAD Digest.
Tip: if your PDF files contain non-Roman font text (such as Chinese, Arabic or Cyrillic), or if the text looks garbled in the DXF output, try using the “Convert characters to curves” option in the General tab of the Options menu of pdf2cad. This outlines the text during conversion to ensure WYSIWYG rendering (not editable).
Why do lines appear to have a width dimension associated with them when converting PDF to DXF?
When you see a width dimension or what look like very fat lines in the drawing, you need to adjust the line width setting. It’s possible to turn off (reduce to zero) the line weight on the DXF Options tab or via Command Line. Change the value of the function zero_linewidth from 0 to 1 in the pdf2cad.ini, which is in the installation directory of pdf2cad and rerun the conversion. The installation directoryby default is C:\Program Files\Visual Integrity\pdf2cad.
Hidden/dashed lines appear to have been separated into individual objects. Why is that?
When the PDF file was created, the dashed lines were created as small individual line segments. Because of this attribute in the PDF file, pdf2cad converts them as small line segments in the DXF file. pdf2cad does not yet have an option to recognize these segments. as a line with a certain dashed-line attribute.
How can I create a PostScript file from an application on my PC?
It is easy it is to create a PostScript file from virtually any application on a PC. Most PC’s are likely to have a PostScript printer driver configured in its printers settings. If not, you must Install a PostScript Printer Driver before going any further.
- Open your file within your application and then select “File…”, “Print”
- Choose your PostScript printer. Note that you can use any PostScript driver included with Microsoft Windows without having the actual printer since you will simply be printing to a file.
- Press “OK” to print to file. Note that the PostScript tab under Properties should be set to Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) for best results.
- You will be prompted for a file name and location. If you do not assign .ps as the extension, the default in Windows will be .PRN. Both are valid input extensions.
- Open your Visual Integrity software and when prompted for a PostScript file to convert, go to the location chosen in Step 4 and select the new .ps or .prn file for conversion.
TIPS:
- The extension does not matter – Some systems give printer files a default extension, like .prn or .plt. This does not matter. If the file has been created using a PostScript printer driven, the result will be a PostScript file that Visual Integrity software can convert.
- Watch out for PCL: Most HP printers use a printer language called PCL. The default mode on HP PostScript printers is usually PCL. PCL can not be converted by TGC. Be sure that your HP printer is in PostScript mode to ensure a successful conversion.
- Save directly as PostScript or EPS files – Many applications allow you to save your files as PS or EPS through their “Save as…” menu. A few even produce PostScript by default. This results in good input for our conversion engine.
- Fonts – Try to use standard PostScript fonts like Helvetica and Times New Roman. Non-PostScript fonts, such as Type 1 fonts and TrueType fonts should be embedded so that the text data is available in the PostScript file. This gives our software the best chance to preserve the fonts during conversion.
Which image format should I choose?
- The image formats used on web sites are JPEG (or JPG), PNG and GIF. JPEG is best for images with many colors such as photos. GIF is best for line art, illustrations and drawings with limited color. PNG is the most versatile and can be used quite broadly on web-sites.
- The image formats used in documents follow a similar rule. GIF, TIFF and PNG are best for images with fewer colors and JPEG is used for images with many colors such as photos. The best test is to use pdf2image to convert to a few different formats and then view them both on-screen and in print to see which gives you the desired result.
- It’s also important to determine what formats your application can import. If the program you want to use only accepts BMP, then you need to convert to this format, even if it produces larger files than PNG.
What resolution (dpi) should I choose during conversion?
- If you are generating images for use on web sites, convert at 72 dpi (dots per inch) or 96 dpi. These settings match screen resolution pixel for pixel for the best match and sharpest display.
- For general office printing, choose 150 dpi. This will generate a crisp image with the smallest file size.
- For office publishing and high quality laser printing, choose 300 dpi. The files will be larger but the images will be very clear.
- For professional printing, choose 300 dpi – 1200 dpi. It’s best to ask your printer who will recommend the best resolution to match his equipment.
CGM Format Overview
The Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) file format is used to render graphics in a wide range of technical applications. It is output by many specialized programs in the aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, automotive and telecommunications industries. CGM is most commonly used in these organizations for product operation, maintenance, repair and other technical manuals. It is also used in the petroleum industry for mapping, lithology cross-sections, seismic traces and well logs. The U.S. military uses CGM for simple redlining on top of raster (map) data. CGM is a format supported both in print and on-line (IETMS). CGM is typically used for technical illustrations in SGML/XML documentation systems, and now, more and more, for Web-based systems like IETMS (Illustrated Electronic Technical Manuals) and e-Catalogs. Outside of these specialized, technical industries, CGM has largely been superseded by formats such as SVG and DXF. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed WebCGM, a profile of CGM enjoying specialized use of on the Web.
Over the years, several different versions of CGM have been spawned to meet the needs of various industries. There are specific industry profiles (ATA, MIL, PIP) and four different levels as well as WebCGM. As a result of this diversification, interoperability is often a problem: the target application is unable to reliably interpret the particular flavor of CGM generated by the source application. Many content creation applications have started outputting Level 3 or 4 CGM. However, many applications on the receiving end have not yet implemented full support for these higher levels.
Visual Integrity helps industry manufacturers, suppliers and software vendors turn graphical data into the CGM format. It does so for many source applications which do not offer CGM output, and also for applications which already do – but are incompatible with the end user’s target application. Input formats include PDF, PostScript, EPS, WMF and EPS.
CGM files generated are compliant with all levels and industry profiles. By default, our software produces the common denominator subset of CGM (we like to call it ‘vanilla CGM’) to ensure optimal interoperability with the viewing, authoring, and publishing environment downstream. This ‘vanilla CGM’ handles files typically produced and used in technical industries.
Notes on Visual Integrity’s Support of CGM:
• Output supports choice of CGM Levels 1-2-3-4
• Compliant with ATA, MIL and PIP industry profiles
• Supports vector graphics, raster images and font-based text
• Supports both metric and abstract scaling
• Curves are retained in Level 3-4 compatible output






































