Bug 71017

Summary: PDF: Include PDF containing vector graphics without rasterizing the PDF
Product: LibreOffice Reporter: rot_753
Component: WriterAssignee: Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: enhancement    
Priority: medium CC: qubit, rot_753
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: Other   
OS: All   
Whiteboard:
i915 platform: i915 features:

Description rot_753 2013-10-29 19:46:38 UTC
I would like to include a pdf containing vector graphics into a Writer document without rasterizing the pdf. I know it's possible to import pdf's as rasterized pictures or via the Drawing component of LibreOffice. But the option with the picture is an unnecessary loss in quality and the Writer files gets bigger. The option with the Drawing component often fails because Drawing is not able to import complex pdf's correctly. 
I know it's possible to include pdf's in latex without rasterizing them. Isn't it possible to implement the same mechanism in LibreOffice?
Comment 1 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2014-11-13 01:18:49 UTC
(In reply to rot_753 from comment #0)
> I would like to include a pdf containing vector graphics into a Writer
> document without rasterizing the pdf.

To make this possible, all of the content inside the PDF would have to be translated into vector markup. Depending upon how much of that PDF markup we can already read in Draw, this might be a big task.

What's the hit right now when importing vector graphics? Do you have an example PDF + ODT that you can attach to show how much bigger the embedded content is inside the ODT?

In any case, this seems like a decent improvement, so setting status -> NEW.
Comment 2 rot_753 2014-11-21 21:45:21 UTC
For me it's not mainly about file size but about quality. It's a pity to loose quality, especially if I want to print the document or if people reuse the pdf and include it into their pdf. It's also useful not to rasterize a pdf if it includes selectable text. 

But I agree it's not a feature a lot of people urgently need. 

Anyway I wasn't thinking of being able to edit the vector shapes after I imported a pdf into Writer (what would be the case if done via Draw). I was more thinking of having a frame in Writer where I could insert a pdf. While editing the Writer file one could display a rasterized preview image of the pdf content. When producing a pdf or printing the document the frame could be filled with the pdf content. As far as I know there are pdf libraries that can combine (i.e. creating an overlay) two pdfs without rasterizing them. 

I know an editor that can do this: LyX (http://www.lyx.org). But it's not exactly a WYSIWYG-Editor. There it's done with LaTeX and the graphicx package.

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