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I usually use TikZ to generate graphics in LaTeX, but a new coauthor suggested to use Inkscape and EPS files for our graphics. He thinks that we should avoid using additional packages. I never thought about it this way.

My question is whether this is a valid point and one should thus just include EPS files for the figures?

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    What is worse, one additional package or an additional application? I mean, there are a couple of reasons to prefer inkscape, but not this one. Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 18:45
  • Why not draw the pictures in tikz and use the package standalone to get a pdf version of the figure, which can then be included in the .tex file using \includegraphics? You can also use tikz itself to export the figure. See this question and answers: tex.stackexchange.com/q/452/14 Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 20:30

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The standard advice is to use whatever you are comfortable with. Nowadays the most expensive part of the system is the human's time, so optimize your effort first.

Having said this, there is one nagging problem with eps files made in Inscape and other applications: the font of the text part. More often than not people use one font in the body and another one in the illustrations, with clashes as the result (yes, I too sinned here). So if you use eps files, consider packages like psfrag to make the fonts on the illustrations the same as in the body.

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    New version of inkscape can export pdf+latex. This means that the graphic itself is exported as pdf and all text is written, together with placement information, to a tex file. You can then input/import this file in your document Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 19:13
  • Yes, and gnuplot can do the same. This is a very useful feature Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 1:37
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It depends on your journal. Many still require that figures are supplied as self contained (no psfrag of overlaid LaTeX) EPS files. On first glance this would appear to rule out TikZ, but in fact you can still use TikZ, and employing the external library with the appropriate extra bits for EPS (see Export eps figures from TikZ) will naturally spit out EPS for you. When it comes to submission time, you can comment out the TikZ figures and use \includegraphics to add the externalised EPS files like the journal wants.

Do note though, that I'm not aware of any journal that directly accepts TikZ code for figures, so either you do it this way or write each figure into its own document with standalone to output the cropped diagram.

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  • In computer science, conference proceedings are fine with tikz in-document figures (not external). Elsevier features the following text mentionning that camera ready copies ought to be prepared with pdflatex, which would favor tikz (and pretty much rules out pstricks): elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/latex-crc Commented Mar 8, 2012 at 20:22
  • Ah. I'm from physics, and we can be seriously backward sometimes. Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 1:02
  • @Jean-ChristopheDubacq Actually pstricks works fine with pst-pdf package... Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 1:39
  • @Boris I suppose most of it would work; I am not familiar with pstricks (I used to do figures in Postscript directly, not using PStricks). However, tricks like absolute page coordinates will probably not work... (not that I do use them). Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 13:54

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