Importing figures verbatim

[ederag]

It would be useful to have a "verbatim import" feature in ipe. That is, importing a png or pdf, so that it becomes inserted in the ipe file, without modification. (Like xfig or pdftex)
This would fix two problems:

1. The ipe pdf is sometimes much larger (e.g. 35 Mb) than the imported png image (e.g. 1.4 Mb)
2. importing more than one pdf inside an ipe figure.

[otfried]

The PDF file format does not allow a "verbatim import". It is simply not possible to include a PDF file verbatim inside another PDF file.

I've worked on the \includegraphics code in pdftex myself, it is quite complicated. Making this possible inside Ipe is on my to-do list, but it will take time.

Problem #1 has been fixed in 7.1.9.

Problem #2: You can convert each PDF to Ipe separately, and then use copy and paste in Ipe to combine them.

[ederag]

1. Confirmed: with 7.1.9 the pdf shrinks from to 35Mb to 1.5Mb (the png size). Great, congratulations !
   I'm trying to upgrade the opensuse package to this version.

2. copy/paste of an ipe pdf works fine too, thanks for the tip.

3. What would be really nice, would be a reload function (like in xfig), so that if the source of one imported figure was changed, it could be easily reimported, without having to change all the attributes (like size) again. In libreoffice impress, when a single figure is already selected, the imported one gets all the attributes of the selected one. Is there a similar feature I overlooked ?
   Anyway, thanks a lot for ipe, the snapping mechanism is smart !

[otfried]

Starting from 7.2.5, you can now use \includegraphics to import external PDF files.

[ederag]

I just had to add \usepackage{graphicx} in Edit>Document properties>preamble.
And use an absolute path for the file, for it to be found.
For the huge (9.7MB) pdf, the performance drops dramatically (more than 10 seconds between refresh).
But for small files it is great, thanks !