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Interesting choice to convert to SVG. WMF are smaller files and the specification has been released in 2017. LibreOffice supports importing/exporting and numero

Interesting choice to convert to SVG. WMF are smaller files and the specification has been released in 2017. LibreOffice supports importing/exporting and numerous other libraries also support the format.

jjcm 6y ago
For an archival format though, SVG is likely a better choice. The small difference in size is worth it for long term accessibility.
- zokier 6y ago
  Except the conversion process is (never) quite perfect, so that's why I prefer original files with known provenance. Just a random example, check out Popular/tennis.{svg,wmf}. And that is just something that is pretty obviously wrong, more worrisome are cases that are more subtly broken.
  - chris_wot 6y ago
    I've been working on the WMF/EMF/EMF+ code, where there is a problem log a bug with LibreOffice.
    - networked 6y ago
      Thanks for pointing this out. It looks like LibreOffice may handle complex graphics better than wmf2svg. You can do batch conversion with it, too. libreoffice --headless --convert-to svg Popular/tennis.wmf However, I haven't found a way to preserve the original canvas size. It seems you need to crop the image separately. inkscape --with-gui --verb FitCanvasToDrawing --verb FileSave --verb FileQuit tennis.svg I'll try this method and upload the LibreOffice conversions in their own archive if they look good. Edit: They look good so far. I'll upload them as SVG-LibreOffice.zip when they are done.
      - chris_wot 6y ago
        Any chance you can lodge a bug about the canvas size? It's a bit of a deep bucket, but good to have the issue lodged so eventually we can fix the issue.
        networked 6y ago
        It doesn't seem like a bug, more of a missing feature in Draw. What I mean by "not preserving the original canvas size" is that when you run libreoffice some-image.ext, Draw doesn't adjust the page size to the image; it puts the image on its default size page. There are several related feature requests in the issue tracker (though none specifically for headless mode). The most relevant is https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81118 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81118, which asks for a feature to fit the page size to the drawing. https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49787 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49787 asks for different page sizes in a single document, which would make it possible to create a page of its exact size for every imported image as a default. The comment https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=112888#c1 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=112888#c... links to several more.
- dehrmann 6y ago
  I recently digitized some VHS tapes, and settled on webm/vp9/opus (and DVD) as a lossy archival format because, like SVG, browsers support it, so it'll be around for a long time.
- cosmotic 6y ago
  I'm not so sure about that. I don't believe there's a reference implementation. SVG has also changed over time and is much more complex. WMF is stable and reliable with a reference implementation.
deleted 6y ago
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networked 6y ago
The WMF originals are included in Clipart.zip with the rest of Microsoft Clipart Extra. I made the SVG conversion thinking people may want to use the clipart on the Web and because more programs support SVG than WMF. After trying several conversion tools I settled on https://github.com/hidekatsu-izuno/wmf2svg https://github.com/hidekatsu-izuno/wmf2svg. It was the best in terms of quality (the backgrounds were properly transparent when they should be, for example) and targeted a vector format.
taffer 6y ago
> WMF are smaller files Depends. bestfrnd.wmf is 65 kB and 35 kB gzipped. bestfrnd.svg is 163 kB but after running it through SVGO it is just 87kB and 18 kB gzipped.

jjcm 6y ago

For an archival format though, SVG is likely a better choice. The small difference in size is worth it for long term accessibility.

zokier 6y ago
Except the conversion process is (never) quite perfect, so that's why I prefer original files with known provenance. Just a random example, check out Popular/tennis.{svg,wmf}. And that is just something that is pretty obviously wrong, more worrisome are cases that are more subtly broken.
- chris_wot 6y ago
  I've been working on the WMF/EMF/EMF+ code, where there is a problem log a bug with LibreOffice.
  - networked 6y ago
    Thanks for pointing this out. It looks like LibreOffice may handle complex graphics better than wmf2svg. You can do batch conversion with it, too. libreoffice --headless --convert-to svg Popular/tennis.wmf However, I haven't found a way to preserve the original canvas size. It seems you need to crop the image separately. inkscape --with-gui --verb FitCanvasToDrawing --verb FileSave --verb FileQuit tennis.svg I'll try this method and upload the LibreOffice conversions in their own archive if they look good. Edit: They look good so far. I'll upload them as SVG-LibreOffice.zip when they are done.
    - chris_wot 6y ago
      Any chance you can lodge a bug about the canvas size? It's a bit of a deep bucket, but good to have the issue lodged so eventually we can fix the issue.
      - networked 6y ago
        It doesn't seem like a bug, more of a missing feature in Draw. What I mean by "not preserving the original canvas size" is that when you run libreoffice some-image.ext, Draw doesn't adjust the page size to the image; it puts the image on its default size page. There are several related feature requests in the issue tracker (though none specifically for headless mode). The most relevant is https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81118 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81118, which asks for a feature to fit the page size to the drawing. https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49787 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49787 asks for different page sizes in a single document, which would make it possible to create a page of its exact size for every imported image as a default. The comment https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=112888#c1 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=112888#c... links to several more.
dehrmann 6y ago
I recently digitized some VHS tapes, and settled on webm/vp9/opus (and DVD) as a lossy archival format because, like SVG, browsers support it, so it'll be around for a long time.
cosmotic 6y ago
I'm not so sure about that. I don't believe there's a reference implementation. SVG has also changed over time and is much more complex. WMF is stable and reliable with a reference implementation.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

networked 6y ago

The WMF originals are included in Clipart.zip with the rest of Microsoft Clipart Extra. I made the SVG conversion thinking people may want to use the clipart on the Web and because more programs support SVG than WMF. After trying several conversion tools I settled on https://github.com/hidekatsu-izuno/wmf2svg https://github.com/hidekatsu-izuno/wmf2svg. It was the best in terms of quality (the backgrounds were properly transparent when they should be, for example) and targeted a vector format.

taffer 6y ago

> WMF are smaller files Depends. bestfrnd.wmf is 65 kB and 35 kB gzipped. bestfrnd.svg is 163 kB but after running it through SVGO it is just 87kB and 18 kB gzipped.