Convert TGA to PDF automatically

Question

For my latex document, I have image files in tga format that I'd like to include. I want to convert them into pdf so latex can scale them without loose of precision.

By now, I just did this with inkscape, but for many pictures, this can be much work. Is there something to let latex do that automatically? Or is there a way to do it in my command line, without a GUI like inkscape?

Please note: I have linux.

Answer 1

"Truevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format [...]"

Remark: The PDF format can contain both raster images and vector images. For example, scan programs often offer PDF as output format, but these PDFs only contain the scanned raster images. It is just a convenience for users that are more familiar with their PDF viewers than with image programs. Also it is easier to put several images as pages to a PDF file.

If you want vector data instead, you need a vectorization and a good program to do it. Example for a freeware tool: potrace for monochrome images. But for good result you usually need to twiddle with the parameters of the vectorization process.

If you just want to include .tga files with pdflatex, then package epstopdf helps:

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}

\epstopdfDeclareGraphicsRule{.tga}{png}{.png}{%
  convert #1 \OutputFile
}
\AppendGraphicsExtensions{.tga}

Then <file>.tga is automatically converted and included as <file>-tga-converted-to.png. As conversion program convert from ImageMagick is used here.

Edit: Running external programs need some rights. In TeX Live restricted shell escape is enabled by default. But the supported program list does not include convert. Therefore option --shell-escape is needed for pdflatex.

Full example

Assuming the .tga file is called foobar.tga:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}

\epstopdfDeclareGraphicsRule{.tga}{png}{.png}{%
  convert #1 \OutputFile
}
\AppendGraphicsExtensions{.tga}

\begin{document}
  \includegraphics{foobar}
\end{document}

And pdflatex needs to be called with option --shell-escape (TeX Live); MiKTeX also uses --enable-write18 as synonym.

P.S. Is there is only one .tga file that should be converted only once, then it is easier to convert it on the command line, e.g.:

convert foobar.tga foobar.png

Also an interactive image program would do that can read TGA files and export PNG files.