eps figures with pdflatex

Question

In a recent discussion on this site I learned that using

\usepackage[pdf]{pstricks}

makes it possible to run pdflatex on files containing eps and pstricks files (and psfrag usage as well). Now a couple of questions:

1. If a file does not contain pstricks, just eps and psfrag, this method can still be used. But is there a method to do this that does not require loading pstricks? I know that auto-pst-pdf is one approach, another one is to load epstopdf, are there any other ways to achieve this without loading these files? Maybe by adding an option to graphicx?

2. In all these approaches, every time that pdflatex is run all eps and pstricks files are converted to pdf files, even if they have not changed. Is there an approach that prevents it and only converts to pdf if a file has been changed from last compilation?

Thanks

Answer 1

TeX Live 2010 and 2011 automatically convert EPS files to PDF, but it looks like it keeps converting, even when the EPS file hasn't changed. Working from Herbert's suggestion, this should do the trick. It may also work with other distributions, but I've not tried.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}
\epstopdfsetup{update} % only regenerate pdf files when eps file is newer
\begin{document}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{sine} % loads sine-eps-converted-to.pdf
\end{document}

Answer 2

1. In a modern system a foo.eps file in \includegraphics{foo}, if present, is automatically converted to foo.pdf during pdflatex run.

2. This conversion is done only once, so foo.pdf is left for the next runs. If you change your eps file, it will be regenerated.

Consider this example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\includegraphics{tmp1}
\end{document}

When I ran it, I had file tmp1.eps, but no tmp1.png or tmp1.pdf in my working directory. The log said:

(/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/epstopdf-sys.cfg
File: epstopdf-sys.cfg 2010/07/13 v1.3 Configuration of (r)epstopdf for TeX Liv
e
))
Package epstopdf Info: Source file: <tmp1.eps>
(epstopdf)                    date: 2011-12-12 13:41:25
(epstopdf)                    size: 15351 bytes
(epstopdf)             Output file: <tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf>
(epstopdf)             Command: <repstopdf --outfile=tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf 
tmp1.eps>
(epstopdf)             \includegraphics on input line 4.
runsystem(repstopdf --outfile=tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf tmp1.eps)...executed sa
fely (allowed).

Package epstopdf Info: Result file: <tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf>
(epstopdf)                    date: 2011-12-16 14:36:28
(epstopdf)                    size: 7774 bytes.

<tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf, id=1, 346.00266pt x 37.00826pt>
File: tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf Graphic file (type pdf)

<use tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf>
Package pdftex.def Info: tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf used on input line 4.
(pdftex.def)             Requested size: 346.0018pt x 37.00815pt.

as you see, the file was converted. Then I ran pdflatex again:

Package epstopdf Info: Source file: <tmp1.eps>
(epstopdf)                    date: 2011-12-12 13:41:25
(epstopdf)                    size: 15351 bytes
(epstopdf)             Output file: <tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf>
(epstopdf)                    date: 2011-12-16 14:36:28
(epstopdf)                    size: 7774 bytes
(epstopdf)             Command: <repstopdf --outfile=tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf 
tmp1.eps>
(epstopdf)             \includegraphics on input line 4.
Package epstopdf Info: Output file is already uptodate.

<tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf, id=1, 346.00266pt x 37.00826pt>
File: tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf Graphic file (type pdf)

As you see, no conversion was done.

Then I changed my tmp1.eps and run `pdflatex again. And the log said:

(/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/epstopdf-sys.cfg
File: epstopdf-sys.cfg 2010/07/13 v1.3 Configuration of (r)epstopdf for TeX Liv
e
))
Package epstopdf Info: Source file: <tmp1.eps>
(epstopdf)                    date: 2011-12-16 14:40:16
(epstopdf)                    size: 620519 bytes
(epstopdf)             Output file: <tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf>
(epstopdf)                    date: 2011-12-16 14:36:28
(epstopdf)                    size: 7774 bytes
(epstopdf)             Command: <repstopdf --outfile=tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf 
tmp1.eps>
(epstopdf)             \includegraphics on input line 4.
runsystem(repstopdf --outfile=tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf tmp1.eps)...executed sa
fely (allowed).

Package epstopdf Info: Result file: <tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf>
(epstopdf)                    date: 2011-12-16 14:40:21
(epstopdf)                    size: 19423 bytes.

<tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf, id=1, 241.90375pt x 188.705pt>
File: tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf Graphic file (type pdf)

<use tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf>
Package pdftex.def Info: tmp1-eps-converted-to.pdf used on input line 4.
(pdftex.def)             Requested size: 241.90315pt x 188.70453pt.

As you see, now the file was regenerated!

Answer 3

Regarding your first question: package epstopdf is a good choice when using eps images.

Regarding the second question: there is only a possibility to create no or all images.

Answer 4

I tried many of the options cited in many posts. It is not epstopdf package, neither -shell-escape.

For me, the solution was to install texlive-font-utils