Can you embed an image so it doesn't need to be stored as a separate file?

Question

I'd like to know whether it is possible to embed an image file into LaTeX code, such that the picture will appear in a resulting PDF file without it having to be stored in a separate .eps file during processing.

The reason is that I am generating LaTeX code on the fly (using PHP) and running pdflatex in a chroot environment, so I have to copy any required files before calling pdflatex. Since I am generating lots of different PDFs, they all use different image files. My options are thus:

• Hard-code which .eps files to copy, and change the PHP code to match the LaTeX code each time an image changes (bad, hard to maintain)
• Copy every single .eps file, whether it's used or not (bad, slow)
• Embed the image in the source LaTeX code (ideal)

Everything I can find about \includegraphics seems to suggest images can only be read in from external files. Is there any way an .eps file can somehow be embedded within LaTeX code?

Answer 1

Here is a ridiculous example of what I meant in the comments (A reminder; Use LaTeX-> PS -> PDF but not LaTeX -> PDF for the discovery of the file in the directory) :

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents,graphicx}

\begin{filecontents*}{myepsfile.eps}
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%Creator: Ipelib 70010 (Ipe 7.0.10)
%%CreationDate: D:20120309025807
%%LanguageLevel: 2
%%BoundingBox: 143 511 305 577
%%HiResBoundingBox: 143.8 511.8 304.2 576.2
%%EndComments
%%BeginProlog
%%BeginResource: procset ipe 7.0 70010
/ipe 40 dict def ipe begin
/np { newpath } def
/m { moveto } def
/l { lineto } def
/c { curveto } def
/h { closepath } def
/re { 4 2 roll moveto 1 index 0 rlineto 0 exch rlineto
      neg 0 rlineto closepath } def
/d { setdash } def
/w { setlinewidth } def
/J { setlinecap } def
/j { setlinejoin } def
/cm { [ 7 1 roll ] concat } def
/q { gsave } def
/Q { grestore } def
/g { setgray } def
/G { setgray } def
/rg { setrgbcolor } def
/RG { setrgbcolor } def
/S { stroke } def
/f* { eofill } def
/f { fill } def
/ipeMakeFont {
  exch findfont
  dup length dict begin
    { 1 index /FID ne { def } { pop pop } ifelse } forall
    /Encoding exch def
    currentdict
  end
  definefont pop
} def
/ipeFontSize 0 def
/Tf { dup /ipeFontSize exch store selectfont } def
/Td { translate } def
/BT { gsave } def
/ET { grestore } def
/TJ { 0 0 moveto { dup type /stringtype eq
 { show } { ipeFontSize mul -0.001 mul 0 rmoveto } ifelse
} forall } def
<<
/PatternType 1
/PaintType 2
/TilingType 2
/BBox [ 0 0 100 4 ]
/XStep 99
/YStep 4
/PaintProc { pop 0 0 100 1 re fill} bind
>>
[ 0.5 -0.866025 0.866025 0.5 0 0 ]
makepattern
/Pat95 exch def
<<
/PatternType 1
/PaintType 2
/TilingType 2
/BBox [ 0 0 100 4 ]
/XStep 99
/YStep 4
/PaintProc { pop 0 0 100 1 re fill} bind
>>
[ 0.866025 0.5 -0.5 0.866025 0 0 ]
makepattern
/Pat96 exch def
/patg { [/Pattern /DeviceGray ] setcolorspace setcolor } def
/patrg { [/Pattern /DeviceRGB ] setcolorspace setcolor } def
end
%%EndResource
%%EndProlog
%%BeginSetup
ipe begin
%%EndSetup
0 J 1 j
q 192 576 m
192 512 l
256 512 l
256 576 l
h 0.4 w S
Q
q 144 544 m
192 544 l
0.4 w S
q q 192 544 m
185 546.331 l
185 541.669 l
h q f* Q S
Q
Q
Q
q 256 544 m
304 544 l
0.4 w S
q q 304 544 m
297 546.331 l
297 541.669 l
h q f* Q S
Q
Q
Q
showpage
%%Trailer
end
%%EOF
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure}%
\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{myepsfile}%
\caption{adsf}%
\label{fig:asdfasd}%
\end{figure}
\end{document}