Including graphics for both DVI and PNG

Question

I'm asking a question is quite similar to this one (where I don't seem to be able to leave comments):

MikTex error for PNG images when trying to produce DVI

I'm producing a PDF document, but I'm using the DVI previewer inside LeD while doing so. Including graphics is a bit problematic. Suppose I want to include a file simple_ambiguity.png.

\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{simple_ambiguity.png}

doesn't work with the DVI, because of a bounding box error. This is a nuisance because I don't actually care about having the graphics display accurately inside the DVI, or even having it take up the right amount of space -- I just want it to compile.

At the moment I'm using a workaround: I'm creating a dummy `empty picture' file simple_ambiguity.eps whose dimensions I don't really care about, and then writing

\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{simple_ambiguity}

But this is a nuisance because I have to manually create an eps every time I add a new picture. What I'm looking for is some simple fire-and-forget solution that will make the DVI just compile.

(Of the answers in the question I linked to, the first seems to involve manually creating bounding boxes, and the second involves invoking ImageMagick on every compile, which will be unnecessarily slow & introduce a rather awkward dependency.)

Answer 1

If you just want the image to go away in dvi/dvips mode then:

\makeatletter
\def\temp{dvips.def}
\ifx\Gin@driver\temp
\def\Ginclude@graphics#1{\def\temp{#1}---image \expandafter\strip@prefix\meaning\temp---}
\fi
\makeatother

In your preamble will have that effect.

Answer 2

you can use png or gif images also with the dvi route, but you have to define some graphic rules for the converting. The following needs

latex <file>
dvips -R0 <file>
ps2pdf <file>.ps

The program convert must be installed. It is part of the ImageMagick bundle

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[dvips]{graphicx}    
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.png}{eps}{.bb}{`convert #1 eps:-}
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.gif}{eps}{.bb}{`convert #1 eps:-}
\usepackage{grfext}
\AppendGraphicsExtensions*{.png,.gif}
\usepackage{bmpsize}

\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\IncludeGraphics}[2][]{{%
    \let\@found\@empty
    \@for\@type:=\bmpsize@types\do{%
      \ifx\@found\@empty
        \@nameuse{bmpsize@read@\@type}{#2.\@type}%
        \ifbmpsize@ok
          \let\@found=\@type
        \fi
      \fi
    }%
    \ifx\@found\@empty\includegraphics[{#1}]{#2}%
    \else\includegraphics[{natwidth=\bmpsize@width,natheight=\bmpsize@height,#1}]{#2}%
    \fi}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
  \IncludeGraphics{lion.png} % a png image
  \IncludeGraphics{lion.gif} % a gif image
\end{document}

Answer 3

You could also manually add the natwidth and natheight properties to each image like:

\includegraphics[natwidth=800,natheight=600,width=\textwidth]{simple_ambiguity.png}

This should work with both latex and pdflatex.

Answer 4

If you don't care about the size of the picture you can simply use the demo-option of the graphicx package:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}

\begin{document}

\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{dontexist.png}

\end{document}

Or you can redefine \includegraphics:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\renewcommand\includegraphics[2][]{\fbox{here graphic #2}}
\begin{document}

\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{dontexist.png}

\end{document}