On 8/28/14 3:43 AM, Mark Crutch wrote:

A lossless file format is virtually of no use for us. Transparency,
maybe. In that case, if a PNG didn't exist, it's easily created with
conversion routines.

No, it isn't easy to create a transparent PNG from a JPEG. Due to anti-aliasing you can't just remove the white background from an image without (usually) leaving intermediate pixels at the edges of your objects, producing a white outline if you place the transparent image on a non-white background. The only way to reliably get a transparent image is to export it as such from the original source application directly to a format that supports alpha transparency - which pretty much means PNG these days.

Ah, yes, once again, not quite enough information from me. <G> In our case, we are just dealing with the vector objects. And want the jpgs instead of PNG to save space on the hard drive, and be able to upload to the company's servers, 7-8 miles away, by way of Paris.

But you are correct when dealing with photos and a jpg photo up front. I just had that issue, but at the end it wasn't a problem. The image was far larger than needed, so created the transparent part first. Then resized, and the residual stuff disappeared. Even if there are a couple of stray pixels, the images are for PowerPoint presentations, so no one will have a magnifying glass to find them. LOL

It's trivial to flatten a transparent PNG to produce a JPEG or other format using another application, if necessary. As such I see no particular reason why Inkscape needs a JPEG export option. These days if an application that is supposed to handle raster images can't load a PNG directly I would consider it to be broken. That goes doubly for a DTP program - what happens when you want a vector logo, exported as a bitmap, to be placed over another image? Good luck sorting that one out with a format that doesn't support transparency.

No, Inkscape doesn't have to. But, if the user is like me, and wants to maximize their time to be efficient, a program that does the same thing (vector drawing) but does export JPG, that program saves me time. That time savings seems to be something that is eluding some people.

But don't forget to consider, the users at the other end may be using older systems and older software. Not everyone can afford, or sees any need, to have the latest and greatest of everything. When talking about any computer related topic, you should always consider the possibility someone in the group simply may not have the newer versions of X. And you have to work to that level.

As I noted in another message, my friend was apparently doing something wrong, because PNG does work in Office 2010. As for the software being broken if a PNG doesn't work directly, if the program is supposed to work but doesn't, it's possibly broken. You need to try other PNG files, perhaps the one you're working with is corrupt. But, if the program isn't supposed to support PNG, the program isn't broken, it simply doesn't have the feature you want. Just like I want Inkscape to export to JPG. That doesn't make Inkscape broken, it just doesn't do what I want/look for. Like a car that only has AM radio, but you want FM also.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but I didn't want you left with the impression that it's easy to convert a JPEG to a transparent PNG, only to discover it's not once it's too late to do anything about it.

I didn't consider it harsh at all, since it's not new information to me. :-)