Hi all, this is not directly related to InkScape but I think is a news which will interest many people doing vector graphics on Windows.

EmfPrinter 0.2.0 is out: http://emfprinter.sourceforge.net/

What is it? EmfPrinter is a virtual printer driver for Windows 2000 and higher (tested only on Windows XP so far), which allows you to create EMF (Enhanced Meta File) vector images from any Windows application which supports printing. The nice things about this virtual printer are:

1. it's Open Source: free as in freedom! 2. it exports data directly in a vector format, without rasterizations; for more info about raster vs vector formats, please see the Wikipedia 3. very easy to install and use (and also to uninstall actually!)

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Why EMF? Why export printed data in EMF instead of another vector format, much more widespread like SVG? It's simple: the Windows GDI printing system provides data to the printer drivers directly in EMF format; thus it's "easy" to extract EMFs from printed data using a virtual printer driver.

EMF is a undocumented format (for the few reverse-engineered infos look here) which however is very easy to render on Windows and is supported by all programs of the Microsoft Office suite and many others. Unfortunately it's also very difficult to edit preserving its "vectorness".

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Regards, Francesco Montorsi