OFF: Limitations of Certain Graphics Filters

• Microsoft Office for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Access for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a

SUMMARY

This article describes the limitations of graphics import filters provided with Office 95. This information is also available in each applications Help (in Help, click the Index tab, and type "graphics filters").

MORE INFORMATION

You can import clip art, pictures, movies, or almost any computer image into PowerPoint. This feature allows you to take advantage of the libraries of artwork already available without having to draw new artwork yourself. Microsoft applications imports images from other applications by using graphics filters, which are installed when you run the applications Setup.

Limitations on Importing Graphics in Windows

If you have trouble importing a graphic, the problem may be due to differences between the original graphic format and the way Windows handles graphics. Limitations in graphic primitives in Windows pictures prevent display and printing of:

• Mirrored or backward text
• Rotated or vertical text (unless scalable or vector fonts are used)
• Double underline and outline

If the image is an object- or vector-oriented picture, text can only be scaled by its point size. Stretching a character to make it disproportionately tall or wide may result in poor text layout.

The Kodak Photo CD (.pcd) Filter

The PCD filter imports images at a resolution of 512 x 768 pixels in 256 colors. If you use the Kodak Photo CD filter with the PowerPoint Picture command on the Insert menu, you can change these settings when you insert a picture.

Default Resolutions for the Kodak Photo CD Filter

The following resolutions support 256 colors (8 bit). The quality of the images is lower, but they are displayed and printed more quickly.

   Default resolution number       Resolution
   -----------------------------------------------------------
     0                             512 x 768 (default)
     1                             128 x 192 (small picture)
     2                             256 x 384
     3                             1024 x 1536
     4                             2048 x 3072 (large picture)

   Default resolution number       Resolution
   --------------------------------------------------------------

     5                             512 x 768 (small picture, high
                                              quality)
     6                             128 x 192
     7                             256 x 384
     8                             1024 x 1536 (large picture,
                                                high quality)

The AutoCAD Format 2-D (.dxf) Filter

The AutoCAD DXF graphics filter supports all AutoCAD versions through Release 12, including AutoCAD for Windows support.

The DXF filter has the following limitations:

• Extrusions that are part of 3-D drawings are not supported.
• Control codes and special characters embedded in text shapes that require special characters are not supported.
• DXF files that require separate shape definition files are not supported.
• For multiple viewport .DXF files, the file is imported using the current viewport.

The CompuServe GIF (.gif) Filter

The CompuServe GIF filter supports versions GIF87a and GIF89a. Transparency is ignored.

The Computer Graphics Metafile (.cgm) Filter

You can use the Computer Graphics Metafile (.cgm) filter to import .cgm graphics files that conform to version 1 of the CGM specification. The following types are supported:

• Line type: standard ANSI set
• Marker type: standard ANSI set
• Edge type: standard ANSI set
• Line elements: polyline, disjoint polyline, circular arc 3 point, circular arc center, and elliptical arc Pens with a physical width greater than one pixel will always have a solid style. (A nonsolid-style pen always has a width of one pixel.)
• Fill elements: polygon, polygon set, rectangle, circle, circular arc 3, point close, circular arc center close, elliptical arc close, and ellipse
• Interior style: solid, pattern, hatch, and empty
• Text elements: text, restricted text, and append text Attribute changes within a text string are not recognized
• Polygon set

• Cell array
• Character spacing
• Character orientation
• Character set index (only one character set is used)
• Interior style (only hollow and solid are supported)
• Pattern table
• Pattern size
• Gradients and bitmap fill patterns
• Strike-through and underline attributes unless the source application simulates the styles by drawing lines

The CorelDRAW (.cdr) Filter

The CorelDRAW filter has the following limitations:

• Rotated rounded rectangles are emulated using circular arc center.
• Vector pattern fills are not fully supported.
• Envelope editing and perspective editing are not supported.
• Bitmaps are not supported.
• Extruded object groups are not fully supported.
• OLE objects are not supported.
• Line scaling is not supported.
• Fractal Fills are not supported.
• Lenses are not supported.

The Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) Filter

This .eps graphics filter supports the Adobe Systems Encapsulated PostScript Specification versions 1.0 and 2.0. The .eps filter supports .eps images with tagged image file format (TIFF) 5.0 or Windows metafile (.wmf) embedded display images. If an .eps file contains an embedded TIFF or WMF display image, a representation of the image is displayed. The quality of the displayed image depends on the resolution of the TIFF or WMF image embedded in the .eps file. Because such display images are intended primarily to be used to position images on the page, resolution is often low.

If an embedded TIFF or WMF display image is not included, or if the image is considered invalid by the converter, a graphics bounding box appears instead of a display image.

EPS file format requirements:

The EPS graphics filter isn't designed to reinterpret a file's PostScript code to overcome nonstandard content. If an .eps file doesn't follow Adobe specifications, PowerPoint shows a bounding box for the image on the screen and sends the original PostScript code to a PostScript printer. Some applications can create printer-specific .eps files by intercepting PostScript output and making a file. However, because of inconsistencies among applications, a PostScript file generated by a printer driver for one PostScript printer may not be printed correctly on another PostScript printer.

NOTE: There are two lines that must be present in the EPS header (the first part of the .eps file). (In the first line, you can substitute 1.0 for 2.0.)

   %!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-2.0
   %%BoundingBox: LLx LLy URx URy

The HP Graphics Language (HPGL) Filter

This filter supports HP-GL/2 kernel commands and command extensions. To ensure the best results when importing HP-GL/2 files, configure your application to create commands suitable for a 7595 Draft Master plotter.

The HPGL filter doesn't support Polyline Encoding or Color Table commands. The filter supports display of color images and assumes the following pen color set.

   Pen number     Color
   ---------------------

   1              Black
   2              Red
   3              Green
   4              Yellow
   5              Blue
   6              Magenta
   7              Cyan
   8              Orange

The Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg) Filter

Use the Joint Photographic Experts Group filter to import .JPG files.

The Lotus 1-2-3 graphics files (.PIC) filter

This filter supports .PIC files created by Lotus 1-2-3 and Borland Quattro Pro. However, the filter doesn't support Micrografx .PIC or Draw Plus .PIC.

The Macintosh PICT (.pct) Filter

This filter supports both PICT and PICT2 formats.

The Micrografx Designer/Draw (.drw) Filter

This filter supports Micrografx Designer 3.x, Charisma 2.1, and Draw .drw files. The .drw filter imports only the entire first page of a file as it would appear in Micrografx Designer, because .drw files don't contain information on the size of the image. Once the image is imported, the bounding box may be cropped to make it fit the size of the image.

Here are some limitations of the Micrografx Designer/Draw filter:

• Text arrays are not supported.
• Some Micrografx Designer 3.x fonts are not supported.
• Clip paths, which require clipping regions, aren't supported in GDI metafiles.
• Tiled paths, which permit object-oriented fills to be put behind clip paths, aren't supported.

The PC Paintbrush (.pcx) Filter

The .pcx graphics filter PCXIMP32.FLT supports all versions of the PCX file format through ZSoft's version 3.0, with support for 256-color images. This is the common interchange format used by Microsoft Windows Paintbrush.

The Tag Image File Format (.tif) Filter

The TIFF 5.0 filter supports all image types and compression types described in the TIFF Specification Revision 5.0. These types include monochrome, grayscale, palette color, and RGB full color images. This filter does not support TIFF Revision 6.0.

The Targa (.tga) filter

Use the Targa filter to import .tga graphics files.

The WordPerfect Graphics (.wpg) filter

This filter uses the size of the picture frame stored in the WordPerfect file to determine the size of the picture to import. The frame size of .wpg graphics created in DrawPerfect is the size of the screen.

The limitations of this filter are as follows:

• .eps images in .wpg format don't maintain PostScript code when inserted into a presentation.
• .wpg files with large embedded bitmaps may not be displayed properly

      on computers that use the Mach series video drivers from ATI. If
      you think you have this problem, try changing your video driver
      to the 8514/a drivers supplied with Windows.