LaTeX is solving a simple image conversation problem. The initial situation is that somebody has a folder with some files which are text files, vector graphics and photos and he likes to combine the content into a single file in the pdf format. According to the LaTeX community the only way in handling this task is by installing an entire ecosystem which contains of 15 GB in total which contains of lots of fonts, outdated macro packages, handreds of documentation and obsolete DVI preview programs.
Nevertheless LaTeX is able to handle the task very well but it is not the only program on earth which is able to do so. A good alterantive is the libreoffice program. The most basic feature of libreoffice is that the user can insert multi images, arange them on a US-letter page and export the result into a pdf file. Even libreoffice wasn't designed as an imagemagic alternative it is pretty good in this task. The user can even decide to reduce the resolution from 300 dpi to 100 dpi to save a lot of disc space.
Let us go to the initial problem. There is a folder which contains of different files and the task is to convert these files into the pdf format. And yes, libreoffice can handle this problem very well. Suppose the software has some bugs, one of them is that the programs a bit slow, especially with some images. But, these are only minor problems and can be fixed in future versions.
The interesting situation is, that Libreoffice can combine existing content much faster than what Latex is able to do. The reason is, that combining existing content into a single pdf file is not very complicated. The most time consuming step is to write down a text file which has for example 500 kb. Creating such a plain text file with an editor can take weeks. Also the creation of high quality jpeg, eps and SVG images can become very time consuming. If someone likes to paint images with the gimp program he will need also weeks until the image is rendered into the jpeg format.
But, if the content is already there and the only task is to combine the content into a single document which is a newspaper, a book or a presentation – such a step can be realized in under an hour. Let us take a closer look how libreoffice is working. After starting the program the user can select “insert ->text from file”. This inserts the plaintext file. In the next step the style sheets for the sections are assigned, and of course this step is made manual. But, the average document has only a low amount of such sections so it is done after a short time. In the next step, some pictures are added. This is also done with the insert menu. Either the picture can be added direct as a picture, or it can be added in a larger frame which allows to modify the position more precise.
Then a short click on “export ->pdf” allows to render the document into a single file. The overall workflow results always into a high quality pdf file, and in contrast to latex the user doesn't need to know the complicated markup language or has to install larger amount of software he doesn't need. The interesting situation is that libreoffice can handle a huge amount of images in a single document. This is realized with the “insert image as link”. The original libreoffice file has a small size and the images are stored externally in the directory folder.
So let us go a step backward. The most time consuming time for creating a technical document is to typing of the text and the painting of the images. The task of combining these information into a print ready pdf file is something which can be handled on the fly. There is no need to automate this task, because then the user will loose the control. The most disappointing moment for latex users is that they will recognize that they can't figure an image where they want. This is marketed as an advantage but in the reality, the user likes to take this decision by himself. Using latex is not recommended anymore, because there is more powerful alternative software available.
The screenshot shows a concrete example. First thing to mention is, that the the display of the images was deactivated in the option menu. This improves the performance of the program. Second thing to know is that both images were anchored to the page. This setting allows to freely position the images similar to a layout software. The user can show the result in the preview winder or export it into the pdf format. Somebody may argue that this ability of Libreoffice is not very exciting. Oh it is. LaTeX isn't able to do so and usually only advanced layout software can handle images that way. What most open source programs like gimp and imagemagic can do is to handle a single image file, but not 2 and more of them.
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