Convert .jpg to .eps format

Question

How can I convert multiple .jpg files to .eps files on Linux?

Answer 1

When using the ImageMagick's convert, it is a good practice to use the eps2 format. This make the resulting eps file much smaller because it uses the JPEG compression algorithm (DCT).

So, to convert a.jpg to a.eps do:

convert a.jpg eps2:a.eps

This of course, can be used in a shell script, to convert multiple JPG to EPS.

Answer 2

You can use many tools. I recommend using convert command from ImageMagick.

#!/bin/bash

# example 1
convert myfile.jpg myfile.eps

# example 2
for file in file1.jpg file2.jpg file3.jpg; do
    echo convert "$file" $(echo "$file" | sed 's/\.jpg$/\.eps/')
done

To make example 2 run you need to remove the echo inside the for-loop. Make sure the commands it outputs are correct before removing it.

Answer 3

According to user1958943, I used the convert tool as well. However, as the eps3 format gives an even better compression with similar quality as eps2, I suggest to use

convert a.jpg eps3:a.eps

By the way, this tool also works for png files (and also others) ...

Does anybody know which compression eps3 is using?

Answer 4

Another option is to combine jpegtopnm and pnmtops from the netpbm toolkit. This will however produce PS, not EPS.

for f in *.jpg
do
  g=`echo "$f" | sed 's/\.jpg$/\.eps/'`
  echo "$f -> $g" 1>&2
  jpegtopnm $f | pnmtops > $g
done

Answer 5

I do this often and sometimes on Windows. Hence, I wrote a small online converter which uses convert:

JPG to EPS Converter.

Hope this can also help others.

Answer 6

ImageMagick's convert can do that for you.