(Automatically) converting EPS-Files to PDF-Files with epstopdf

If you need to convert an .eps-File to a .pdf-File, we highly recommend the usage of epstopdf. The conversions are of really high quality and look almost as good as the original graphics.

Converting by hand

To convert a given file called "foo.eps", simply type

epstopdf foo.eps

into your shell.

Converting files automatically by using the epstopdf-package

It is also possible to convert your .eps-Files automatically while compiling your .tex-Files. To achieve this, you need to

• include the graphix-package into your TeX-document with the pdftex-option and include the epstopdf-package after the graphicx-package, so your document header should look like this:

\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}

• allow pdfTeX to execute external programs while compiling your document by setting the "--shell-escape" (TeXlive, on Ubuntu/Solaris) or "--enable-write18" (MikTeX, on Windows) command line option. So, if you compile your document (called foo.tex in the example) on a shell directly, you would enter the following commands into your shell.

  Using TeXlive:

pdflatex --shell-escape foo.tex 

• Using MikTeX:

pdflatex -enable-write18 foo.tex 

Modifying editor settings

Instead of compiling your TeX-document directly on a shell, you could amend the configuration of your favorite TeX-editor, e.g. Kile or WinShell.

In Kile, open up the configuration window via "Settings -> Configure Kile...", expand "Tools" on the left and click on "Build" just below "Tools". Then, select "PDFLaTeX" in the "Select a tool"-list and add "-shell-escape" to the "Options"-textfield on the right so that this textfield now should contain text similar to the following:

-interaction=nonstopmode -shell-escape '%source'

Click on "Ok" to save these modifications.

In WinShell, open the "Program Calls"-tab in the "Options"-window by clicking "Options -> Program Calls...", select "PDFLaTeX" from the "Program"-list on the right and add "-enable-write18" into the "cmd-Line"-textfield so that this text field should contain text like this:

-interaction=nonstopmode -enable-write18 -synctex=-1 "%s.tex"

Click on "OK" to save your new options. In other TeX-Editors, there should be similar possibilities to modify the way your TeX-tools are executed.

It is possible now to convert .eps-images automatically to .pdf-files while typing your documents in your favorite editor.

Official Package Documentation

For more information, please have a look at the official package documentation of the epstopdf-package at http://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/oberdiek/epstopdf.pdf