Editing EPS files in Ubuntu

I prepare my papers in LaTex and I like to keep my figures in EPS format. Quite often I need to edit couple things here and there, and for that purpose I use Inkscape. However it can not import EPS files directly. So here is how I open EPS files in Inkscape.

Inkscape's default file format is Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and it can export EPS files as well. So all we need to do is to convert our EPS file to a SVG file so that we can edit it using Inkscape.

The first conversion method which I'll mention here did not work for me for about a year due to problems with Skencil and the new Perl.

First Method

For the first method we use Skencil as an interim software to generate the SVG file. However we first need to convert our EPS file to a Sketch (.sk) file, Skencil's native format. This is done using a command line utiliy pstoedit:

pstoedit -dt -f sk myfile.eps myfile.sk

Now we can open this file in Skencil and save it as a SVG file. Alternatively, you can use the commandline conversion tool from skencil:

skconvert myfile.sk myfile.svg

Then we are all set, we can open the SVG file with Inkscape.

Alternative Method

This method also works with some formatting issues. Such that some of the figure is converted into an image (not vector anymore) during the pdf conversion step. Basically in this step we are using the PDF as an interim format. For EPS to PDF conversion we can use another commandline utility, epstopdf:

epstopdf myfile.eps

And now you can open "myfile.pdf" in Inkscape.

Editing EPS files in Ubuntu

First Method

Alternative Method

See Also