freehep emf - multicolored bonds export bug

MarvinSketch new
versions use freehep-graphicsio-emf-2.2.1.jar for EMF export 
(Linux). The problem is that multicolored bonds (e.g. black-red for
C-O) are now exported as low-res bitmaps, instead of vectors.
Previous versions were OK. The size of schemes in windows enhanced
metafile is now in megabytes (was in kilobytes). Molconvert output looks ugly and
distorted, totally unusable, see attachment. Is it possible to revert
to original behavior?

Hi,

In the recent versions, we have switched to a more precise drawing mechanism, and also started to use gradients with the painting of multicolored bonds.

It seems that the underlying freehep library is not able to deal with this. Currently I can not tell whether we have a solution for this issue or not. On windows systems where we taught the emf format is relevant, we use the .Net libraries from MarvinSketch and call them from the Java version to export good quality emf images.

I am afraid it is mostly a problem with the library, and we need to check whether fresh versions supports this approach, or we need to find an other solution. Falling back to the old solution is not an option, it would bring up more problems than it can solve.

Can you please tell me how important is this feaure to work for you why are you using the emf format, and why are you exporting images in emf format on non-MS enviroments? This will help us to prioritize the issue, however I can not really promise any dates for the solution currently.

Best regards,
Istvan 

Hi Istvan,

 thanks for swift reply.

The only reason, why I am using emf in Linux is simple - as the
LibreOffice (or openOffice) is the only tool for sharing documents
with MS world I need this pipeline working: "msketch -->
OpenOffice" 

There is no odg export in msketch so far, and bitmap is not an option.

So - today we have only svg and emf. Emf worked excellent, svg is
crippled by libreoffice input filter.

Now I am trying this pipeline:
"msketch-->svg-->inkscape-->odg-->Libreoffice"

svg export/import to inkscape is good, but then is another issue
with the gradients, see attached files.

The reason, why do I need schemes from msketch in Libre(Open)Office is obvious: publications, presentations, etc. etc. For me it
is absolute priority. It is not possible to write publications in
msketch or inkscape. And there is no better tool in Linux for drawing schemes than msketch, afaik.

Gradients in multicolor bonds are fine, but I need working solution for LO or OO Impress. And I hope I am not alone. The lack of good chemical schemes editor in Linux is the final stop for most chemists, who want use Linux for their daily proffesional work. Imho, the "save as odg" and "copy as odg" would be the best solution :-)

Regards

Radek

Hi Radek,

I understand the need now, and the workflow.

Unfortunatelly as I checked briefly there is not any library that we can use to simply export the drawings from MarvinSketch to OpenDocument format, and developing a custom self solution is somewhat bigger than we can chew for now. I am not sure I can promise anything, what we can try to do is to check the freehep library we use, and check whether newer versions fixed this issue or not.

What I can suggest to try out if it feels suitable:
Export the image into a high resolution png image, and import that into the presentation, on the image export dialog, you can set a relative scale, this is used to make the resolution of the exported image higher then the default 72DPI, in this way your images will be higher quality images, that may suit your needs. The images exported with higher resolution are bigger in file size, but they looks smoother, and they can tolerate scaling better.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Istvan