tikz png output does not output a png

Question

I am using tikz plot in a LuaLatex paper. For a presentation, I would like to use the same plots in power point. Theoretically, I could add them as pdf object. The quality is quite bad though. Thus, I would like to export them as png. I found several code examples which should work. But I can't get them to work. They just output the pdf, no png.

I already tried following threads/ code snips.

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/40516/externalization-to-other-format-makefile-add-new-rules-to-the-makefile/40795#40795

https://www.latex4technics.com/?note=3p2n http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~rod/resources/p-tikz-external-png.html

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{external}
%\tikzexternalize[mode=list and make]

\tikzset{
    png export/.style={
        % First we call ImageMagick; change settings to requirements
        external/system call/.add={}{; convert -density 300 -transparent white "\image.pdf" "\image.png"},
        % Now we force the PNG figure to be used instead of the PDF
        /pgf/images/external info,
        /pgf/images/include external/.code={
            \includegraphics[width=\pgfexternalwidth,height=\pgfexternalheight]{##1.png}
        },
    }
}

\begin{document}

{
% Here we specify the figure will be converted and inserted as PNG
\tikzset{png export}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0,0) circle (1) ;
\end{tikzpicture}
}

% This figure will be inserted as PDF
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0,0) circle (1) ;
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I have checked the convert -version

Version: ImageMagick 7.0.8-49 Q16 x64 2019-06-08
http://www.imagemagick.org                                            
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2018 ImageMagick Studio LLC             
License: http://www.imagemagick.org/script/license.php                
Visual C++: 180040629                                                 
Features: Cipher DPC Modules OpenMP(2.0)                              
Delegates (built-in): bzlib cairo flif freetype gslib heic jng jp2
jpeg lcms lqr    lzma openexr pangocairo png ps raw rsvg tiff webp xml
zlib   ```

If I check where convert I get

C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.8-Q16\convert.exe                    
C:\Windows\System32\convert.exe```

It seems suspicious to me to have two convert from different locations.

EDIT: This is now changed. I can call the convert.exe ether as imconvert or as magick. This works from console. It does not work from latex (texmaker) though.

Expected is a png and pdf output. Actual is a pdf output.

If you would beamer instead of powerpoint you could simply use your high-quality latex figures -- just saying ... — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jun 21 '19 at 21:15
It seems you are on windows: if I remember correctly, the convert command is called something different there to avoid the conflict with the system concert — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jun 21 '19 at 21:18
Yes, it would make sense to change the name. In the mean time, I am able to run the convert command from the command line but not from latex. System commands are enabled according to the logfile. — Gian-Andrea Heinrich, Jun 21 '19 at 21:48
To expand on the comment from @samcater Windows has a convert program and it is used by default if you use convert. You can either rename the Imagemagick convert program, use the full path to convert or from memory if imagemagick convert is in the environmental path convert should work. — Bonzo, Jun 21 '19 at 21:51
try with `magick.exe`, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/28876385/2777074 — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jun 21 '19 at 21:53
@samcarter , Bonzo thanks for your help. I tried this in the meantime. convert, imconvert, and magick work from the command line. It doesn't work from the latex file though. The thing bothering me the most is, that I can't get any error message. Texmaker just complains about the missing png file when trying to display it. No error before. — Gian-Andrea Heinrich, Jun 21 '19 at 22:05
@Gian-AndreaHeinrich How do you compile in texmaker? Maybe we can get a bit more diagnostic — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jun 21 '19 at 22:14
I am using the LuaLatex command. I have edited it to look like that: ```lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode -shell-escape %.tex ``` — Gian-Andrea Heinrich, Jun 21 '19 at 22:28

F1iX · Answer 1 · 2022-11-04T08:55:33.003

As mentioned in some comments, the commands in external/system call/.add differ if using Windows: multiple commands are separated with & instead of ; on Linux. Also, to avoid confusion with the system tool convert, use magick.exe instead:

\tikzset{
    png export/.style={
        % First we call ImageMagick; change settings to requirements
        external/system call/.add={}{& magick.exe -density 300 "\image.pdf" "\image.png"},
        % Now we force the PNG figure to be used instead of the PDF
        /pgf/images/external info,
        /pgf/images/include external/.code={
            \includegraphics[width=\pgfexternalwidth,height=\pgfexternalheight]{##1.png}
        },
    }
}

For the exact same use case of exporting images (and even beamer animation steps) for PowerPoint, you can actually let LaTeX use the cached PDFs as normal and simply export the PNGs additionally, if needed with white instead of transparent background:

\tikzset{external/system call/.add={}{& magick.exe -density 300 "\image.pdf" -alpha remove "\image.png"}}

Note that \uncover in beamer might need \begin{frame}<1-n>, where n is your desired number of animation steps. \only might break node references and may cause filename conflicts, which can be solved by appending the overlay number. The latter can be combined with selective export of named figures only.

tikz png output does not output a png

1 Answers1