extractbb, ebb - extract bounding box information from graphics files
Contents
Bugs
There is currently no way to specify which bounding box is taken for PDF files. It will always be the
first one from the following list: ArtBox, TrimBox, BleedBox, MediaBox. (Often only MediaBox is defined.)
Moreover, the reported bounding box always refers to the first page in a PDF file.
Description
For each JPEG, PNG, or PDF file given on the command line, extractbb extracts the bounding box
information and writes it into a file with extension .xbb, together with some header information. These
files can then be used by dvipdfmx or other programs. For PDF files, the number of pages and the PDF
version number are reported as well. The input filename extension may be in upper or lower case.
If called as ebb, the output is written in the ``bb'' format (and with extension .bb) as used by dvipdfm.
Xbb may be defined as a synomym for extractbb on your system.
Name
extractbb, ebb - extract bounding box information from graphics files
Options
-v Be verbose.
-q Be quiet.
-O Write output to standard output.
-m Write output in dvipdfm's ``bb'' format.
-x Write output in dvipdfmx's ``xbb'' format (default), which is the same as that used by pdfTeX.
Output Formats
Here are more details about the bb and xbb formats:
The original ebb (from dvipdfm) ignored density information in bitmap images, and generated bounding
boxes with 100px = 72bp = 1in. Unfortunately, screenshots (especially) tend to look bad with this
approach.
So, extractbb (from dvipdfmx) uses density information if present. Otherwise, it generates bounding box
with 100px = 100bp. This is what pdfTeX does.
Synopsis
extractbb [-v|-q] [-O] [-m|-x] file...
