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WMF/EMF/EMF+ Reader

Introduction

The emfio module is used to read WMF (Windows Metafile), EMF (Enhanced Metafiles) and also EMF+ (enhanced EMF) files [1], which are binary formats for vector images from Microsoft. These files can contain vector graphics, bitmap components and text.

This folder contains emfio/source/reader which is used for reading the WMF/EMF/EMF+ files, either directly, or inside a document. For embedding Windows Metafiles inside a document, one can use “Insert -> Picture -> From File” to put such a file into the document. It is possible to export the Windows Metafile by using right click and choose “save”.

Most of the records of WMF/EMF formats come from the Windows Graphics Device. For Interface (GDI) API and EMF+ they come from the newer Windows GDI+.

More information about rendering Windows Metafiles can be found in the Visual Class Library (VCL) and also in the GDIMetaFile documentation.

An example demo that renders a metafile using vcl be seen by invoking:

./bin/run mtfdemo odk/examples/basic/forms_and_controls/burger.wmf

This opens the burger.wmf file from the ODK examples.

It is also possible to dump metaactions created as the intermediary format before rendering the metafile using:

./bin/run mtfdemo -d odk/examples/basic/forms_and_controls/burger.wmf

If the command is successful, this message will be shown, and metadump.xml will be put in the current folder:

“Dumped metaactions as metadump.xml”

The demo code structure is described in GDIMetaFile documentation.

[1] Windows Meta File, Wikipedia

EMF+ Specifics

Handling EMF+ is to some extent different from handling WMF/EMF. More information can be found in the VCL documentation.

How does it work?

emfio module takes a byte array and turns it into a drawinglayer primitive container. The rendering is done via drawinglayer primitives. For more information, you should refer to VCL documentation.

Limitations

Not all the WMF/EMF/EMF+ records are supported by this module. Unsupported records are marked as “not implemented”, and a warning message will printed if they are actually read within a file. You can file a bug report for implementing these records.

Currently, these records are not implemented (specified in wmfreader.cxx):

W_META_SETRELABS W_META_SETPOLYFILLMODE W_META_SETSTRETCHBLTMODE W_META_SETTEXTCHAREXTRA W_META_SETTEXTJUSTIFICATION W_META_FLOODFILL W_META_FILLREGION W_META_FRAMEREGION W_META_INVERTREGION W_META_PAINTREGION W_META_DRAWTEXT W_META_SETMAPPERFLAGS W_META_SETDIBTODEV W_META_REALIZEPALETTE W_META_ANIMATEPALETTE W_META_SETPALENTRIES W_META_RESIZEPALETTE W_META_EXTFLOODFILL W_META_RESETDC W_META_STARTDOC W_META_STARTPAGE W_META_ENDPAGE W_META_ABORTDOC W_META_ENDDOC

And these records are not implemented (specified in emfreader.cxx):

EMR_MASKBLT EMR_PLGBLT EMR_SETDIBITSTODEVICE EMR_FRAMERGN EMR_INVERTRGN EMR_FLATTENPATH EMR_WIDENPATH EMR_POLYDRAW EMR_SETARCDIRECTION EMR_SETPALETTEENTRIES EMR_RESIZEPALETTE EMR_EXTFLOODFILL EMR_ANGLEARC EMR_SETCOLORADJUSTMENT EMR_POLYDRAW16 EMR_CREATECOLORSPACE EMR_SETCOLORSPACE EMR_DELETECOLORSPACE EMR_GLSRECORD EMR_GLSBOUNDEDRECORD EMR_PIXELFORMAT EMR_DRAWESCAPE EMR_EXTESCAPE EMR_STARTDOC EMR_SMALLTEXTOUT EMR_FORCEUFIMAPPING EMR_NAMEDESCAPE EMR_COLORCORRECTPALETTE EMR_SETICMPROFILEA EMR_SETICMPROFILEW EMR_TRANSPARENTBLT EMR_TRANSPARENTDIB EMR_GRADIENTFILL EMR_SETLINKEDUFIS EMR_SETMAPPERFLAGS EMR_SETICMMODE EMR_CREATEMONOBRUSH EMR_SETBRUSHORGEX EMR_SETMETARGN EMR_SETMITERLIMIT EMR_EXCLUDECLIPRECT EMR_REALIZEPALETTE EMR_SELECTPALETTE EMR_CREATEPALETTE EMR_ALPHADIBBLEND EMR_SETTEXTJUSTIFICATION

Due to the difference on the fonts available on various platforms, the outcome of text rendering can be different on Linux, Windows, macOS and elsewhere.

Known Bugs

Known remaining bugs for this module is gathered here:

Bug 103859 [META] EMF/WMF (Enhanced/Windows Metafile) bugs and enhancements

Dependencies

The direct dependency for emfio is drawinglayer. The complete list of dependencies including the indirect dependencies is as below: basegfx drawinglayer cppu cppuhelper sal comphelper tl salhelper vcl svt utl

Tools

Several tools are available for inspecting WMF/EMF/EMF+ files, which are binary formats. Some of them are:

mso-dumper: Reads and dumps various binary formats from Microsoft including WMF/EMF/EMF+. The output is in a custom XML format. emf-dump.py and wmf-dump.py are usable.
RE-lab (Formerly OLEToy): Reads, dumps and modifies several binary formats from Microsoft including WMF/EMF/EMF+, and also other companies.
EMF+ diagnostics reporting tool

Related Software

References

Documentation for WMF/EMF/EMF+ formats are available on Microsoft website: