I am using OmniGraffle to create some spiffy figures for a paper I'm writing. I'm writing the paper in LaTeX, so, when I compile the LaTeX source, a PDF is created. It is ideal to have vector graphics (so the reader can zoom in on the figures, which are usually pretty small). Enhanced Postscript (EPS) is preferred over PDF for reasons I won't explain here (and don't understand that well anyway).

The problem is that OmniGraffle's EPS exporting feature seems to be buggy. For one thing, it produces EPS that is bloated and way bigger than it needs to be. More importantly, however, when the final document is viewed in any PDF reader (including the official Adobe Acrobat Reader), the buggy EPS graphics cause the document to be unreadable after the point at which they are included.

I have found a workaround. First, from within OmniGraffle, turn off shading on all elements of the figure. Second, run the exported EPS file through "eps2eps", a command-line utility that's part of the Ghostscript distribution. I don't know why eps2eps fixes the problems, but it does. (It also cuts the file size roughly in half.)

On that note, I have a feature request. Add a "turn off shading" option to the EPS export dialog. Also, fix the exporter! (Please.) If one of you admins would be so kind as to log an official feature request (however that might be done), I would be much obliged. Thanks.