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I exported an heatmap from Matlab as PDF. If I view the PDF created by matlab print -painters -dpdf command, I see the correct output:

enter image description here

However if I import into Inkscape (either via Poppler or not) with the image gets interpolated and blurred:

enter image description here

When I re-save as pdf, it also looks interpolated. I have noted the svg xml code for the image is like this:

  <image
     y="172.88283"
     x="136.01956"
     id="image2718"
     xlink:href="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAA4AAAAOCAYAAAAfSC3RAAAABHNCSVQICAgIfAhkiAAAAPZJREFUKJGNkTFuwzAMRZ889SaVoct08G1qIwN9lAwdPPQuhSEfJUOA34GyJScB2g8QEiT+z08SMJGkeubnO9nD5EEWOynr3R+yavIu2JAvUO4HyZoK1ih7JP0cYqZPBZLEuuFYgMHPNPrTOlNR/oCOdYMczyTqcSZB0gfYSHBrf2EAizDNmG5M20y1ahG+SqV+PvPSiLezu9qtpgjT1jo6Y30QYmmtNv39A93rEkOdagsbyboCEMoySbqzhm/qINoVNYI5wgABk2oSL5K9kucsh0AHcKH3AbGQdMd0Kz17G3mMZddV+LBqujKFN1cfgL6twMNK4Bdchqf6VbHBwQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg=="
     preserveAspectRatio="none"
     height="198.95876"
     width="185.10374" />

When I export to PDF from Inkscape, it also looks similarly blurred. Any idea how to make it look like the original PDF above, after editing in inkscape?

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

Change the Bitmap scale (image rendering) in the preferences to Blocky(optimizeSpeed)

enter image description here

Here's an example SVG

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    It's also possible to do this per image. Right-click on image, select 'Object Properties', and select the 'Optimize Speed' option in the 'Image rendering' dropdown. In addition to this, the pdf renderer needs to support this rendering mode. A trick would be to make a bitmap copy of the enlarged, blocky picture (Edit > Make Bitmap Copy). The dpi value for this can be set in the preferences at Edit > Preferences > Bitmaps > Create. Make it large :)
    – Moini
    Aug 7, 2018 at 20:31
  • Great, confirmed both this and @Moini's method seem to work both in inkscape and saving as pdf. Thanks!
    – Sanjay Manohar
    Aug 19, 2018 at 22:28

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